Proceedings of the ASME 2015 Gas Turbine India Conference

GTINDIA2015
December 2-3, 2015, Hyderabad, India

GTINDIA2015-1250

MINIMUM WEIGHT DESIGN OF AERO ENGINE TURBINE DISKS

Lakshman Kasina Raghavan Kotur

Cyient Limited Cyient Limited
Hyderabad, Telangana, India Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Govindaraji Gnanasundaram
Cyient Limited
Hyderabad, Telangana, India

ABSTRACT rim of a disk via a root fixing, commonly of fir-tree design. The
The aero engine rotating parts are always fracture critical schematic assembly view of turbine assembly is shown in
components and their failure in service affects the aircraft Figure 1.
safety. Rotors / disks will burst at a certain speed if they
operate at ever-increasing speed. Rotor burst is one of
important failure mode in aero engine and resulting in disk
disintegration into multiple fragments with high speed resulting
in containment breach. Disks are subjected to fatigue loading
and it limits the service life. Fatigue loading on disk includes
high temperature environment, tremendous centrifugal and
aerodynamic forces caused by blades.
The main aspect of turbine disk design is to safe guard
against LCF failure. Design of disk should ensure that stresses
due to thermal, centrifugal and aerodynamics loads during
operating conditions should be within the limits. Turbine disks
are also designed to operate at speed above 20% of maximum Firtree
operating speed for maximum power and referred as over speed
capability or burst margin. This over speed capability may
require for the aircraft during emergency conditions.
The objective of this study is to design a turbine disk for
minimum weight. A numerical investigation is performed to
predict stresses and burst margins of turbine disk. A parametric Figure 1: Turbine Disk Assembly
disk model is developed with bore width, bore height, web width
The structural integrity of turbine disks and the attached
and web height parameters. Optimization of turbine disk design
blades is very critical to the safety of aero engines. Turbine disk
is carried out to achieve minimum weight. Sensitivity studies
failures occur mainly due to high cycle and low cycle fatigue.
are carried out to understand the geometry parameters
Disk failure may also happen due to engine assembly errors,
influence on the stress and burst margins.
bearing failure, over temperature, over speed and impact due to
adjoining component failure. Turbine disks are subjected severe
INTRODUCTION
stresses due to various loads are acting on it. The disk
The main function of turbine disks is to retain the rotating
experiences large centrifuga1 forces resulting from its rotation
blades and enabling the circumferential force to be transmitted
and from the attached blades. The blades are also subjected to
through the central shaft. Each row of blades is retained in the

