A comparison of fatigue life prediction methodologies for rotorcraft

Because of the current U.S. Army requirement that all new rotorcraft be designed to a 'six nines' reliability on fatigue life, this study was undertaken to assess the accuracy of the current safe life philosophy using the nominal stress Palmgrem-Miner linear cumulative damage rule to predict the fatigue life of rotorcraft dynamic components. It has been shown that this methodology can predict fatigue lives that differ from test lives by more than two orders of magnitude. A further objective of this work was to compare the accuracy of this methodology to another safe life method called the local strain approach as well as to a method which predicts fatigue life based solely on crack growth data. Spectrum fatigue tests were run on notched (k(sub t) = 3.2) specimens made of 4340 steel using the Felix/28 tests fairly well, being slightly on the unconservative side of the test data. The crack growth method, which is based on 'small crack' crack growth data and a crack-closure model, also predicted the fatigue lives very well with the predicted lives being slightly longer that the mean test lives but within the experimental scatter band. The crack growth model was also able to predict the change in test lives produced by the rainflow reconstructed spectra

Cyclic debonding of adhesively bonded composites

The fatigue behavior of a simple composite to composite bonded joint was analyzed. The cracked lap shear specimen subjected to constant amplitude cyclic loading was studied. Two specimen geometries were tested for each bonded system: (1) a strap adherend of 16 plies bonded to a lap adherend of 8 plies; and (2) a strap adherend of 8 plies bonded to a lap adherend of 16 plies. In all specimens the fatigue failure was in the form of cyclic debonding with some 0 deg fiber pull off from the strap adherend. The debond always grew in the region of adhesive that had the highest mode (peel) loading and that region was close to the adhesive strap interface

Debond propagation in composite reinforced metals

Strain energy release rates were used to correlate cyclic debonding between metal sheets and composite reinforcement. An expression for the strain energy release rate was derived and applied to fatigue test results for three material systems: graphite bonded to aluminum with both a room temperature and an elevated temperature curing adhesive, and S-glass bonded to aluminum with an elevated temperature curing adhesive. For each material system, several thicknesses were tested with a range of fatigue loads. Cyclic debonding was monitored using a photoelastic technique. A close correlation was found between the observed debond rates and the calculated strain energy release rates for each material system

Cyclic debonding of unidirectional composite bonded to aluminum sheet for constant-amplitude loading

Cyclic debonding rates were measured during constant-amplitude loading of specimens made of graphite/epoxy bonded to aluminum and S-glass/epoxy bonded to aluminum. Both room-temperature and elevated-temperature curing adhesives were used. Debonding was monitored with a photoelastic coating technique. The debonding rates were compared with three expressions for strain-energy release rate calculated in terms of the maximum stress, stress range, or a combination of the two. The debonding rates were influenced by both adherent thickness and the cyclic stress ratio. For a given value of maximum stress, lower stress ratios and thicker specimens produced faster debonding. Microscopic examination of the debonded surfaces showed different failure mechanisms both for identical adherends bonded with different adhesive and, indeed, even for different adherends bonded with identical adhesives. The expressions for strain-energy release rate correlated the data for different specimen thicknesses and stress ratios quite well for each material system, but the form of the best correlating expression varied among material systems. Empirical correlating expressions applicable to one material system may not be appropriate for another system

The role of peel stresses in cyclic debonding

When an adhesively bonded joint is undergoing cyclic loading, one of the possible damage modes that occurs is called cyclic debonding - progressive separation of the adherends by failure of the adhesive bond under cyclic loading. In most practical structures, both peel and shear stresses exist in the adhesive bonding during cyclic loading. The results of an experimental and analytical study to determine the role of peel stresses on cyclic debonding in a mixed mode specimen are presented. Experimentally, this was done by controlling the forces that create the peel stresses by applying a clamping force to oppose the peel stresses. Cracked lap shear joints were chosen for this study. A finite element analysis was developed to assess the effect of the clamping force on the strain energy release rates due to shear and peel stresses. The results imply that the peel stress is the principal stress causing cyclic debonding

Linford Low Energy Houses

This is the final report on the performance of 8 low-energy, passive solar houses at Great Linford, Milton Keynes, monitored by the Open University Energy Research Group (ERG), for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC), under contract to the Energy Technology Support Unit (ETSU) at Harwell.[The smaller file contains the Executive Summary; the larger file contains the main report, excluding the Executive Summary]