Explosion of a combustion chamber shell

This paper describes an investigation of the explosion of a combustion cham ber shell in an aeroengine, Metallographic analysis, mechanical calculation and fatigue life estimation have been performed to determine failure cause s and to make a proposal for preventive measure. The analytical results sho w that the poor quality of the roll welding seam is the fundamental cause o f failure added to which a crack in the seam had not been discovered during a second overhaul, The effective design improvement is argon are welding i nstead of roll welding in fabricating new shells. The effective preventive measures for old shells are to raise the strength of the seam by additional melt welding at overhaul, and to perform rigorous nondestruction inspectio n. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.