High Cycle Fatigue is a critical element in turbine engine design and monitoring. With standard vibration analysis methods, engines with asymmetric vanes, such as the F135, may contain blade vibration amplitudes much higher than reported due to a vibratory beat behavior exhibited by the airfoils. Non-Contact Technologies, in partnership with Blade Diagnostics Corporation, propose to assess this phenomena and apply existing acquisition and analysis tools to formulate a methodology to properly measure the vibratory stress during an engine test and produce a true assessment of its likelihood of having an HCF issues. Existing commercial acquisition hardware, software, and modelling tools will be used in the feasibility study to understand and address the shortcomings of standard analysis tools.