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 bending, twisting and vibratory loads that are transmitted to the In this work structural optimization of turbine disk is
rim of the disk. In addition, the blade and disk assembly is carried with an objective of minimize disk weight.
subjected to large temperature gradients leading to high thermal Optimization is carried out using ANSYS WORKBENCH® 15
stresses. The main areas of concern in disks are disk rim, web [6]. ANSYS Workbench combines the strength of core product
and disk bore. The stresses at disk bore often exceed yield solvers with the project management tools necessary to manage
limits and it is necessary to safe guard against the possibility of the project workflow.
failure. In addition to that the disk shouldn’t burst during
operating and redline speed. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE WORK
The design of mechanical components has been greatly The main objective of this study is to develop parametric
enhanced due to the development of Finite Element Method. At model and perform optimization to evolve conceptual design of
the same time, efficient and fast optimization algorithms have turbine disk. Design parameters related to bore, web and neck
arisen for solving various kinds of mathematical programming are selected as design variables. The objective function of the
problems. The development of Finite Element Method and optimization is to minimize weight of the disk by constraining
optimization algorithms gave birth to structural optimization. the disk stresses and burst factor. Also perform sensitivity study
Structural optimization aims at finding the best feasible on various geometric parameters influence on disk stresses and
structure by modifying geometry, material and topological burst margin.
parameters. The optimal solution being defined with respect to
at least one criterion (the objective), and having to satisfy a set PARAMETRIC MODEL
of requirements (the constraints). A turbine disk model derived from turbine assembly of a
Weight reduction in aero engine disk is desirable and has legacy engine available in public domain is considered for the
many advantages. The reduction in gyroscopic forces and modeling. Turbine assembly with 54 blades is considered in
kinetic energies due to disk weight reduction results in further this configuration.
weight reduction in bearings, shaft, cases and frames. A small
saving in disk weight results in greater savings in weight and P_NW
Baseline
Parameter Description
material for the complete engine. (in)
P_BW Bore Width 6
LITERATURE REVIEW P_BR Bore Radius 4
Rotors / disks are very significant for the structural P_WF
P_NF
P_BH Bore Height 2
integrity of aero and steam turbines. If a problem arises in the P_WW Web Width 2.5
turbine section it will significantly affect the whole engine P_WH P_WH Web Height 1
P_DR P_NR
function and, of course, safety of the aircraft. P_WF Web Fillet 2
Witek [1] preformed failure analysis of aero engine turbine P_BH
P_NW Neck Width 1.25
disk. He explained the reasons for catastrophic failure of the P_WW P_NF* Neck Fillet 1
turbine disk and identified few critical regions of the turbine,
P_BR P_LR* Live Rim Radius 11.5
with operational and excessive rotational speed. The first P_BW
P_DR* Dead Rim Radius 13
critical area is located on the corner of the 3rd lower slot of the
* Not included in design variables
dovetail-rim region of the disk. Rogers et al [2] provided
studies to demonstrate important mechanisms of rotor failure. Figure 2: Disk Parametric Model
Singh [3] carried out comprehensive studies using two and
The parametric CAD model developed using Design
three-dimensional finite element methods on turbine bladed
modeler available in ANSYS Workbench. The Design Modeler
disk. It includes the study of critical geometric features such as
application is a parametric feature based solid modeler
flank length flank angle, disk inner radius and skew angle effect
designed to develop or import 2D /3D models for engineering
on disk assembly stresses.
analysis preprocessing. The developed CAD Model should be
Mazière et al [4] investigated over speed burst of rotating
properly constrained and each desired parameter should be
disk using experimental and finite element methods. Two twin
properly labeled. Figure 2 shows the parametric turbine disk 2D
disks made of the same nickel based super alloy are tested and
cross-section with identified parameters. There are eight
analyzed. It is observed that the numerical burst rotation rate,
parameters considered for the optimization study. A study is
associated with the loss of stability of the structure, is found to
carried out on the parametric model to extract recommended
be in good agreement with the experimental result.
parameters range (lower and upper bounds) for each parameter.
Song et al [5] carried out optimization of design of a
Table 1 shows the parameters range considered in this study.
turbine blade fir-tree root by incorporating a knowledge based
intelligent computer-aided design system (ICAD) and finite
element analysis. He examined the effects of critical geometric
features on the stress distribution at the interface between the
blade and disk using a feature-based geometry modelling tool
and the optimization techniques.

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 Table 1: Parameter upper and lower bounds Gas Load: 29862 lbs

Parameter Description Lower Bound Upper Bound

P_BW Bore Width 3.5 8 No.of blades: 54

P_BR Bore Radius 1 4 Blade Assembly wt: 46 lbs
P_BH Bore Height 0.75 2
P_WW Web Width 1.5 3
P_WH Web Height 0.25 2
P_WF Web Fillet 0.25 3
P_NW Neck Width 0.8 1.5

