Probabilistic Fatigue Life Assessment of a Titanium Alloy Impeller for Turbo Shaft Engine Application

The fatigue life of the titanium alloy centrifugal impeller is estimated based on strain life method. a) Equivalent Strain Method and b) Smith Watson Topper Method are used. The probabilistic analysis of fatigue life is carried out by Weibull distribution method. The fatigue life of the impeller is assessed through cyclic spin test. The results are compared. The Equivalent Strain Method is found non conservative. The average fatigue life of the impeller is estimated as 12000 cycles by SWT method, which is found more closer to test results. The reliability improvement from 95% to 99% reduces the fatigue life around 18%.