Block-by-block approaches for spectrum fatigue crack growth prediction

Two block-by-block approaches for improving spectrum fatigue crack growth prediction were proposed and developed in this paper from the observations and analyses of fatigue crack growth behaviours in either representative specimens or real aircraft structures under flight spectrum loading by using the quantitative fractography method. The first approach is the flight-by-flight approach that can be used to predict crack growth history curves for a tested spectrum crack growth data at different stress level for a critical location. The second approach called the effective block approach can be used to predict crack growth histories for un-tested spectra based on some previously tested spectrum crack growth data. In order to demonstrate the robustness of the block-by-block approaches for aircraft damage tolerance analysis, verification and consistency studies were conducted and presented using fatigue test results for different aircraft structures under several flight spectra. It was found that the block-by-block approaches are able to provide significant advantages over conventional fatigue lifing approaches for aircraft damage tolerance analysis.