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Fatigue life recovery in aluminium alloy aircraft structure
Author(s) -
Sharp P. K.,
Liu Q.,
Barter S. A.,
Baburamani P.,
Clark G.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1460-2695
pISSN - 8756-758X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-2695.2002.00481.x
Subject(s) - airframe , shot peening , materials science , aluminium alloy , aluminium , process (computing) , laser peening , structural engineering , engineering , metallurgy , computer science , composite material , residual stress , operating system
This paper presents the results of several DSTO research programmes which investigated the effectiveness of the fatigue life enhancement method used on RAAF F/A‐18 aircraft – glass bead peening. The research identified ways in which process improvement could enhance this effectiveness, and developed a procedure for mid‐life reworking of critical airframe parts to effectively restore the original fatigue life. The procedure included removing a very thin layer of material (and with it, any undesirable manufacturing features and accumulated fatigue cracking) from the surface. Further life recovery can be achieved, if required, by applying an optimized peening procedure. This process has been developed to allow restoration of fatigue life to critical airframe components which are thought to be accumulating fatigue crack damage faster than desired.