The characterization of widespread fatigue damage in fuselage structure

The characteristics of widespread fatigue damage (WSFD) in fuselage riveted structure were established by detailed nondestructive and destructive examinations of fatigue damage contained in a full size fuselage test article. The objectives of this were to establish an experimental data base for validating emerging WSFD analytical prediction methodology and to identify first order effects that contribute to fatigue crack initiation and growth. Detailed examinations were performed on a test panel containing four bays of a riveted lap splice joint. The panel was removed from a full scale fuselage test article after receiving 60,000 full pressurization cycles. The results of in situ examinations document the progression of fuselage skin fatigue crack growth through crack linkup. Detailed tear down examinations and fractography of the lap splice joint region revealed fatigue crack initiation sites, crack morphology, and crack linkup geometry. From this large data base, distributions of crack size and locations are presented and discussions of operative damage mechanisms are offered.