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MSE 5090: Case Studies in Material Selection

Week 3 - Material Selection Process

 Weighted Property Index Methods - Demonstration Problem

Gear Case in a Military Helicopter1
(a) List the key requirements of a material to be used to construct a gear case for the engine of a turboprop aircraft.
(b) For four candidate materials, tabulate the values of the relevant properties.

TABLE Q50.1  PROPERTIES OF FOUR CANDIDATE MATERIALS FOR THE GEAR CASE OF A TURBOPROP AIRCRAFT ENGINE

Material p
(kg m-3)
 E
 (GPa)
UTS
(MPa)
SS
(MPa)
Magnesium 1827 45   234 117
Short boron fiber
reinforced epoxy resina
2132  69 258 155
Continuous boron fiber
reinforced epoxy resina
2132  190 1241 69
Aluminum  2700 71 105   75
Material 
(10-6 ° C-1) 
E/p 
(106 m)
UTS/p
 (l03 m)
SS/p
(l03 m)
Magnesium 25.20 2.51 13.06  6.53
Short boron fiber
reinforced epoxy resina
3.20 3.30 12.33 7.41
Continuous boron fiber
reinforced epoxy resina
4.14 9.08 59.34 3.30
Aluminum 24.00 2.68  3.96   2.83
"Volume fraction of fibers = 0.33.

(a) The key requirements of a gear case material are as follows:
·  High ultimate tensile strength, UTS
·  Low density, p
·  High tensile modulus, E
·  High shear strength, SS
·  High specific stiffness (= EIp)
·  High specific tensile strength (= UTS/p)
·  High specific shear strength (= SSIp)
·  Good corrosion resistance
·  Suitability for easy machining and molding

(b) The values of the relevant properties of four candidate materials for this application are given in Table Q50.1.
 
 

REFERENCE:





1.Lewis , G. Selection of Engineering Materials, Prentice Hall , 1990, pp 394-395

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Last update 9-12-98