Influences of Non-Destructive Inspection Simulation on Fracture Risk Assessment of Additively Manufactured Turbine Engine Components

Additive manufacturing processes produce components that may introduce material anomalies at any location within a component. NDE inspection can be used to find and remove anomalies that could grow to failure during the service life, but two key inputs are required for an effective inspection: (1) the critical locations to search for anomalies, and (2) the minimum sizes of the anomalies that must be found. A new methodology is presented for probabilistic damage tolerance assessment of additively manufactured components. It consists of a new link between the DARWIN^® probabilistic damage tolerance software and the XRSim X-ray NDE simulation software. DARWIN computes fracture risk and critical initial crack sizes throughout a component, providing the two key inputs that are necessary for effective NDE inspections. XRSim computes location-specific POD curves everywhere in a component, providing the key information needed to assess the influence of inspection on fracture risk reduction. The methodology is illustrated for a representative gas turbine engine component manufactured via the direct metal laser sintering process. The results can be used to optimize the effectiveness of NDE inspection of additively manufactured components.