FINITE ELEMENT MODEL Constrained in axial direction

Since this study is carried out to evolve conceptual design,
disk is modeled as a 2D axisymmetry. PLANE 182 elements
are used to model the disc. Disk upto live rim is modeled with
axisymmetric elements. Blade attachment region is modeled
with plane stress with thickness elements. APDL macro is
developed to calculate thickness of assigning thickness for each
element in the blade attachment region. Figure 3 shows finite
element model details.
Plane stress with
thickness
Axisymmetric
Maximum Operating
9,550 rpm
Figure 4: Blade and Gas load Simulation
The simplified engine flight cycle is shown in Figure 5 in
terms of inlet Mach number, turbine inlet temperature, and
engine speed versus flight time. Disk is subjected to maximum
operating speed of 9550 rpm, high temperature and thermal
gradient during end take-off. These extreme loadings during
end take-off causes high stresses in the disk. Turbine disk is
analyzed and optimized for the end take-off condition. Turbine
disk is also analyzed for redline condition with a speed of
10890 rpm to evaluate burst margin.
0.8 Take-off
Mach number

Cruise Descent
0.6

0.4
Climb

0.2

Figure 3: FE model and boundary condition

Temperature (F)

1400
Turbine Inlet

1200
A node at the bore center is constrained in axial direction
to avoid rigid body motion. Turbine assembly consists of 54 1000
blades and total weight of the blade assembly is 46lbs. Blade
assembly is simulated using MASS 21 elements. Mass element 800

is placed at blade CG location. Blade assembly mass is

Engine Speed, RPM

assigned to this mass element. Another MASS 21 element is 10,000

modeled at center of pressure location for applying aero loads 8,000

from blades. The maximum aero load acting on the disk is
29862 lbs. Loads and boundary conditions applied on the disc 6,000
is shown in Figure 4.
4,000
Flight Time

Figure 5: Engine Flight Cycle

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 THERMAL MAPPING material is 125 ksi at 12000F and stress in the disk will be
Turbine disk is mapped with end take-off thermals for the limited to 113 ksi.
optimization. At this condition disk is subjected to maximum
temperature and maximum gradient from bore to rim. Figure 6  Yield
 Disk  (1)
shown thermals on turbine disk. 1.1
 Disk Stresses in Bore, Web and Rim

 Yield Material Yield Strength

Burst Margin
The maximum permissible rotor speeds should be 120% of
redline speed. The disk burst margin is expressed as the ratio of
strength to the applied load. Material utilization factor is
considered as 1. The burst margin is specifies as:

F Ulti
MB   120% (2)
 HAvg
MB Burst Margin

F Material Utilization Factor

 Ulti Material Ultimate Tensile Strength

Figure 6: End-of Take-off Thermals  HAvg Disk Average Hoop Stress

MATERIAL PROPERTIES
Disk is made of Inconel 718 material. Table. 2 shows the
material property details of the disk for 700F and 12000F.
Table 2: Inconel 718 Material Properties
BASELINE
Baseline model is analyzed for the end take-off condition
and subjected angular velocity, thermal gradient and aero loads.
This loading condition is used for extracting critical stresses in
the disk.

70 F 1200 F

Density 0.296 lb/cu.in 0.296 lb/cu.in

Young's Modulus 29 E 3 ksi 23.7 E 3 ksi

Poisson's Ratio 0.3 0.3

Tensile Strength, Yield 150 ksi 125 ksi

Tensile Strength, Ultimate 185 ksi 145 ksi

Coeff Thermal Expansion 0.00000731 in/in/°F 0.00000839 in/in/°F

DESIGN CRITERIA
The design criteria will enable to develop designs within
the acceptable known limits of design practices followed by
industry. The disk design should meet design criteria for disk
stresses and burst margin. These criterions are incorporated in
the optimization program so the optimized designs will meet
the design criteria.
Figure 7: von Mises Stress plot at end Take-off
Disk Stresses The von Mises stress plot for the end take-off condition is
The stresses in disk should be limited to yield strength with shown in Figure 7.Stresses (von Mises) at bore, web and neck
a safety factor of 1.1. The yield strength of the Inconel 718 are 113 ksi, 76.7 ksi and 64.8 ksi respectively. Stresses at the

