Review and Assessment of Current Airframe Lifing Methodologies and Tools in Air Vehicles Division

摘要

The Air Vehicles Division of Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) owns and/or uses a large number of software tools for crack- initiation and crack-growth analyses of aircraft structures. These tools represent a substantial body of knowledge of fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures that has been created and accumulated over the years. This report presents a review and assessment of the methods underpinning the more commonly-used software tools and approaches in Air Vehicles Division. The key points of the principle of each method are discussed, and different implementation considerations are highlighted, to demonstrate the similarity and difference between the models. A start is made on the compilation of a compendium of benchmark problems and challenging problems in order to assist the evaluation and consistent validation of existing and newly- developed tools. The objectives of the review are to help to increase the responsiveness and robustness of the advice DSTO provides to its clients by identifying the strengths and limitations of the commonly-used methods and tools; identifying and recommending software platforms for future improvement, and horizon-scanning the field of fatigue and fracture for new and emerging methodologies for aircraft structural life prediction. It is expected that the recommendations presented in this review will be addressed in follow-on work.