Fatigue Life Estimation of Aeronautical Joints Based on Stress Severity Factor

Abstract

The goal of the present work is to investigate the validity limits and safe application range of Stress Severity Factor methodology in estimating fatigue life of aircraft fuselage joints. Fatigue tests were conducted and recorded data from aluminum alloys joints was subjected to analytical evaluation. FE models were created to obtain fasteners load distribution and determine normal stress due to secondary bending. Severity Factor method conservatively estimated fatigue life of 74% for the analyzed joints. Its robustness was verified for lap joints fatigue life estimative, but for almost all single strap joints, secondary bending effect were significant. Thus for this kind of joints, a term accounting for bending stress was added to the original severity factor formulation to increase level of safety in fatigue life estimates.