Abstract

Safety is one of the primary concerns in the aircraft industry today. Early Air crash investigators have proved that most of the aircraft accidents are due to the structural failure. The riveted splice joint in the fuselage structure is one of the critical locations in the aircraft. Aging aircraft may develop Multi Site Damage (MSD) that can reduce the structural integrity of the aircraft structure. Therefore, Multi Site Damage is one of the important aspects considered to ensure the safety of the aircraft structure.

The current study includes a panel which represents the fuselage splice joint. The fuselage splice joint is a location where it experiences the uniform stress field at many rivet locations. The probability of fatigue cracks initiation at many rivet locations simultaneously is more at splice joint region. Finite Element Analysis of a segment of fuselage is carried out. The stress analysis results from the global analysis are considered as benchmark values to carry out local analysis of the panel. A riveted panel is considered to obtain the stress distribution near the joint. Fatigue cracks will emanate from the rivet holes simultaneously as they experience identical stresses due to internal pressure. In service the cracks in the fuselage will grow due to pressurization load cycling.

From the panel stress analysis, the magnitude and distribution of stresses near the rivet holes are captured. These stress results will be input for the fatigue and fracture evaluation of the structure at the splice joint.

Keywords

aircraft, splice joint, fatigue, multi-site damage, fuselage, finite element analysis