Title: Life cycle assessment of an aircraft component: a case study

Authors: R. Veeramanikandan; S. Nithish; G. Sivaraj; S. Vinodh

Addresses: Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Erode 638401, India ' Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Erode 638401, India ' Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Erode 638401, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, India

Abstract: Increasing awareness on environmental protection is being noticed by aviation industries to develop aircraft with light weight and minimal environmental impact; for this purpose, environmental impact (EI) of aircraft to be determined. This article presents life cycle assessment (LCA) of turbine blade used in aircraft engine system. LCA can provide detailed information about chosen material or component from its manufacturing to disposal phase. Environmental impact (EI) of various entities is being analysed using LCA package. LCA has been mainly focused on the environmental impact of the life cycle phases of components. The assessment results showed that plating has highest impact followed by raw material. The conduct of the study enables the determination of environmental impacts over the life cycle of aircraft components.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; LCA; turbine blades; machining process; environmental impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2017.087835

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2017 Vol.27 No.4, pp.485 - 499

Received: 01 Aug 2015
Accepted: 01 Nov 2015
Published online: 06 Nov 2017 *

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