Application of Host Technology to the SSME HPFTP Blade

The Hot Section Technology (HOST) program has focussed on providing methods to solve difficult structural analysis problems. Few structures require as much effort to analyze as the modern aircraft gas turbine engine; heat transfer, constitutive relations, linear and nonlinear analysis, multiple advanced materials are some of the key topics requiring attention in the structural analysis of engine components. Usually based on limited information and experience, these advanced methods must evolve from expert systems to widely verified user friendly techniques available to the design community. This paper will discuss the development of turbine blade analysis tools as they moved from research contracts under the NASA HOST program to a PC based system for preliminary design and their use in evaluating the SSME HPFTP blade, a similar but subtly different problem. Included in the discussion will be the heat transfer and structural analysis of the blade, development of a data base for constitutive modelling of the blade materials, including coatings, and the usage of advanced nonlinear finite element methods.