Abstract
Recently there have been many successful attempts to implement the use of fiber-reinforced composite structures in the commercial aircraft engines. The author has been part of these efforts while working in the aviation industry. This article describes these efforts to design, analyze, manufacture, and implement the composite structures inside the low-pressure and low-temperature zones of the engine. Very innovative out-of-the-box design methodologies were used to design these components. These efforts elaborate on the design, optimization, and improvement of composite fan blade, composite fan platform, and composite booster blade inside the engine. It focuses on structural design, the aerodynamic efficiency, and specific fuel consumption improvement efforts along with the usual reduction of weight targets. This work successfully demonstrates the systematic steps in design and implementation like preliminary coupon-level simulations, coupon-level manufacturing, coupon/prototype testing, and final part-level simulations followed by part test.
