The influence of starter notches on flight simulation fatigue crack growth

An investigation was made of the effect of starter notch geometry on flight simulation fatigue crack growth in three damage tolerant aluminium sheet alloys, 2024-T3, 2091-T84 and 8090-T81. Changing the starter notch geometry resulted in significant differences in initial nonstabilized fatigue crack growth behaviour. However, there was only a...

Flight simulation fatigue crack growth testing of aluminium alloys: Specific issues and guidelines

Flight simulation fatigue crack growth tests are necessary for verification of aircraft damage tolerance analyses and crack growth prediction methods, and also for comparing candidate materials for aircraft structural applications. However, such tests involve complicating issues that have emerged from many investigations on aluminium alloys...

Influence of gust spectrum variations on fatigue crack growth behaviour of damage tolerant aluminium-lithium sheet materials

Flight simulation fatigue growth tests were done on 1.6 mm thick sheets of the damage tolerant aluminium-lithium (Al-Li) alloys 2091-T84 and 8090-T81 in comparison with the industry standard conventional damage tolerant alloy 2024-T3. The flight simulation load spectrum, the gust spectrum MINITWIST, was used in four versions: untruncated,...

Patch repair of corroded aircraft skin areas

Environmental conditions in Europe are conducive to corrosion attack of aircraft structures. In military aircraft corrosion problems occur especially at countersunk fastener holes. The corrosion is generally removed by grinding. A limited amount of material removal is specified by the aircraft manufacturers, but it is sometimes necessary to...

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation in metal/carbon-epoxy laminates

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation tests with gust spectrum loading were carried out on laminates of (i) aluminium alloy 2024-T3/carbon-epoxy, (ii) aluminium alloy 7475-T761/carbon-epoxy and (iii) titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V/carbon-epoxy with nominal weight savings of 30% and 40% as compared to equivalent 2024-T3 Alclad and 7475-T761...

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation in single and double element lugs

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation tests on single and double element lugs made from 2024-T351 and TOT5-TT351 aluminium alloys and Ti-6AJ.-UV titanium alloy were carried out. Initial damage was a throughthickness notch at one side of each hole in one element. Results showed that crack propagation lives for double element lugs were much...

Manoeuvre spectrum fatigue crack propagation in aluminium alloy sheet materials

2024-T3, 2048-T851, 7075-T6 and 7475-T761 aluminium alloy sheets were compared for fatigue crack propagation resistance under manoeuvre spectrum and constant amplitude loading. For manoeuvre spectrum loading 7475-T761 was superior overall, and this superiority is most probably due to superior toughness of this alloy. In more detail, 2024-T3 was...

The effect of sheet thickness on flight simulation fatigue crack propagation in 2024-T3, 7475-T761 and mill annealed Ti-6A1-4V

Flight simulation fatigue crack propagation tests were carried out on 2024-T3, 7475-T761 and mill annealed Ti-6A1-4V sheet in thicknesses up to 3 nim and representative for traJisport aircraft lower wing skin stiffened panels of end load capacities 1.5 and 3 MN/m. There was a significant effect of sheet thickness on crack propagation. Thinner...

Effects of crack plane orientation transitions on flight simulation fatigue crack propagation in a high strength aluminium alloy (7050)

The effects of flat to slant fracture transitions on flight simulation fatigue crack propagation in specimens of 7O5O aluminium alloy forgings are discussed. For specimens containing flat, shearlipped, or full slant fractures at similar crack lengths the crack resistance (R curve) approach appears to provide an explanation for differences in the...