The rotorcraft industry has rapidly implemented integral structures into aircraft to benefit from the weight and cost advantages over traditionally riveted structure. The cost to manufacture an integral structure, where the entire component is machined from a single plate of material, is about one-fifth that of a riveted structure. Furthermore, the integral structure can weigh only one-half that of a riveted structure through optimal design of stiffening structure and part reduction. Finally, inspection and repair of damage in the field can be less costly than riveted structure. There are no rivet heads to inspect under, reducing inspection time, and damage can be removed or patched readily without altering the primary structure, reducing replacement or repair costs. In this paper, the authors will investigate the damage tolerance implications of fielding an integral structure manufactured from thick plate aluminum.
Damage Tolerance of Integral Structure in Rotorcraft
Damage Tolerance of Integral Structure in Rotorcraft ; 2003 ; Corfu, Greece
2003-01-01
Preprint
No indication
English
A Novel Approach to Rotorcraft Damage Tolerance
NTRS | 2002
|Rotorcraft Damage Tolerance Evaluated by Computational Simulation
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2000
|Reliability-Based Damage Tolerance Methodology for Rotorcraft Structures
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004
|Reliability-Based Damage Tolerance Methodology for Rotorcraft Structures
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004
|