Crack growth in cylindrical aluminum shells with inner reinforcing foam layer

Abstract

The occurrence of cracks in aging aircraft fuselage is major problem in the airline industry. The remaining life of the aircraft is strongly dependent on the residual strength of its structure. Residual strength is affected by crack sizes and their growth rates. In the case of a longitudinal crack in a pressurized cylinder (as in the case of an aircraft fuselage), the geometry and loading conditions cause the edges of the crack to bulge out generating a complex stress field around the crack tips; this is known as the 'bulging effect'. The geometry of the shell, crack size and pressure contribute to this phenomenon. A proposed solution to reduce the effect of bulging for this type of crack is to apply a layer of polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam to the inner side of the fuselage near the crack site. This layer will bond to the shell and has the effect of reducing the bulge and consequently, the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) at the crack tips. PIR foam is a lightweight material that adheres well to the shell and provides additional stiffness around the crack area. In the present study the effect of applying a PIR foam layer to a longitudinal T. crack in a pressurized cylindrical shell is assessed. Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used in conjunction with the Modified Crack Closure Integral technique (MCCI) in order to evaluate the effect of bulging on the crack's SIF. Parameters considered in this study include shell radius, shell thickness, crack length, foam thickness and pressure. Numerical results are compared with existing experimental data and the effect of foam thickness for several shell configurations is presented. Results indicate that the bulge factor (BF) could be reduced by as much as 45% depending on shell configuration, foam thickness and pressure.

Bulging factor of a longitudinal crack in pressurized cylindrical shell with a reinforcing layer

“…Experimental studies were conducted by Bakuckas et al [4] and Lazghab et al [5] showed that this solution could increase fatigue life by 161%. A numerical study conducted by Lazghab et al [6] showed that the bulging factor could be reduced by as much as 45%. The bulging factor is a parameter defined as the ratio of the stress intensity factor (SIF) of a through crack in curved shell to the stress intensity factor of the same crack in a flat plate of the same thickness as the shell as given in Eq.…”

“…It has been treated extensively in the literature, a few representative works are [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Generally the stress conditions near the crack tip in a curved shell are more severe than its counterpart in a flat plate.…”

“…Thus, providing a direct method to evaluate the bulging factor instead of obtaining it from FEA analysis as in [6]. The expression is developed using data from a parametric finite element model that has been validated from previously obtained experimental results [5,9].…”

Calcul Des Structures Fissurees Bases Sur La Technique Des Fonctions De Niveaux Et La Methode Des Elements Finis Etendus

“…Actuellement, la plupart des approches numériques utilisées pour caractériser les tolérances à l'endommagement sont basées sur la méthode des éléments finis classique FEM [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. La méthode des éléments finis étendus XFEM couplée à la méthode des surfaces de niveau LSM permet de concevoir des maillages indépendants de la géométrie de la fissure sans recours aux stratégies de maillage et de remaillage [16] et [17] donc une réduction considérable du délai de maillage, étape souvent couteuse et sans valeur ajoutée.…”