Abstract
To date, the Air Force has applied the durability and damage tolerance requirements of MIL-STD-1530A in three areas: a) designing new aircraft; b) evaluating the durability and damage tolerance characteristics of aircraft which were designed prior to the current requirements of MIL-STD-1530A; and, c) evaluating structural repairs and modifications. These applications have used fracture mechanics principles in a deterministic manner. That is, flaw growth was predicted using a fixed potential flaw size, a fixed da/dn vs AK relationship, and a stress spectrum derived from a predicted average usage. While it was realized that there are many stochastic elements in the initiation and growth of cracks, the applied process was considered conservative. Initial flaw size assumptions were generally severe, tracking programs accounted for variations in usage severity, and inspections (if necessary) were scheduled at half the time required for the specified initial flaws to grow to a critical size. At the time of the assessments, there was a high (but unquantified) degree of assurance that fatigue failures and widespread cracking would not occur within the design operational lifetime.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Military Standard, “Aircraft Structural Integrity Program, Airplane Requirements,” MIL-STD-1530A (USAF), December 1975.
Military Specification, “General Specification for Aircraft Structures,” MIL-A-87221, February 1985.
Gallagher, J.P., Giessler, F.J., and Berens, A.P., “USAF Damage Tolerant Design Handbook: Guidelines for the Analysis and Design of Damage Tolerant Structures,” Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, AFWAL-TR-82-3073, May 1984.
Military Specification, “Airplane Strength, Rigidity, and Reliability Requirements, Repeated Loads, and Fatigue,” MIL-A-8866B, August 1975.
Manning S.D. and Yang, J.N., “USAF Durability Design Handbook: Guidelines for the Analysis and Design of Durable Aircraft Structures,” Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, AFWAL-TR-83-3027, January 1984.
Berens, A.P., et al., “Handbook of Force Management Methods,” Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, AFWAL-TR-81-3079, April 1981.
Yang, J.N., “Statistical Estimation of Service Cracks and Maintenance Cost for Aircraft Structures,” J. of Aircraft, Vol. 13, No. 12, December 1976.
Lincoln, J.W., “Risk Assessment of an Aging Military Aircraft,” J. of Aircraft, Vol. 22, No. 8, August 1985.
Berens, A.P., “NDE Reliability Data Analysis,” Metals Handbook, Volume 17, 9th Edition: Nondestructive Evaluation and Quality Control, 1988.
Stumpf, P.L., et al., “Damage Tolerant Design Data Handbook,” Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, AFWAL-TR-83-4144, December 1983.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Berens, A.P., Burns, J.G., Rudd, J.L. (1991). Risk Analysis for Aging Aircraft Fleets. In: Atluri, S.N., Sampath, S.G., Tong, P. (eds) Structural Integrity of Aging Airplanes. Springer Series in Computational Mechanics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84364-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84364-8_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-84366-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-84364-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive