Fatigue life assessment of fuselage panel modification based on flight measurement

Abstract

During the modification of the aircraft fuselage panel, the fatigue performance of the structure changes. To ensure the safety and reliability of commercial aircraft, the fatigue life assessment of the modified structure is required. In this paper, the detailed fatigue rating method was used for fatigue assessment. The strain information of the modified structure during the flight was obtained by installing fiber Bragg grating sensors. Through the finite element analysis, the fatigue critical parts were determined and the measured data before modification were converted into the data after modification. The detailed fatigue ratings of the fatigue critical parts were calculated. The fatigue life of the critical parts was evaluated based on the linear fatigue damage cumulative rule. According to the results, the most critical part was determined, which provides a basis for the determination of the modification plan of the fuselage panel.