Effect of Mechanical Properties of Fasteners on Stress State and Fatigue Behaviour of Aircraft Structures as Determined by Damage Tolerance Analyses

Fatigue is one of the most common failure modes of structures and components. The prediction of fatigue crack propagation in real structures must take into account realistic boundary conditions. The purpose of this paper is to describe a technique for modelling fasteners through FEM global structure modelling and using the model for stress state analyses and crack growth prediction. The consideration of fastener stiffness during stress analysis is an integral part of the damage tolerance philosophy. The FASTRAN retardation model with a load sequence simulating the real operational service of an aircraft structure was used for crack growth prediction.