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Nelson, R. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Nelson, R. S..

Predicting Fatigue Lives Under Complex Loading Conditions

Cyclic Damage Accumulation (CDA) computer program performs high-temperature, low-cycle-fatigue life prediction for materials analysis. Designed to account for effects on creep-fatigue life of complex loadings involving such factors as thermomechanical fatigue, hold periods, wave-shapes, mean stresses, multiaxiality, cumulative damage, coatings, and environmental attack. Several features practical for application to actual component analysis using modern finite-element or boundary-element methods. Although developed for use in predicting crack-initiation lifetimes of gas-turbine-engine materials, also applied to other materials as well. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Mcgaw, Michael A.

Creep fatigue life prediction for engine hot section materials (isotropic)

This Final Report covers the activities completed under the optional program of the NASA HOST Contract, NAS3-23288. The initial effort of the optional program was report-in NASA CR189221, which consisted of high temperature strain controlled fatigue tests to study the effects of thermomechanical fatigue, multiaxial loading, reactive environments, and imposed stresses. The baseline alloy used in the tests included B1900+Hf (with or without coating) and wrought INCO 718. Tests conducted on B1900+Hf included environmental tests using various atmospheres (75 psig oxygen, purified argon, or block exposures) and specimen tests of wrought INCO 718 included tensile, creep, stress rupture, TMF, multiaxial, and mean stress tests. Results of these testings were used to calibrate a CDA model for INCO 718 alloy and to develop modifications or corrections to the CDA model to handle additional failure mechanisms. The Socie parameter was found to provide the best correlation for INCO multiaxial loading. Microstructural evaluations consisting of optical, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) techniques, and surface replication techniques to determine crack initiation lives provided data which were used to develop life prediction models.

Nelson, R. S.

Creep fatigue life prediction for engine hot section materials (isotropic)

A series of high temperature strain controlled fatigue tests have been completed to study the effects of thermomechanical fatigue, multiaxial loading, reactive environments, and imposed mean stresses. The baseline alloy used in these tests was cast B1900+Hf (with and without coatings); a small number of tests of wrought INCO 718 are also included. A strong path dependence was demonstrated during the thermomechanical fatigue testing, using in-phase, out-phase, and non-proportional (elliptical and 'dogleg') strain-temperature cycles. The multiaxial tests also demonstrated cycle path to be a significant variable, using both proportional and non-proportional tension-torsion loading. Environmental screening tests were conducted in moderate pressure oxygen and purified argon; the oxygen reduced the specimen lives by two, while the argon testing produced ambiguous data. Both NiCoCrAlY overlay and diffusion aluminide coatings were evaluated under isothermal and TMF conditions; in general, the lives of the coated specimens were higher that those of uncoated specimens. Controlled mean stress TMF tests showed that small mean stress changes could change initiation lives by orders of magnitude; these results are not conservatively predicted using traditional linear damage summation rules. Microstructures were evaluated using optical, SEM and TEM methods.

Nelson, R. S.

Improved maintainability of space-based reusable rocket engines

Advanced, noninferential, noncontacting, in situ measurement technologies, combined with automated testing and expert systems, can provide continuous, automated health monitoring of critical space-based rocket engine components, requiring minimal disassembly and no manual data analysis, thus enhancing their maintainability. This paper concentrates on recent progress of noncontacting combustion chamber wall thickness condition-monitoring technologies.

Barkhoudarian, S.

Fatigue life prediction modeling for turbine hot section materials

A major objective of the fatigue and fracture efforts under the Hot Section Technology (HOST) program was to significantly improve the analytic life prediction tools used by the aeronautical gas turbine engine industry. This was achieved in the areas of high-temperature thermal and mechanical fatigue of bare and coated high-temperature superalloys. The cyclic crack initiation and propagation resistance of nominally isotropic polycrystalline and highly anisotropic single crystal alloys were addressed. Life prediction modeling efforts were devoted to creep-fatigue interaction, oxidation, coatings interactions, multiaxiality of stress-strain states, mean stress effects, cumulative damage, and thermomechanical fatigue. The fatigue crack initiation life models developed to date include the Cyclic Damage Accumulation (CDA) and the Total Strain Version of Strainrange Partitioning (TS-SRP) for nominally isotropic materials, and the Tensile Hysteretic Energy Model for anisotropic superalloys. A fatigue model is being developed based upon the concepts of Path-Independent Integrals (PII) for describing cyclic crack growth under complex nonlinear response at the crack tip due to thermomechanical loading conditions. A micromechanistic oxidation crack extension model was derived. The models are described and discussed.

Halford, G. R.