Development of CGAP for Fatigue Damage and Crack Growth Analysis: Verification, Validation and Examples of Application

Abstract

A computer program for fatigue life and crack growth analysis, entitled CGAP, has been developed at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in support of the aircraft structural life assessment programs of the Australian Defence Force. The key objectives in developing this software platform were to provide a flexible, robust, economical, adaptable, and well verified and validated fatigue analysis tool. CGAP provides advanced capabilities for crack growth analyses, including crack growth in notch-affected plastic zones, and for probabilistic crack growth analyses. It also provides seamless interface to third-party models, such as FASTRAN and FAMS, enabling easy benchmarking against and collaborating with international partners. This paper summarises some of the recent developments in analytical and numerical fatigue damage and crack growth modelling, with emphasis on software verification and validation. Examples will be presented to illustrate its application.