The failure of the forward wing spar terminal fitting in a Boeing B-17 highlights how intrusive inspection practices can influence the long-term fatigue behavior of mechanically fastened joints. This study investigates the possible contribution of inspection-induced wear, specifically repeated fastener removals required by successive mandatory inspections, to a fracture of the lower forward wing spar terminal fitting. Using classical load transfer methods, and a finite element model based on original production drawings, the effects of accumulated bolt hole clearance on load sharing and local stress concentration were evaluated. Results show that modest increases in hole diameter, consistent with decades of maintenance activity, can raise the local stress concentration factor (Kt), reducing average fatigue life by several orders of magnitude under representative cyclic stresses. Classical analytical predictions correlate well with finite element trends, demonstrating that simplified calculation methods provide sufficient fidelity for assessing inspection program effects. Comparison of these findings with inspection requirements indicates that repetitive fastener removal and associated wear occurred at the most structurally critical location. The study emphasizes the need to account for inspection-induced degradation in long-term maintenance planning and discusses possible approaches for mitigating cumulative wear in aging bolted assemblies.

Abstract Damage tolerance analysis provides the analytical basis for structural fatigue assessment and inspection planning in transport category aircraft and is required for certification under contemporary airworthiness regulations. In current practice, damage tolerance analysis commonly relies on generalized assumptions for initial flaw size and prescriptive inspection intervals without explicitly incorporating differences in nondestructive inspection detection capability. A baseline damage tolerance analysis was conducted on a simplified structural configuration selected to illustrate the underlying concepts without unnecessary analytical complexity, using established industry and regulatory assumptions. The analysis was repeated with the initial crack length defined by inspection capability. The results demonstrate that the assumed initial flaw size governs inspection initiation and is directly related to the maximum probable undetected flaw required by certification regulations, resulting in substantial shifts in inspection timing. A cumulative probability of detection formulation is introduced to evaluate inspection strategies in terms of total detection reliability, enabling alternative combinations of inspection method and frequency to achieve equivalent detection performance. This approach provides flexibility in inspection method selection and interval definition and may enable the use of lower-cost or more readily deployable inspection techniques while maintaining the required level of structural reliability. The proposed framework establishes a direct linkage between crack growth prediction and inspection capability, improving analytical consistency while preserving regulatory intent.

The tensile and low-cycle fatigue (LCF) properties of Ti6Al4V specimens, manufactured using the selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing (AM) process and subsequently heat-treated in argon, were investigated at elevated temperatures. Specifically, fully reversed strain-controlled tests were performed at 400°C to determine the strain-life response of the material over a range of strain amplitudes of industrial interest. Fatigue test results from this work are compared to those found in the literature for both AM and wrought Ti6Al4V. The LCF response of the material tested here is in-family with the AM data found in the literature. Scanning electron microscopy performed on the fracture surfaces indicate a marked increase in secondary cracking (crack branching) as a function of increased plastic deformation and demonstrating equivalent performance when compared to the wrought Ti6AL4V at RT (room temperature) at 1.4% strain amplitude and better performance when compared to the HIP-AM Ti6Al4V at RT.

Expeditionary Airfield (EAF) surfacing systems are designed to create temporary aircraft operating surfaces. Modeling the service life of EAF surfacing systems including the matting system, aircraft, and subgrade, has historically proven difficult, exacerbated by variability between systems and the multitude of mechanisms that can constitute failure. The study presented herein outlines the development and implementation of a performance modeling approach that includes a multi-scale scheme that accounts for local characteristics of the connection points of the EAF matting system, coupled to the global characteristics of the matting array to predict cyclic passes to failure. Finite element studies were conducted for an EAF surfacing system brickwork configuration subjected to aircraft strut loads over varying California Bearing Ratio (CBR) subgrades to calibrate a transfer function to full-scale trafficking experiments. The proposed framework is then used to predict the rate of subgrade deformation for additional lay patterns, which successfully ranked the performance of each relative to full-scale trafficking experiments. An approach is proposed to couple the rate of subgrade deformation with local finite element models to capture increasing joint damage as permanent deformation accumulates, and supplemented by a variable amplitude cycle counting and damage accumulation algorithm that yields reasonable agreement with full-scale experiments while capturing the transition in failure mechanisms at higher CBR values. The results of the study presented herein captures the propensity for end connector and subgrade failure over a range of subgrade CBRs and shows promise for a broader performance framework that can be extended to other EAF surfacing systems, aircraft types, and specific matting lay patterns.

