| Summary: | Fretting fatigue is the phenomenon of combined contact and fatigue loads which may accelerate crack initiation and reduce the operational life of components. One of the most relevant problems of fretting fatigue occurs in the blade to disc assemblies, particularly those in the hot stages of gas turbines. The 'fir-tree' blade to disc assemblies in gas turbines operate at extreme conditions of loading and temperature, and the presence of multiple frictional contact points, often interacting with other stress concentrators, makes it an extremely challenging problems in solid mechanics. This thesis focus on two aspects of the problem found in 'fir-tree' assemblies: i) what is the impact of using single-crystal blades on the contact tractions and fretting fatigue behaviour; and ii) what is the effect of edge rounding on the contact tractions between the blade and disc?
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