The crack-growth model, FASTRAN, was used to calculate fatigue lives and crack growth in laboratory lapjoint specimens made of a thin-sheet clad aluminum alloy to establish appropriate crack configurations and equivalent initial flaw sizes (EIFS). These crack configurations and EIFS values were then used to calculate fatigue lives and crack growth in fuselage lap joints in a retired narrow-body passenger aircraft and for a curved panel cut from the retired aircraft and tested in a pressure-box facility. In the laboratory specimens, various loading and rivet conditions were considered, such as high loads or low loads, and standard, over-driven (tight) or under-driven (loose) rivets. For the narrow-body aircraft, observations on cracking from the destructive examination of the fuselage indicated that one side of the aircraft appeared to have tight (within specifications) rivets, whereas rivets on the other side of the aircraft appeared to be about one-half under-driven rivets. For the under-driven rivets, a corner crack at a fastener hole was assumed; whereas, for a tight-rivet condition, a surface crack coming from the faying surface was considered. Using the effective stress-intensity-factor-range-against-rate relation for the clad alloy, a corner crack at a fastener hole was used to calculate fatigue lives and crack growth in the narrow-body aircraft fuselage joints (under-driven rivet side) and a surface crack in a plate was used to calculate the fatigue life and crack growth in the curved test panel from the tight rivet side. Calculated fatigue lives and crack growth in the laboratory specimens agree well with the test data; and the calculated crack length against flight pressure cycles in the narrow-body aircraft fuselage was quite similar to the results found from fractographic examinations. But the predicted cycles on the curved test panel exceeded 150,000 cycles, whereas the test was terminated after about 100,000 cycles without any evidence of fastener-hole cracking.
Fatigue-crack-growth analyses of cracks in riveted lap joints of a narrow-body aircraft
Analyse des Ermüdungssisswachstums in genieteten Überlappungsverbindungen nahe am Flugzeugrumpf
2006
10 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 19 Quellen
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
Fatigue Analyses of Riveted Lap-Splice Joints in a Narrow-Body Aircraft
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011
|Fatigue Crack Growth in Riveted Joints
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997
|Fatigue Crack Growth Predictions in Riveted Joints
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999
|Fatigue crack location and fatigue life for riveted lap joints in aircraft fuselage
Tema Archive | 2014
|Predictions of Fatigue Crack Growth and Fatigue Life for Riveted Lap Joints
Springer Verlag | 2012
|