In this work, Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFSD) was employed for ballistic repair of AA7075-T6511 plates. After penetration with 7.62 × 51 mm FMJ rounds, the AA7075-T6511 plates were repaired by AFSD using the same AA7075-T6511 feedstock material. The repaired plates were impacted and penetrated with the same 7.62 × 51 mm FMJ rounds, and the surface damage characteristics including the initial and residual velocities were compared against the control wrought plates. The AFSD process successfully repaired the damaged control plates with the same alloy, without any observable defects such as large cracks or pores prior to impact tests. Although the surface appeared pristine other than milling marks, the surface damage characteristics of the repaired plates were significantly different than the control plates. The increase of spalling and petalling with the repaired material can be attributed to the thermomechanical processing of AFSD, which would alter the control T6511 temper of the feedstock due to coarsening of strengthening precipitates. A cross-sectioned repaired plate was analyzed using microhardness plots and optical microscopy to illustrate the effectiveness of the AFSD process for ballistic repair by depositing the same material into the damaged area. Despite the surface damage discrepancy, the repaired plates performed similarly to the control plates with respect to initial and residual velocities. Graphical Abstract

Expeditionary airfield matting systems are lightweight, portable surfaces that enable the rapid deployment of infrastructure to support aircraft operations. Individual matting components are assembled via interlocking joints to construct arrays that serve as temporary aircraft operating surfaces. The paper outlines the homogenization of the AM2 portable airfield matting system and its interlocking mechanisms to permit computationally efficient analyses toward understanding mechanisms that influence the global behavior of these arrays and underlying subgrade during aircraft maneuvers. An equivalent orthotropic two-dimensional continuum was developed from finite element analysis of a detailed three-dimensional model and its flexural behavior was validated against experimental data and solid finite element models. Interlocking joints were characterized using node-to-node connector elements based on subscale finite element studies. Both components were implemented into a full-scale model representative of a typical test section, and responses to static high tire pressure aircraft loads were analyzed over a soil foundation representing a California bearing ratio of 6%, yielding promising agreement with experimental data. Results of this study reveal an inherent coupling between load transfer, mat deflection, and near-surface subgrade stress with dependence on tire location, mat core shear flexibility, and joint stiffness.

This work presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the effects of pre-existing core damage on aluminum honeycomb core composite sandwich structures. Quasi static flexural and compression experiments were performed, where the effects of core damage on the shear modulus and Young's modulus were quantified. In addition, finite element analysis was performed on the sandwich structures to elucidate the effects of the core damage on the structural response. Comparisons of experimental and finite element responses are presented for sandwich structures consisting of carbon fiber facesheets and an aluminum honeycomb core. The pre-existing core damage is observed to cause up to an 8% reduction in shear modulus and a 9% reduction in elastic modulus. It is also determined that the presence of pre-existing core damage results in an asymmetrical compressive load distribution in the composite structures.

A real-time multiaxial thermo-mechanical damage evaluation method was proposed under variable amplitude loading. In order to achieve real-time damage evaluation, a real-time multiaxial cycle counting method that can take into account temperature loading history was proposed. The proposed multiaxial cycle counting method can obtain the reversals one by one in order with the reading of the load-time history data, which can realize the damage calculation immediately as a single reversal is counted out. At the same time, to consider the effect of temperature loading on the damage accumulation, an equivalent temperature was determined for the time period of the counted reversal. A fatigue-oxidation-creep damage model that can consider the influence of the non-proportional additional hardening on the fatigue, oxidation and creep damages was used to predict the lives in cases of isothermal axial-torsional fatigue, uniaxial thermo-mechanical fatigue and axial-torsional thermo-mechanical fatigue under constant and variable amplitude loadings. The results showed that the prediction errors were within a factor of 2.

