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Modeling growth of fatigue cracks which originate at rivet holesWhen a structural component is subjected to repeated stress cycles, it can fail at stresses which are well below the tensile strength of the material. The processes leading to this failure are termed fatigue. Instances of fatigue failure in aircraft have become an increasing concern. The crack leading to failure often originate at rivet holes and then grow in response to stress cycles which occur during the operation of the aircraft. A necessary step to preventing failures in todays fleet of aging aircraft is to increase the frequency and quality of inspections; steps were already taken in this direction. There is also a need for modeling of fatigue crack growth in the aircraft structures so that improvements in design can be established and predictions of the life of the components can be made. The purpose is to provide a method to accurately predict the growth of fatigue cracks and to use this method to make predictions about the life of aircraft structural components. The method relies on the formulation and numerical solution of a singular integral equation(s) for an arbitrarily shaped crack(s) which propagate in response to the applied loading. Of special interest to the aging aircraft studies are cracks which originate at circular holes (i.e., rivet holes), but other crack geometries can be treated equally as well.
Document ID
19900015744
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Mear, Mark E.
(Texas Univ. Austin, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
September 1, 1989
Publication Information
Publication: Old Dominion Univ., NASA/American Society for Engineering Ed
Subject Category
Structural Mechanics
Accession Number
90N25060
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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