Engine Component Retirement for Cause. Volume 1. Executive Summary

This program developed and integrated materials behavior characteristics, component life analysis, nondestructive evaluation and cost- risk technology to establish and demonstrate the retirement for cause maintenance concept as it applies to rotating components of military gas turbine engines. As such it provides the basis for elimination fo classical time or cyclic limits currently imposed for retirement of gas turbine rotor components by substituting a life management system in which each individual component is retired from service when the unique, economical safe life of that component is exhausted. The methodology was demonstrated on and validated for the U.S. Air Force F100 engines rotor components and has been implemented on that engine system by the USAF Air Logistics Command. Use of Retirement for Cause is projected to result in life cycle cost savings in excess of 1 billion for that engine system. The Retirement for Cause methodology developed is generic, and may be applied to not only other gas turbine engines, but to components of any life limited system. Keywords Fatigue, Fracture mechanics, Retirement for cause, Nondestructive evaluation, Engine, Life cycle cost, Engine maintenance, Component management, Statistics, Probabilistic methods, Engine system logistics.