Effectiveness of Fatigue Life Enhancing Fasteners in the Design and Rework of Aircraft Structures

Abstract

Fatigue life data were obtained for four different types of fatigue life enhancing (FLE) fasteners installed in new uncracked holes and in reworked, pre-cracked holes. The first condition represented a new design where the FLE fasteners are installed during production. The second condition represented a structural rework in which fastener holes are reamed to a larger size to remove fatigue or fretting damage but might still contain a small undetected crack. Results showed that the FLE fasteners produced approximately the same overall fatigue life in the new design and the rework condition and provided a significant increase in life compared to conventional non-FLE fasteners. Tests were performed with 7075-T6 aluminum alloy under spectrum loading typical of a Navy fighter/attack type of aircraft. For the rework condition, the pre-crack size was limited to .03 inch (.76mm). Flush head fasteners were used in all tests. Keywords: Crack-growth; Fasteners; Structural rework; Joints.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 28, 1985
Accession Number
ADA159676

Entities

People

  • P. A. Kozel

Organizations

  • Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Aluminum
  • Aluminum Alloys
  • Classification
  • Cold Working
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Engineering
  • Fasteners
  • Fatigue Life
  • Fatigue Tests (Mechanics)
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Mechanics
  • Security
  • Standards

Readers

  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.