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Design and analysis of fatigue life of impeller of

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.51 (2015)
Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm

Design and analysis of fatigue life of impeller

of aluminium 6061
K.kasirajan G. Elatharasan1*R.Manikandan N.Ramanujam2*
1 Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering Pattukkottai Anna
University
2 Associate professor, Department of mechanical engineering, E.G.S pillay Engineering college, Nagapattinam
Email: elatharasan@yahoo.co.in, Contact +9109791940476.
Tamilnadu, India 641701

Abstract
The impeller is the rotating part of a centrifugal pump
that forms the basis of pump working mechanism. The traditional
material use for impeller productions are Steel, Plastic, Iron,
Aluminium etc. These materials have average life span and good
damage resistance. Now in this project we are using the new
material Aluminium 6061 alloy as a replacement to the traditional
materials and analyzing its properties. The ultimate aim of this
project is to analyze the fatigue life of impeller of a centrifugal
pump made of Aluminum 6061. The impeller is analyzed under
different loading condition and its corresponding fatigue life is
calculated using different results obtained from the analysis.
Different loads are applied on the basis of impeller dimensions.
This analysis of fatigue life helps in using appropriate blade
designs and helps to increase the life of the impeller. This project
also helps in calculating the extent of damage made by the load
applied on the blade and area of damage. This project also helps in
designing a better model of impellers for commercial usage.
Keywords:
I. INTRODUCTION
Fatigue failure of centrifugal impellers has occurred
all over the world in various services operated by different
companies, users and machinery built by several manufacturers.
When considering fatigue, covered radial impellers are perhaps
one of the most reliable components for centrifugal pump. If
very high mechanical speeds are required such as for high
pressure ratio wheels in pump shroud can be eliminated to
reduce centrifugal stresses. Single stage open impeller designs
can maintain proper clearance of shroud side blade tips with
nearby cases, whereas multistage compressor could have large
changes in operating clearance and greater thrust loads.
Whenever a failure does occur in an impeller, damage can be
extensive, so proper design parameters to eliminate critical
resonances are necessary. The life, damage, safety factor and all
other fatigue parameters are calculated using under different
loading condition. The project details can be used for future
reference.
The impeller is often considered an integral part of the
suction motor since its housings and the motor are assembled as
a unit. The impeller, driven by the blower shaft adds the
velocity component to the fluid by centrifugally casting the
fluid away from the impeller vane tips. The key idea here is that
the energy created is kinetic energy. The amount of energy
given to the fluid corresponds to the velocity at the edge or
vane tip of the impeller. Addison (1995) established that the
faster the impeller revolves or the bigger the impeller is, the
higher will be the velocity of the fluid at the vane tip and the
greater the energy imparted to the fluid.
The blower can therefore be described as a device, which
converts driver energy to kinetic energy in a fluid by
accelerating it to the outer rim of a revolving device known as
an impeller. The impeller is always placed directly onto the
shaft of the Suction Motor so that it spins at a very high speed.
The principle involved in the design of a blower is similar
in virtually every important aspect as that of a centrifugal pump
except for the fact that the term centrifugal pump is often
associated with liquid as its working fluid while the blower is
meant to work on air (Edward, H.S. 1995). The effects of
centrifugal force acting upon the spinning air within the
impeller create the suction. As the impeller rotates, the spinning
air moves outward away from the hub, creating a partial
vacuum which causes more air to flow into the impeller.
Many unexpected failures of equipments and various machines
have occurred throughout the industrial world. A number of
these failures have been due to poor design. However, it has
been discovered that many failures have been caused by
preexisting notches or flaws in materials that initiate cracks that
grow and lead to fracture. This discovery has, in a sense, lead to
the field of study known as fracture mechanics. The field of
fracture mechanics is extremely broad. It includes applications
in engineering, studies in applied mechanics (including
elasticity and plasticity), and materials science (including
fracture processes, fracture criteria, and crack propagation). The
successful application of fracture mechanics requires some
understanding of the total field. Thus, as implied above,
fracture mechanics is a method of characterizing the fracture
behavior of sharply notched members and based on a stress
analysis in the vicinity of a notch or crack. Therefore, using
fracture mechanics, allowable stress levels and inspection
requirements can be quantitatively established to design against
the occurrence of fractures in equipments and machinery. In
addition, fracture mechanics can be used to analyze the growth
of small cracks to critical size by fatigue loading and to
evaluate the fitness-for-service, or life extension of existing
equipment. In the petrochemical industry, many types of
vessels, which are also called as drum, with agitator, are being
used largely for the purpose of homogeneous mixing of the
product being processed at the various steps of the production.

