ABSTRACT
This chapter particularly discusses the life cycle management issues for gas turbine engine components against common component damage modes. Both the safe-life and damage-tolerance approaches are reviewed, and the holistic structural integrity (HOLSIP) approach is introduced from the ICFT point of view. A case study of nozzle guide vane using the ICFT approach is described. A new 3D weight function is introduced, which allows fracture mechanics analyses without meshing for the crack growth. Then, fracture analyses of gas turbine blade and spacer are performed using this weight function method. There is still more work linking the four stages of HOLSIP: i) crack nucleation, ii) short crack, iii) long crack, and iv) unstable fracture, all the stages are treated in this book though.