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 web and neck are within the limit stress of 113 ksi. Stresses at
the bore exceeded the limit stress of 113 ksi.
Figure 8: Principal Stress plot at end Take-off
The maximum principal stresses at bore, web and neck are
100 ksi, 75 ksi and 77 ksi respectively. Stresses in the disk are
within the limit stress of 113 ksi. The maximum principal stress
plot for the end take-off condition is shown in Figure 8.
Model is also analyzed for the redline condition which
includes angular velocity, thermal gradient and aero loads. This
load conditions is used to evaluate burst margin. The burst
margin for the baseline configuration at the redline speed is
1.46.
OPTIMIZATION
Optimization technique modifies the current design and
improves the structural margins as per design requirements.
There exist several feasible designs for a given mechanical
system. The feasible designs should meet the objective of the
design and set of constraints. The objective of design includes
such as minimum cost, maximum reliability, maximum
strength, etc. The objective function can be either it is to be
maximized or it has to be minimized. Usually the optimization
algorithms were written for minimization problems or
maximization problems. A general optimization problem can be
written as follows
Minimize / Maximize:
(3)
Subject to:
(4)
(5)
(6)
Where
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:a column vector of design variables,
; where N is the number of
design variables.
: nonlinear scalar function of the design
variables called the objective function.
: K nonlinear inequality constraint functions.
: L nonlinear equality constraint functions.
Goal Driven Optimization (GDO) in ANSYS Workbench is
a set of constrained, multi-objective optimization technique in
which the "best" possible designs are obtained from a sample
set given the objectives set for output parameters. The GDO
process allows you to determine the effect on input parameters
with certain objectives applied for the output parameters.
Since burst margin and stresses other than bore location
have good margin in baseline design, disk can be optimized to
minimize the weight. Disk weight is considered as an objective
function. Disk Stresses and burst margin are the output
parameters considered as a constraint functions. Stresses in the
disk are limited to 113 ksi with a safety factor of 1.1 of yield
stress. Burst margin will minimized and 1.3 set as a minimum
requirement. Table 3 shows details of objectives and constraints
for the optimization.
Table 3: Output Parameter Details
Parameter Objective Constraints
Weight Minimize No constraint
Bore Stress Minimize <= 113 ksi
Web Stress Maximize < = 113 ksi
Neck Stress Maximize <= 113 ksi
Burst Factor Minimize > = 1.3
OPTIMIZATION RESULTS
Six best feasible design points are obtained from the
optimization. Figure 9 shows baseline and optimized profiles of
the turbine disk. Weight reduction is achieved for all design
points. The maximum weight reduction achieved in the
optimization is 24% for design point 2. All other design points
achieved weight reduction more than 10%. The weight
reduction comparison of all optimum design points are shown
in Figure 10.
The disk stresses in all design points are within the limiting
stress of 113 ksi. It is observed that there is no significant
reduction in bore stresses in all design points. Stresses in neck
and web locations are increased significantly. Disk stresses
comparison of all optimum design points are shown in Figure
11.
All six design points have sufficient burst margins and
more than the design criteria of 1.3. Burst margin for design
point 2 is same as baseline model and for remaining design
 points burst margins are marginally decreased. Burst margin
comparison of all optimum design points are shown in Bore Stress, psi Web Stress, psi Neck Stress, psi
120
Figure12.
110

Disk Stresses (ksi)

Bore Stress, ksi 113.0 100
Web Stress, ksi 76.8
Neck Stress, ksi 64.8 90
Burst Margin 1.46
Weight, lbs 363 80
Baseline 70
Bore Stress, ksi 110.2
Web Stress, ksi 87.0 60
Neck Stress, ksi 92.4 Baseline Opt 1 Opt 2 Opt 3 Opt 4 Opt 5 Opt 6
Burst Margin 1.44
Weight, lbs 284