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ability to try new designs or concepts on the computer

gives the opportunity to eliminate problems before
II. IMPELLAR beginning production. Additionally, designers can quickly
An impeller is a rotor used to increase (or decrease in and easily determine the sensitivity of specific modeling
case of turbines) the pressure and flow of a fluid. parameters on the quality and production of final parts.
An impeller is a rotating component of a centrifugal The similar aluminium plates, and the various tool
pump, usually made of iron, steel, bronze, brass, aluminium or geometries model is created by modeling software like CATIA
plastic, which transfers energy from the motor that drives the and it is imported in to the analysis software and loading,
pump to the fluid being pumped by accelerating the fluid boundary conditions are given to the imported model and result
outwards from the center of rotation. The velocity achieved by are evaluated by post processor.
the impeller transfers into pressure when the outward A.Working principle of finite element method
movement of the fluid is confined by the pump casing. FEA uses a complex system of points called
Impellers are usually short cylinders with an open inlet (called nodes which make a grid called a mesh. This mesh is
an eye) to accept incoming fluid, vanes to push the fluid programmed to contain the material and structural
radially, and a splined, keyed or threaded bore to accept a drive properties which define how the structure will react to
shaft. certain loading conditions. Nodes are assigned at a certain
The impeller made out of cast material in many cases density throughout the material depending on the
may be called rotor, also. It is cheaper to cast the radial impeller anticipated stress levels of a particular area. Regions which will
right in the support it is fitted on, which is put in motion by the receive large amounts of stress usually have a higher node
gear box from an electric motor, combustion engine or by density than those which experience little or no stress. Points of
steam driven turbine. The rotor usually names both the spindle interest may consist of: fracture point of previously tested
and the impeller when they are mounted by bolts. material, fillets, corners, complex detail, and high stress areas.
III ALUMINIUM ALLOY 6061 The mesh acts like a spider web in that from each node, there
6061 is a precipitation hardening aluminium alloy, extends a mesh element to each of the adjacent nodes. This
containing magnesium and silicon as its major alloying web of vectors is what carries the material properties to
elements. Originally called Alloy 61S, it was developed the object, creating many elements.
in 1935. It has good mechanical properties and exhibits good V. DESIGN
weldability. It is one of the most common alloys of aluminium Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the
for general purpose use. It is commonly available in construction of an object or a system (as in architectural
pretempered grades such as 6061-O (annealed) and tempered blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit
grades such as 6061-T6 (solutionized and artificially aged) and diagrams and sewing patterns. Another definition for design
6061-T651 (solutionized, stress-relieved stretched and is a roadmap or a strategic approach for someone to
artificially aged). achieve a unique expectation. It defines the specifications,
Temperature 0 200 400 600 800 100 plans, parameters, costs, activities, processes and how and
( ) 0 what to do within legal, political, social, environmental,
safety and economic constraints in achieving that
Specific heat 484 541 563 586 593 593 objective.Here, a "specification" can be manifested as
either a plan or a finished product, and "primitives" are
Thermal 14. 16.9 20.6 23.3 27.8 27.8 the elements from which the design object is composed.
Conductivity 2

Density 789 774 763 751 740 740

3 4 4 1 8 6 6

Table 1. Material Properties of Al Alloy 6061

IV FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

Finite Element analysis tool offers the tremendous
advantages of enabling design teams to consider virtually
any modeling option without incurring the expense
associated with manufacturing and machine time. The

