Innovative Approaches for the Flaw-Tolerant Design and Certification of Airframe Components

The computational framework designed to meet the technical requirements of Simulation Governance with the goal of enabling reliable predictions of damage accumulation caused by cyclic loading in metallic airframe components that have small initial flaws, will be validated at the component level. The predictive performance of the model to determine the remaining fatigue life of mechanical components that have barely visible or clearly visible surface flaws has been validated and documented at the coupon level and with a single test at the component level. Additional life predictions at the component level will be performed using validation experiments of CH-53K flaw-seeded dynamic component test data provided by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Additionally, the work under this project will provide statistical analysis using the available experimental data from flaw-seeded specimens of aluminum 7075-T73 forgings and Ti-6Al-4V beta STOA for improving the predictive performance of the model and to provide probabilistic estimates of predictions of fatigue life. Finally, the proposed project will include an experimental program to validate the predictor of fatigue failure for specimens of aluminum 7075-T73 forgings with corrosion pits and gouges under multiaxial loading in the high cycle range.