Aircraft Fuselage Cracking and Simulation

The fatigue failure is predominate in the aircraft fuselage. The fuselage skin consists of the shell and stingers. Fatigue plays a significant role in the crack growth of the skin structures. The proper maintenance and scheduled test intervals may avoid sudden skin failure and crack path (CP). With exiting the cracks, the propagation rate increases dramatically. Therefore, shortening the regular inspection intervals is recommended. Nevertheless, the young machines may have also unexpected skin rupture. The cracks are emanating from the notches such as rivets and the holes under the cyclic loading. The stresses concentrated around these notches. The stress concentration provides the unique conditions for crack initiation. Therefore, the cracks tend to connect with each other. Hence, the number of cycles to failure is decreased dramatically. Although the last decades, the fracture toughness, design, and new alloying element are enhanced. According to the traditional fuselage failure, the crack inspections are recommended even after a few thousand cycles.