Structural Analysis and Optimization of a Composite Fan Blade for Future Aircraft Engine

This paper addresses the structural analysis and optimization of a composite sandwich ply lay-up of a NASA baseline solid metallic fan blade comparable to a future Boeing 737 MAX aircraft engine. Sandwich construction with a polymer matrix composite face sheet and honeycomb aluminum core replaces the original baseline solid metallic fan model made of Titanium. The focus of this work is to design the sandwich composite blade with the optimum number of plies for the face sheet that will withstand the combined pressure and centrifugal loads while the constraints are satisfied and the baseline aerodynamic and geometric parameters are maintained. To satisfy the requirements a sandwich construction for the blade is proposed with composite face sheets and a weak core made of honeycomb aluminum material. For aerodynamic considerations, the thickness of the core is optimized where as the overall blade thickness is held fixed in order not to alter the original airfoil geometry. Weight reduction is taken as the objective function by varying the core thickness of the blade within specified upper and lower bounds. Constraints are imposed on radial displacement limitations and ply failure strength. From the optimum design, the minimum number of plies, which will not fail, is back-calculated. The ply lay-up of the blade is adjusted from the calculated number of plies and final structural analysis is performed. Analyses were carried out by utilizing the OpenMDAO Framework, developed at NASA Glenn Research Center combining optimization with structural assessment.