A redesign of a turbine containment ring. This project was part of a collaboration between Microturbo (now Safran Power Units) of the Safran Group and Monash University to build a jet engine entirely using additive manufacturing techniques.

The turbine containment ring surrounds the spinning turbine, protecting the rest of the structure from catastrophic failure of the ring. It is made of a Nickel superalloy and is a significant contribution to the overall mass of the engine. The containment ring manufactured with SLM was redesigned with a reduced mass, maintaining its performance to absorb energy under impact from rotor segments.

BESO optimisation method was used to redesign the turbine containment ring. Development work included: Necessary steps in creating a suitable finite element simulation of the rotor-ring impact and the subsequent analysis and optimisation steps included:

• Material testing of samples built using SLM.
• Creation of an explicit finite element simulation to model the high strain rate, high material deformation and plasticity, mechanical interaction.
• Development of topology optimisation software for use on desktops and the NCI .
• Manufacture of the final component using SLM.