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Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm
Fig 1.Optimizing the meridian view
VI RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A.STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR
The plate is made of aluminium with Youngs modulus E = 200
GPa and Poissons ratio = 0.3. Let b = 0.2 m, a = 0.02 m, =
100 MPa.
KI = C a,
Where
C = (10.1 2 + 0.96 4) 1/cos (), = a/b.
Use of this solution yields KI = 25.680 MPam.
These are the calculated results of stress intensity
factor for aluminium 6061.
KI = 26.567; KII = 0; KIII = 0
Note that the results KII = 0 and KIII = 0 are obvious
for this problem. The ANSYS solution for KI(25.567 MPam)
is in very good agreement with that obtained from W.D. Pilkey
(25.680 MPam). The discrepancy is
=KIPilkey KIANSYS / KIPilkey
=25.68025.567 / 25.680
= 0.44 %
Fig 2. Stress intensity factor of von misses stress
While many parts may work well initially, they
often fail in service due to fatigue failure caused by repeated
cyclic loading. Characterizing the capability of a material to
survive the many cycles a component may experience during its
lifetime is the aim of fatigue analysis. In a general sense,
Fatigue Analysis has three main methods, Strain Life, Stress
Life, and Fracture Mechanics; the first two being available
within the ANSYS Fatigue Module. The Stain Life approach is
widely used at present. Strain can be directly measured and has
been shown to be an excellent quantity for characterizing low-
cycle fatigue. Strain Life is typically concerned with crack
initiation, whereas Stress Life is concerned with total life and
does not distinguish between initiation and propagation. In
terms of cycles, Strain Life typically deals with a relatively low
number of cycles and therefore addresses Low Cycle Fatigue
(LCF), but works with high numbers of cycles as well. Low
Cycle Fatigue usually refers to fewer than 105 cycles. Stress
Life is based on S-N curves (Stress Cycle curves) and has
traditionally dealt with relatively high numbers of cycles and
therefore addresses High Cycle Fatigue (HCF), greater than 105
cycles inclusive of infinite life.
B.types of cyclic loading:
Unlike static stress, which is analyzed with
calculations for a single stress state? fatigue damage occurs
when stress at a point changes over time. There are
essentially four classes of fatigue loading, with the
ANSYS Fatigue Module currently supporting the first three:
1. Constant amplitude, proportional loading
2. Constant amplitude, non-proportional loading
3. Non-constant amplitude, proportional loading
4. Non-constant amplitude, non-proportional loading
In the above descriptions, the amplitude identifier is
readily understood. Is the loading a variant of a sine wave
with a single load ratio or does the loading vary perhaps
erratically, with the load ratio changing with time? The second
identifier, proportionality, describes whether the changing load
causes the principal stress axes to change. If the principal stress
axes do not change, then it is proportional loading. If the
principal stress axes do change, then the cycles cannot be
counted simply and it is non-proportional loading.
C. Fatigue life
Fatigue Life can be over the whole model or scoped
just like any other contour result in Workbench (i.e. parts,
surfaces, edges, and vertices). In addition, this and any contour
result may be exported to a tab-delimited text file by a right
mouse button click on the result. This result contour plot shows
the available life for the given fatigue analysis. If loading is of
constant amplitude, this represents the number of cycles until
the part will fail due to fatigue. If loading is non-constant, this
represents the number of loading blocks until failure. Thus if
the given load history represents one hour of loading and the
life was found to be 24,000, the expected model life would be
1,000 days. In a Stress Life analysis with constant amplitude, if
the equivalent alternating stress is lower than the lowest
alternating stress defined in the S-N curve, the life at that point
will be used.
D. Fatigue Damaged
Factor Fatigue Safety Factor is a contour plot of the
factor of safety with respect to a fatigue failure at a given
design life. The maximum Factor of Safety displayed is 15.
Like damage and life, this result may be scoped. For Fatigue
Safety Factor, values less than one indicate failure before the
design life is reached.
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Fig 6. Stress
Fig 2. Life

Fig 7.Deformation

Fig 3.Damage

Fig 8.Loading condition

Fig 4. Safety Factor

Fig 9. Mean stress theory

Fig 5. Biaxiality Indication

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Fig13.parabolic shape of blade thickness.

Fig 10.Mean stress Theory of SN curve
Fig 11.Time Vs. Life
E.Biaxiality indication
As mentioned previously, fatigue material
properties are based on uniaxial stresses but real world stress
states are usually multiaxial. This result gives the user some
idea of the stress state over the model and how to
interpret the results. Biaxiality indication is defined as the
principal stress smaller in magnitude divided by the larger
principal stress with the principal stress nearest zero
ignored. A biaxiality of zero corresponds to uniaxial stress, a
value of 1 corresponds to pure shear, and a value of 1
corresponds to a pure biaxial state. As you can see in the
Biaxiality Figure, the majority of this model is under a
pure uniaxial stress, with parts exhibiting both pure shear and
nearly pure biaxiality. When using the biaxiality plot along with
the safety factor plot above, it can be seen that the most
damaged point occurs at a point of mostly uniaxial stress. If the
most damaged spot was under pure shear, then it would be
desirable to use S-N data collected through torsional
loading if such data was available. Of course collecting
experimental data under different loading conditions is cost
prohibitive and not often done.
Note that for non-proportional fatigue loading, there
are multiple stress states and thus there is no single stress
axiality at each node. Thus if the fatigue tool has non-
proportional loading, the user may select either to view the
average or standard deviation of stress biaxiality. The average
value may be interpreted as above and in combination with the
standard deviation, the user can get a measure of how the
stress state changes at a given location. Thus a small standard
deviation indicates a condition where the loading is near
proportional while a larger deviation indicates change in the
direction of the principal stress vectors.

Fig 12. Time(s) Vs. Damage

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Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm
Fig13.Time(s) Vs. Stress (Mpa)
Fig14. Cycles Vs. Alternating stress (Mpa)
VII. Conclusion
The geometry of pump (impeller and casing) is
modeled using ANSYS 14.5. The mesh is generated
successfully using ANSYS 14.5. Results obtained were
satisfying the characteristics curves as strain curves and
alternating stresses. Certain graphs of total deformation and
equivalent stress acting on the hub and blade tip were plotted.
The factor of safety of the pump was also acceptable. In both
the cases structure was safe to use. The safety factor also
decreases under this loading condition. The results of this
analysis can also be further used for calculation in the future
using different types of materials and loading condition. These
results can be further analyzed using more advanced
technologies using different techniques and more accurate
Calculations.
The maximum life calculated for a maximum period of
1 hour working condition is of 24000 days to a maximum of
1000 working hours. The analysis can be calculated in the near
future using more advanced techniques to calculate the life of
the many other models using this process.
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