Gas Turbine Combustor Liner Life Assessment Using a Combined Fluid/Structural Approach

A life assessment was performed on a fighter jet engine annular combustor liner, using a combined fluid/structural approach. Computational fluid dynamics analyses were performed to obtain the thermal loading of the combustor liner and finite element analyses were done to calculate the temperature and stress/strain distribution in the liner during several operating conditions. A method was developed to analyze a complete flight with limited computational effort. Finally, the creep and fatigue life for a measured flight were calculated and the results were compared to field experience data. The absolute number of cycles to crack initiation appeared hard to predict, but the location and direction of cracking could be correlated well with field data.