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Old 21st Feb 2021, 00:40
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tdracer
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
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No, it's a function of the engine. The GE90 was the worst - not coincidentally it also has the largest diameter fan (~120 inches, vs. ~112 for the PW4084 - the GE90-115B is ~122 inches).

It was the FBO test of the GE90 that was the real eye-opener. The blade debris was completely retained, but the vibration was so great that the inlet fell off, with several bits of the engine accessories. FBO is always tricky due to the uncertainties. It's a hugely expensive test to run (basically destroying a highly instrumented engine in the process), so they only want to run it once (assuming it passes) - so you have the statistical uncertainty of a single data point. It's also run statically, so you don't get the effect of the forward speed aero loads (which must be estimated). As Lomo noted, on the 737NG events, the fan blade debris moved forward beyond the containment ring and got into the inlet - I don't think we've ever seen that during a FBO static test so there are apparently other dynamics at play due to forward speed of the aircraft.
Lomapaseo, IIRC correctly the reverser cascades are carbon composite for all the 777 engine installations - so I presume hydraulic fluid (from the T/R actuators) started burning, which then ignited the resin in the carbon composite cascades.
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