scholarly journals Crack Growth Prediction on Critical Component for Structure Life Extension of Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKM

Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1453
Author(s):  
Arvinthan Venugopal ◽  
Roslina Mohammad ◽  
Md Fuad Shah Koslan ◽  
Ashaari Shafie ◽  
Alizarin bin Ali ◽  
...  

The critical aircraft structure, being the load-bearing members, is a vital component for any aircraft. The effect of fatigue loading, operating conditions, and environmental degradation has caused the structural integrity of the airframe to be assessed for its airworthiness requirement. Using the fatigue design concept of Safe Life, the RMAF adopts the Aircraft Structure Integrity Program (ASIP) to monitor the structural integrity of its critical components. RMAF has produced the task card using the engineering analysis concept on the aircraft’s critical structure. Various Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) methods were used, and for this analysis, the Crack Growth Prediction method was used to determine the crack growth behavior and its ultimate failure point in case of any crack occurrences. Although there are six critical locations, the wing root is chosen since it has the highest possibility of fatigue failure. The analytical methods which were discussed are Crack Growth Analysis and Low Cycle Fatigue. For the numerical method, NX Nastran was used for the simulation of crack growth. The result from the crack growth analysis was validated with the numerical result. The conclusion is that, based on the fatigue life cycle, the wing root structure condition is not affected by severe damage, and its failure is approximately around 30 to 100 years for both the through hole and through side crack. Thus, its structural life can be extended. The research outcome will be on the extension of the structure life of the aircraft wing.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 5562
Author(s):  
Arvinthan Venugopal ◽  
Roslina Mohammad ◽  
Md Fuad Shah Koslan ◽  
Ashaari Shafie ◽  
Alizarin Ali ◽  
...  

The airframe structures of most fighter aircraft in the Royal Malaysian Airforce have been in service for 10 to 20 years. The effect of fatigue loading, operating conditions, and environmental degradation has led to the structural integrity of the airframe being assessed for its airworthiness. Various NDT methods were used to determine the current condition of the aircraft structure after operation of beyond 10 years, and their outcomes are summarized. In addition, although there are six critical locations, the wing root was chosen since it has the highest possibility of fatigue failure. It was further analyzed using simulation analysis for fatigue life. This contributes to the development of the maintenance task card and ultimately assists in extending the service life of the fighter aircraft. Using the concept of either safe life or damage tolerance as its fatigue design philosophy, the RMAF has adopted the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) to monitor the structural integrity of its fighter aircraft. With the current budget constraints and structural life extension requirements, the RMAF has embarked on the non-destructive testing method and engineering analysis. The research outcome will enhance the ASIP for other aircraft platforms in the RMAF fleet for its structure life assessment or service life extension program.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4380
Author(s):  
Alirio Andres Bautista Villamil ◽  
Juan Pablo Casas Rodriguez ◽  
Alicia Porras Holguin ◽  
Maribel Silva Barrera

The T-90 Calima is a low-wing monoplane aircraft. Its structure is mainly composed of different components of composite materials, which are mainly bonded by using adhesive joints of different thicknesses. The T-90 Calima is a trainer aircraft; thus, adverse operating conditions such as hard landings, which cause impact loads, may affect the structural integrity of aircrafts. As a result, in this study, the mode I crack propagation rate of a typical adhesive joint of the aircraft is estimated under impact and constant amplitude fatigue loading. To this end, effects of adhesive thickness on the mechanical performance of the joint under quasistatic loading conditions, impact and constant amplitude fatigue in double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens are experimentally investigated. Cyclic impact is induced using a drop-weight impact testing machine to obtain the crack propagation rate (da/dN) as a function of the maximum strain energy release rate (GImax) diagram; likewise, this diagram is also obtained under constant amplitude fatigue, and both diagrams are compared to determine the effect of each type of loading on the structural integrity of the joint. Results reveal that the crack propagation rate under impact fatigue is three orders of magnitude greater than that under constant amplitude fatigue.


Author(s):  
Colum Holtam ◽  
Rajil Saraswat ◽  
Ramgopal Thodla ◽  
Feng Gui

Environmentally assisted sub-critical static crack growth can occur in offshore pipelines exposed to aggressive production environments. Recent advances in fracture mechanics testing methods have shown that slow static crack growth rates can be reliably measured in sweet and sour environments under constant stress intensity factor (K) conditions. This has potential implications for the engineering critical assessment (ECA) of pipe girth welds subject to low cycle fatigue loading with long periods of operation under constant static load between cycles, e.g. lateral buckling. This paper demonstrates the influence of including static (i.e. time dependent) crack growth as well as fatigue crack growth in a modified pipeline ECA approach.


Author(s):  
J. Hou ◽  
J. Dubke ◽  
K. Barlow ◽  
S. Slater ◽  
L. Harris ◽  
...  

Following a reanalysis of the original material data plus supplementary Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) specimen testing, an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) reduced the low cycle fatigue life limits for a number of turbine components. To ascertain the validity of the new life limits, an international collaborative spin rig test program was initiated to provide more accurate low cycle fatigue life limits. The program covered a broad range of activities including, Finite Element (FE) stress analyses, cyclic spin rig testing, fractographic assessment and fatigue crack growth (FCG) analyses. This paper describes the 2D and 3D crack growth analyses of critical turbine components in a turboprop gas turbine engine, comparison of predicted results obtained using different software and also correlations with spin test results from the program. First, FE stress analyses of selected turbine components were carried out under both engine operating conditions and spin-rig test configurations in order to determine the maximum and minimum operating speeds required to match the stress ranges at the critical location specified by the OEM under engine operating conditions. Second, 2D and 3D crack growth analyses were performed independently by three organisations for a disk bolthole using the state-of-the-art software. Third, the predictions from different software were compared, and the relative technical merits of each software were evaluated. Finally, the predicted results were correlated against the striation counts determined by the OEM from the results of spin rig tests.


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