Analyses of Damping Sustainability of Additively Manufactured Nickel Alloy Components Subjected to High Strain Loading Cycles

While integrally bladed rotors in turbine engines have multiple benefits, they are more susceptible to vibration and as a result, high cycle fatigue failure. In response, damping treatments such as viscoelastic layers, hard coatings, and particle dampers have been utilized to reduce vibration of integrally bladed rotors and promote long service life. In recent experiments, nickel-based alloy 718 structural beams representative of turbine blades were manufactured via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) with internal geometries containing unfused powder. Compared to fully fused beams, these beams with internal particle dampers have demonstrated a significant improvement in damping performance, suppressing vibrations by as much as 95%. However, the inherent damping of the particle dampers decreases as the strain amplitude increases when some of the unfused powder fuses to the walls of the pockets. This study investigates the effect of the location of the particle dampers within the beam on the sustainability of its damping performance. To compare the effect of the particle damper's location, the LPBF nickel-based alloy 718 beams are subjected to successive resonance dwells with increasing strain amplitude. After each dwell, the damping performance is assessed via the half-power bandwidth method of the frequency response function. Results from this study indicate that while the location of the particle dampers within the specimen does influence when the damping begins to degrade, it is not the optimal parameter for damping sustainability. The aim of this and future work is to improve the long-term damping performance and viability of the internal particle damper so that it can be more effectively utilized to extend the lifetime of turbomachinery components.