Different phenomenological, empirical, and micromechanical constitutive models have been proposed to describe the behavior of incompressible isotropic hyper-elastic materials. Among these models, very few have accounted for the thermal aging effect on the model constants and parameters. This article introduces a new empirical constitutive hyper-elastic model for thermally aged hyper-elastic materials. The model named “the weight function based (WFB) model” considers the effect of aging temperature and time on its parameters. The WFB model formulation can facilitate fatigue analysis and lifetime prediction of rubber-like materials under aging conditions. The WFB model in this article defines all rubber-like material properties, such as fracture stretch, strength, and stiffness, by predicting the full stress–strain curve at any aging time and temperature. The WFB model was tested on natural rubber for uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions. More than 100 specimens were aged and tested uniaxially under various temperatures and aging times to extract the stress–strain behavior. The temperatures used in the test ranged from 76.7°C to 115.5°C, and the aging time ranged from 0 to 600 hours (hrs). A classical bulge test experiment was generated to extract the biaxial natural rubber material behavior. An ABAQUS finite element analysis model was created to simulate and verify the generated biaxial stress–strain curve. The proposed model represents the aging effect on the tested natural rubber under uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions with an acceptable error margin of less than 10% compared to experimental data.

The pipe support and restraint design by analysis buckling criteria for linear and plate-and-shell-type (P&S) supports given within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, Division 1, Subsection NF is investigated to determine if it should be refined to include a basis upon instability criterion. If a Class 1 support is considered linear-type or plate-and-shell-type (P&S), the allowable buckling load is limited to two-thirds or one-half of the calculated critical buckling load, respectively. Five types of analyses are performed to demonstrate finite element and closed form solutions including linear Euler method, nonlinear second order large deformation method, nonlinear large deformation method with nonlinear elastic-plastic material, energy method, and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The techniques are compared with explanations of the considerations taken and their impact on the final solution. The structural components chosen to conduct the buckling analyses are rigid struts which are an integral part of commercial nuclear power plants.

Wearable strain sensors are essential for the realization of applications in the broad fields of remote healthcare monitoring, soft robots, and immersive gaming, among many others. These flexible sensors should be comfortably adhered to the skin and capable of monitoring human motions with high accuracy, as well as exhibiting excellent durability. However, it is challenging to develop electronic materials that possess the properties of skin-compliant, elastic, stretchable, and self-healable. This work demonstrates a new regenerative polymer complex composed of poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid), polyaniline, and phytic acid as a skin-like electronic material. It exhibits ultrahigh stretchability (1935%), repeatable autonomous self-healing ability (repeating healing efficiency >98%), quadratic response to strain ( R2 > 0.9998), and linear response to flexion bending ( R2 > 0.9994), outperforming current reported wearable strain sensors. The deprotonated polyelectrolyte, multivalent anion, and doped conductive polymer, under ambient conditions, synergistically construct a regenerative dynamic network of polymer complex cross-linked by hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions, which enables ultrahigh stretchability and repeatable self-healing. Sensitive strain-responsive geometric and piezoresistive mechanisms of the material owing to the homogeneous and viscoelastic nature provide excellent linear responses to omnidirectional tensile strain and bending deformations. Furthermore, this material is scalable and simple to process in an environmentally friendly manner, paving the way for the next-generation flexible electronics.

A prediction method for the remaining life of a V-notched beam using measured modal frequencies is proposed in this article. The main purpose is to provide a new monitoring method of crack growth for a cantilever beam. At first, the fatigue crack growth characteristic and the change law of modal frequencies of a V-notched cantilever beam under cyclic loading were studied by experiments. Subsequently, the relation of modal frequencies and crack growth were analyzed. Thereafter, the decrease ratio of the first modal frequency was employed to reflect the crack damage so as to set up the relation of the modal frequency and the crack damage, and the evolution model between the crack damage and the cyclic loading numbers were set up. A prediction method for crack growth life was proposed for a cantilever beam based on the decrease ratio of the first modal frequency in the end. The remaining life of a V-notched cantilever beam can be obtained using the proposed method with a given endured loading cycles and the corresponding measured modal frequency. Results indicate that the remaining fatigue life of the V-notched cantilever beam is related to the decrease ratio of the modal frequency, and the predicted remaining life is in good agreement with the measured remaining life as the crack depth extends to a certain value.

