Variability of fatigue crack growth properties for 2024-T3 aluminium alloy

Discussions between D-BAA and the NLR have shown that significant variability in fatigue crack growth properties is possible for the industry standard damage tolerant aluminium alloy, 2024-T3 sheet. This is important for two reasons: (1) design assumptions and (2) comparisons of different candidate materials, such as 6013-T6, with 2024-T3....

Environmental fatigue crack propagation in metal/composite laminates

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation tests with gust spectrum loading were carried out on 2024-T3/carbon-epoxy, 7475-T76l/carbon-epoxy and Ti-6Al-4V/carbon-epoxy laminates with nominal weight savings of -30% as compared to equivalent 2024-T3 panels. The performance of the 2024-T3/carbon-epoxy laminates was much superior to those of the...

Engineering application of fracture mechanics to flight simulation fatigue crack propagation