High Cycle Fatigue Controller

Problem Statement

Pratt & Whitney (P&W) treats reliability and safety as critical concerns for any engine throughout the development, testing, and production phase. In order to validate a component’s reliability, various methods of failure must be investigated to ensure confidence in the component's performance and safety, adding to the costing, schedule and resource demand of the company. P&W presented an ongoing issue regarding high-cycle fatigue (HCF) testing procedures for compressor airfoils of their jet engines. Continuing on from the efforts of the 2017-2018 Specimen and Rig SDP Teams, P&W has requested Team 19 to design, analyze, and manufacture a closed loop control system for high cycle fatigue (HCF) component testing for first bending (1B) and first torsion (1T). The controller primary functions will be to measure and record HCF testing parameters as well as permit the adjustment of testing parameters to reach a variety of desired values specified by the user/technician.