Optimum Design - 1 Figure 11: Disk stresses Comparison

Bore Stress, ksi 109.0
Web Stress, ksi 83.5 1.47
Neck Stress, ksi 89.6
Burst Margin 1.46 1.46
Weight, lbs 276 1.45
Optimum Design - 2

Burst Margin
1.44
Bore Stress, ksi 112.1
Web Stress, ksi 93.9 1.43
Neck Stress, ksi 97.2 1.42
Burst Margin 1.43
Weight, lbs 312 1.41

Optimum Design - 3 1.40

Baseline Opt 1 Opt 2 Opt 3 Opt 4 Opt 5 Opt 6
Bore Stress, ksi 112.1
Web Stress, ksi 93.9
Neck Stress, ksi 96.9 Figure 12: Burst Margin Comparison
Burst Margin 1.43
Weight, lbs 313

Optimum Design - 4 Optimum Design

Bore Stress, ksi 112.2 Design point 2 is the optimum design configuration with a
Web Stress, ksi 93.9
Neck Stress, ksi 98.0
weight reduction of 24%. The von Mises stress in bore is 109
Burst Margin 1.43 ksi and it is marginally less than the limit stress. The von Mises
Weight, lbs 312 stress in web and neck are 83.5 ksi and 89.6 ksi respectively.
Optimum Design -5 Figure 13 shows comparison of von Mises stress plot between
Bore Stress, ksi
Web Stress, ksi
111.1
91.6
baseline and optimum design. Burst margin for the optimum
Neck Stress, ksi 87.9 design is 1.46.
Burst Margin 1.42
Weight, lbs 292

Optimum Design -6

Figure 9: Optimum Designs

25%

20%
Weight Reduction (%)

15%

10%
Baseline Model Design Point 2 (Opt-2)
5% Bore Stress, ksi 113.0 Bore Stress, ksi 109.0
Web Stress, ksi 76.8 Web Stress, ksi 83.5
0%
Neck Stress, ksi 64.8 Neck Stress, ksi 89.6
Opt 1 Opt 2 Opt 3 Opt 4 Opt 5 Opt 6

Figure 13: von Mises Stress plot

Figure 10: Weight Reduction Comparison

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 The maximum principal stress in bore, web and neck are 1.8
# P1 - P_BW # P2 - P_BR
104 ksi, 88.7 ksi and 109.5 ksi respectively. Stresses in the neck
1.7
and web are increased when compared to the baseline model.
Figure 14 shows comparison of maximum principal stress plot 1.6

Burst Margin
between baseline and optimum design.
1.5

1.4

1.3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Parameters(Non Dimentional)

Figure 16: Burst Margin Sensitive Curves

Bore Stresses
The bore stress is very sensitive to the design parameters
bore width and bore height when compared to other parameters.
Maximizing the bore width and bore height results in reduction
Baseline Model Design Point 2 (Opt-2) of bore stresses. The bore stress sensitivity curves are shown in
Bore Stress, ksi 104.1
Figure 17. Bore stress can be limited to 113 ksi maximizing
Bore Stress, ksi 100.0
Web Stress, ksi 75.2 Web Stress, ksi 88.7 bore width and bore height.
Neck Stress, ksi 77.0 Neck Stress, ksi 109.5
140
# P1 - P_BW # P3 - P_BH
Figure 14: Maximum Principal Stress plot
130
Bore Stress (ksi)

The minimum principal stress at the bore location for

optimized model is 22 ksi and for baseline model is 28 ksi. 120
Figure 15 shows comparison of minimum principal stress plot
between baseline and optimum design.
110

100
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Parameters (Non Dimentional)

Figure 17: Bore Stresses Sensitive Curves

Web Stresses
The web stress is very sensitive to the design parameter
bore width and web width. Stresses decreases with increase in
web width. Web stress decreases with increase in bore width
from lower bound till 50% of bound range and thereafter
change in web stress is very minimal. The web stress sensitivity
curve is shown in Figure 18.
Baseline Model Design Point 2 (Opt-2)
120
Figure 15: Minimum Principal Stress plot # P1 - P_BW # P16 - P_WW
110
Web Stress (ksi)

