Structural Analysis Method Development for Turbine Hot Section Components

This paper summarizes the structural analysis technologies and activities of the NASA Lewis Research Center’s gas turbine engine Hot Section Technology (HOST) program. The technologies synergistically developed and validated include: time-varying thermal/mechanical load models; component-specific automated geometric modeling and solution strategy capabilities; advanced inelastic analysis methods; inelastic constitutive models; high-temperature experimental techniques and experiments; and nonlinear structural analysis codes. Features of the program that incorporate the new technologies and their application to hot section component analysis and design are described. Improved and, in some cases, first-time three-dimensional nonlinear structural analyses of hot section components of isotropic and anisotropic nickel-base superalloys are presented.