Comparison of aero engine component lifing methods

Failure of critical engine components such as compressor, fan, and turbine disks during flight can cause the loss of the engine, aircraft, or even life. To reduce the risk of this failure during flight, different methodologies and tools have been developed to determine the safe operating life of these critical disk components. The two most widely used lifing methods, safe-life and damage tolerance, are inherently conservative, retiring all components when a predetermined operating limit is reached. Both methods retire components with theoretical useful life remaining. Additional lifing methods can be used to reduce this conservatism and extend the life of these components. Retirement for cause, developed within the United States Air Force is a lifing method that can extend the life of components by retiring a component only when there is cause to do so. Military and industry standards on lifing methodologies were reviewed. Both deterministic and probabilistic approaches to disk lifing methods are discussed as well as current tools. This paper provides a comparison of the methodologies and tools currently being used today by both the government and industry.