100
SENSITIVITY STUDIES
Burst Margin 90
The burst margin is very sensitive to the design parameters
80
bore width and bore radius. Increase in bore width increases the
burst margin and increase in bore radius decreases the margin. 70
The burst margin sensitivity curves are shown in figure 16. The
60
upper and lower bounds of both parameters yields burst margin 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
more than 1.3. Parameters(Non Dimentional)

Figure 18: Web Stress Sensitive Curve

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 Neck Stresses and blade attachment. Studies on blade attachment region can
The neck stress is very sensitive to the design parameter be considered for the future work.
neck width and web width. Increase in neck width and web
width decreases the neck stress. The neck stress sensitivity
curve is shown in Figure 19. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable contribution

95 and technical support of Cyient leadership and management
# P16 - P_WW # P13 - P_NW
team.
Neck Stress (ksi)

90

85
REFERENCES
80 [1] Lucjan Witek, 2006, “Failure Analysis of Turbine Disk
75 of an Aero Engine”. Engineering Failure Analysis 13
(2006) 9–17.
70
[2] Gary W. Rogers, Clifford H. Wells and Duane P.
65 Johnson, “Structural Integrity of Large Steam Turbine
60 Rotors”, Proceedings of the Twelfth Turbomachinery
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Symposium.
Parameters(Non Dimentional)
[3] Davinder Singh Delhelay, 1999, “Nonlinear Finite
Element Analysis of the Coupled Thermo Mechanical
Figure 19: Neck Stress Sensitive Curve
Behaviour of Turbine Disk Assemblies”, Master of
Applied Science Thesis, Department of Mechanical and
CONCLUSIONS Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto.
The engine design process is highly iterative, complex and [4] Mazièr,M., Besson, J., Foresta, S., Tanguy, B., Chalons,
multidisciplinary in nature. The success of an engine depends H., Vogelb, F., 2009, “Overspeed Burst of
on a design that best exploits the engineering disciplines such Elastoviscoplastic Rotating Disks: Part II – Burst of a
as aerodynamics, thermals and structures, as well as the life Superalloy Turbine Disk”, European Journal of
cycle disciplines of cost, manufacturability, serviceability and Mechanics A/Solids 28 (2009) 428–432
supportability. An integrated MDO system will be of most [5] Wenbin Song, Andy Keane, Janet Rees, Atul Bhaskar,
benefit at the conceptual design stage since it is at this stage Steven Bagnall, 2002, “Turbine Blade Fir-tree Root
that the greatest impact on the final engine configuration is Design Optimisation using Intelligent CAD and Finite
made. Element Analysis”, Computers and Structures 80 (2002)
Multi-disciplinary Optimization of turbine disk is 1853–1867.
described in this paper. Parametric modeling and optimization [6] ANSYS Workbench®, ANSYS Workbench User’s
is carried out in ANSYS workbench. High stress is observed in Manual, Version 15.0 2013.
baseline model at bore location and it is exceeding the limiting
stress. The baseline model have good burst margin of 1.46,
stresses at the web and neck locations are below the limiting
stress. The optimization results shows that overall 24% weight
reduction can be achieved without compromising on stresses in
the disk and burst margin.
Bore width, bore radius, bore height, web width and neck
width parameters have greater influence on output parameters
such as burst margin and disk stresses. Increase in bore width
increases burst margin and decreases disk stresses. Bore radius
is very sensitive to burst margin. Increase in bore radius
decreases the burst margin. Bore height have positive influence
only on bore stresses. Bore stresses decreases with increase in
bore height. Increase in bore width and web width dimensions
decreases the web stress. Neck stress decreases with increase in
neck width and web width.
Further studies need to be carried out to study the transient
thermals effect on the optimized disc. The optimized disc is to
be validated by detail 3D analysis of disc by including blade

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