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Progress in experimental stress analysis for Airbus aircraft design
Author(s) -
O'Brien E.W.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
strain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.477
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1475-1305
pISSN - 0039-2103
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-1305.1995.tb00976.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , engineering , reliability (semiconductor) , automation , stress (linguistics) , systems engineering , design methods , design cycle , reliability engineering , manufacturing engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , paleontology , power (physics) , linguistics , physics , philosophy , quantum mechanics , biology
Advanced experimental stress analysis techniques have been increasingly used on large aircraft structures to provide stress data for both design and numerical analyses validation. In the past these techniques tended to be limited to the structural test phase which is subsequent to the design and manufacture stage. Experimental stress techniques have had to become more sophisticated and utilised much earlier in the programme in order to meet the ever increasing demands for competitive, aircraft design, performance and reliability. Currently the techniques have applications from the earliest design stage through to final in‐service support engineering. Photoelastic stress analysis was one of the earliest and most powerful experimental design tools in use at Filton, however, the range of techniques is continually being extended to meet the technological demands of new designs. This has involved keeping abreast of a wide array of sciences to identify and develop new physical procedures for stress related experimental analysis. Progress is reviewed in this paper as well as the vision for the future within the context of Airbus aircraft design. The economic and technical pressures to move towards more automation and image processing are discussed including the requirement to provide data that is more user friendly to conventionally trained design and stress engineers.