The effects of breathing behaviour on the dynamic response and crack growth are studied through a cracked cantilever beam. The main goal is to reveal the coupling mechanism of dynamic response and crack growth by employing a plain single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) lumped system with the breathing crack stiffness and friction damping. The friction damping loss factor is derived by using Coulomb friction model and energy principle. Natural frequency, dynamic stress, dynamic stress intensity factor (DSIF), and crack growth are analyzed by case studies in the end. Results indicate that not only does the stiffness oscillates during crack growth corresponding to the physically open and closed states of the crack, but also stiffness and friction damping oscillate nonlinearly with crack growth. This behaviour induces not only nonlinear dynamic response but also nonlinear crack growth. It provides an approximate description of the nonlinearities introduced by the presence of a breathing crack. Therefore, it can be employed to improve the prediction precision of the crack identification and crack growth life of a cracked cantilever beam.

The role of the process deformation history on the mechanical performance of self-pierce riveted (SPR) joints is examined in detail. The SPR process was simulated using a non-linear finite element model coupled with a damage criterion sensitive to the stress state. Results of the FE simulation compared closely to cross-sectional images of experimental SPR joints. The FE simulation results suggest that the strain hardening due to the piercing process is the main mechanism for joint strength under quasi-static condition. Aspects of fatigue damage were modeled including crack initiation, propagation, fretting and number of cycle to failure, and compared to experimental results. Results from the study indicate that residual stresses and plastic strain may alter the crack initiation location and crack propagation plane, leading to more accurate results when included in finite element analysis of SPR joints. Including these residual stresses and plastic strains also changed the predicted fretting locations leading to better agreement with experimental results. Lastly, linear elastic fracture mechanics were performed to estimate fatigue lives based on initial crack location and angle of crack plane. The estimation of the number of cycles to failure that included residual stresses and plastic strains resulted in a better correlation to experimental data when compared to the calculations that excluded residual stresses and plastic strains.

Understanding the degradation of material properties and stress–strain behavior of rubberlike materials that have been exposed to elevated temperature is essential for rubber components design and life time prediction. The complexity of the relationship between hyperelastic materials, crosslinking density (CLD), and chemical composition presents a difficult problem for the accurate prediction of mechanical properties under thermal aging. In this paper, a new and relatively simple mathematical formulation is presented to expresses the change in material properties of hyperelastic materials under thermal aging. The proposed formulation has been applied to a natural rubber (NR). Testing was performed on more than 130 specimens that were thermally aged then subjected uniaxial tension and hardness tests. The aging temperatures ranged from 76.7 °C to 115.5 °C, and the aging times ranged from 0 to 600 h. Based on the recorded experimental data, the NR mechanical properties under thermal aging showed a similar behavior to the rate of change of the CLD with aging time and temperature. Three mechanical properties have been chosen to be studied in this paper: the ultimate tensile strength, the fracture stretch value, and the secant modulus at 11.0% strain. The proposed mathematical formulation is a phenomenological equation that relates the material properties with the change in CLD based on a form of Arrhenius equation. The proposed equation showed promising results compared to the experimental data with an acceptable error margin of less than 10% in most of the cases studied.

A study examining the fatigue failure mechanism of self-piercing riveted (SPR) joints between aluminum alloy 6111-T4 and 5754-O is presented in this paper. In particular, the high-cycle fatigue behavior of the SPR joints in the lap-shear configuration is characterized. Experimental fatigue testing revealed that failure of SPR joints occurred because of cracks propagating through the sheet thickness at locations away from the rivet. In-depth postmortem analysis showed that significant fretting wear occurred at the location of the fatigue crack initiation. Energy dispersive X-ray of the fretting debris revealed the presence of aluminum oxide that is consistent with fretting initiated fatigue damage. High-fidelity finite element analysis of the SPR process revealed high surface contact pressure at the location of fretting-initiated fatigue determined by postmortem analysis of failed coupons. Furthermore, fatigue modeling predictions of the number of cycles to failure based on linear elastic fracture mechanics supports the conclusion that fretting-initiated fatigue occurred at regions of high surface contact pressure and not at locations of nominal high-stress concentration at the rivet.

