Design/Life Prediction Tools for Aircraft Structural Components with Engineered Residual Stresses

Hill Engineering is committed to the development and application of engineered residual stress, which is the intentional use of residual stress treatments coupled with sound engineering analysis to improve the performance of metallic structure. Hill Engineering’s experience with recent aerospace programs has highlighted the need and opportunity to develop analytical engineering approaches (and tools) that can robustly and efficiently take advantage of the potential benefits of residual stress treatments. The goal of the present work is to perform a proof of concept demonstration of a design tool for fatigue assessment of surface treated airframe structural components. Key tasks include the prediction of residual stress and fatigue performance (durability and damage tolerance) in surface treated fatigue coupons, which represent the geometry of an important F-22 structural member. Experiments (residual stress measurements and fatigue tests) will be performed to validate the predictions. This proof of concept work will leverage existing Hill Engineering design tools and on-site experimental capabilities in residual stress measurement and fatigue testing.