Free vibrations of shell rotor blades in a compressor

Blade failures of the first stage of SO-3 compressor blades were reported in the years 1975-1991 (Szczepanik 2009). Twenty eight rotor blades were damaged. The metallographic examination of damaged blades found that the cracking initiation centres were located either on leading edges or blade-back surfaces, in areas of nodal lines of the first-mode vibration.