Numerous hyper-elastic theoretical material models have been proposed over the past 60 years to capture the stress-strain behavior of large deformation incompressible isotropic materials. Among them, however, only few models have considered the thermal aging effect on model parameters. Having a simple, closed-form equation that includes the effect of aging temperature and time in describing the stress-strain behavior could facilitate fatigue analysis and life time prediction of rubber-like materials. In this vein, this paper defines a new and simple Weight Function Based (WFB) model that describes hyper-elastic materials’ behavior as a function of aging time and temperature variations. More than 130 natural rubber specimens were thermally aged in an oven and tested under uni-axial loading to observe their stress-strain behavior at various temperatures and aging times. The temperature ranged from 76.7 °C to 115.5 °C, and the aging time from zero to 600 hours. The proposed WFB model is based on the Yeoh model and basic continuum mechanics assumptions, and it was applied to the tested natural rubber materials. Moreover, it was verified against Treloar’s historic tensile test data for uni-axial tension of vulcanized natural rubber material, and also compared to the Ogden and the Yeoh models. A non-linear least square optimization tool in Matlab was used to determine all hyper-elastic material model parameters and all other fitting purposes. The proposed model has better accuracy in fitting Treloar’s data compared to the Ogden and the Yeoh models using the same fitting tool under the same initial numerical conditions.

In this work, the complex relationship between deformation history and residual stresses in a magnesium-to-aluminum self-pierce riveted (SPR) joint is elucidated using numerical and experimental approaches. Non-linear finite element (FE) simulations incorporating strain rate and temperature effects were performed to model the deformation in the SPR process. In order to accurately capture the deformation, a stress triaxiality-based damage material model was employed to capture the sheet piercing from the rivet. Strong visual comparison between the physical cross-section of the SPR joint and the simulation was achieved. To aid in understanding of the role of deformation in the riveting process and to validate the modeling approach, several experimental measurements were conducted. To quantify the plastic deformation from the piercing of the rivet, micro hardness mapping was performed on a cross-section of the SPR joint. The FE model showed very strong correlation to the experimental hardness mapping results suggesting the nonlinear model captured the plastic deformation with high accuracy. To measure the elastic residual stresses in the SPR joint, neutron and x-ray diffraction mapping techniques were conducted and in general, the FE model correlated well to the trends and magnitudes of the elastic stresses. While some error occurred in between the model and the neutron and x-ray diffraction results, the numerical approach developed in this study shows potential as a tool for understanding SPR behavior as well as optimizing the process parameters.

The nonlinear vibrational response of a breathing cracked beam was investigated. The study was done by using a new crack stiffness model to examine some of the nonlinear behaviors of a cantilever beam with a breathing crack. The quadratic polynomial stiffness equation of the cracked beam was derived based on the hypothesis that the breathing process of a crack depends on the vibration magnitude. The Galerkin method combined with the stiffness equation was used to simplify the cracked beam into a Single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) lumped system with nonlinear terms. The multi scale method was adopted to analyze the nonlinear amplitude frequency response of the beam. The applicability of the stiffness model was discussed and parameter sensitivity studies on the dynamic response were carried out by the SDOF model for a cantilever beam. Results indicate that the new stiffness model provides an efficient tool to study the vibrational nonlinearities introuduced by the breathing crack. Therefore, it might be used to develop a nonlinear identification method of a crack in a beam.

This paper is concerned with defining a new Weight Function Based model (WFB), which describes the hyper-elastic materials stress-strain behavior. Numerous hyper-elastic theoretical material models have been proposed over the past 60 years capturing the stress-strain behavior of large deformation incompressible isotropic materials. The newly proposed method has been verified against the historic Treloar's test data for uni-axial, bi-axial and pure shear loadings of Treloar's vulcanized rubber material, showing a promising level of confidence compared to the Ogden and the Yeoh methods. A non-linear least square optimization Matlab tool was used to determine the WFB, Yeoh and Ogden models material parameters. A comparison between the results of the three models was performed showing that the newly proposed model is more accurate for uni-axial tension as it has an error value which is less than the Ogden and Yeoh models by 1.0 to 39%. Also, the parameters calculation by more than 95%, for the bi-axial and pure shear loading cases compared to the Ogden model. Natural rubber test specimens have been tensioned using a tensile testing machine and the WFB model was applied to fit the test data results showing a very good curve fitting with an average error of 0.44%. WFB model has reduced processing time for the model