Patent ID: 6931728

Claim:
A method of fabricating a test model of a dome for a gas turbine engine combustor, the method comprising the steps of: stamping a plurality of dome wall segments, each dome wall segment comprising an arcuate radially-inward edge, an arcuate radially-outward edge, at least one cup between the radially inward and outward edges, and an opening in the cup; stamping a plurality of arcuate-shaped first mounting band segments and a plurality of arcuate-shaped second mounting band segments; placing at least one of the dome wall segments and at least one of each of the first and second mounting band segments on a fixture to form a fixtured dome assembly, the fixture comprising means for locating the opening of the at least one dome wall segment relative to the fixture, means for locating each of the at least one first mounting band segment at the radially-inward edge of the at least one dome wall segment, means for locating each of the at least one second mounting band segment at the radially-outward edge of the at least one dome wall segment, and means for orienting the at least one dome wall segment to establish a dome angle of the fixtured dome assembly; and then joining the at least one dome wall segment and the at least one first and second mounting band segments while the fixtured dome assembly remains on the fixture to form at least a unitary sector of a dome test model.