On damage tolerance design of fuselage structure—circumferential cracks

Abstract

The aircraft structure is the most obvious example where functional requirements demand light weight and, therefore, high operating stresses. An efficient structural component must have three primary attributes; namely, the ability to perform its intended function, adequate service life, and the capability of being produced at reasonable cost. To ensure the safety of aircraft structures, the Air Force requires damage tolerance analysis. This paper focuses its attention on designing a fail-safe fuselage structure considering circumferential cracks under stresses from vertical bending of the fuselage. The analysis of these types of cracks is complex, first due to the complex structural configuration (i.e. frames, skin longeron and crack stopper straps) and secondly due to the influence of the curvature of the shell. Various analytical and empirical approaches have been used to study the damage tolerance capability of the fuselage structure. Due to lack of a comprehensive model to calculate the stress intensity factors for the complex structure, experiments usually have been performed to measure the crack growth rates and to demonstrate the residual strength of fuselage-type of structural components containing circumferential and longitudinal cracks. In this paper various analytical and empirical approaches used in evaluating the damage tolerance capability of the fuselage structure are critically evaluated and compared. A model which accounts for the influence of frames, straps and curvature is developed. This model is then used in an example problem having typical military cargo aircraft fuselage structural elements. The Air Force damage tolerance requirements are discussed in detail.