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Common Causes of Failure: Corrosion 29 16 Creep 3 - Wear/abrasion/erosion 3 6

The document discusses common causes of failure in aircraft structures that can lead to catastrophic consequences. It notes that failures often occur due to stress concentrations caused by design errors, material defects, or corrosive attack. A review of case history data reveals that fatigue failure is the most common, though corrosion requires more maintenance effort to detect and repair.

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29 views1 page

Common Causes of Failure: Corrosion 29 16 Creep 3 - Wear/abrasion/erosion 3 6

The document discusses common causes of failure in aircraft structures that can lead to catastrophic consequences. It notes that failures often occur due to stress concentrations caused by design errors, material defects, or corrosive attack. A review of case history data reveals that fatigue failure is the most common, though corrosion requires more maintenance effort to detect and repair.

Uploaded by

vijayakumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Common causes of failure

Failure of an aircraft structural component can have catastrophic consequences, with resultant
loss of life and of the aircraft. The investigation of defects and failures in aircraft structures is,
thus, of vital importance in preventing further incidents. This review discusses the common
failure modes observed in aircraft structures, with examples drawn from case histories.
In general, failures occur when a component or structure is no longer able to withstand the
stresses imposed on it during operation. Commonly, failures are associated with stress
concentrations, which can occur for several reasons including:
Design errors, e.g. the presence of holes, notches, and tight fillet radii;
The microstructure of the material may contain voids, inclusions etc.;
Corrosive attack of the material, e.g. pitting, can also generate a local stress concentration.
From case histories data, an assessment can be made of the frequency of failure modes (Table 1).
Table
Corrosion 29 16
Creep 3 Wear/abrasion/erosion 3 6This

reveals that the incidence of fatigue failure dominates the distribution

in aircraft. The detection and rectification of corrosion damage on in-service aircraft, however,
consumes more effort than the repair of fatigue cracking. The high occurrence of fatigue failure
observed probably reflects the destructive nature of this failure mode, while corrosive attack is
generally slower than fatigue, and usually more easily spotted and rectified during routine
maintenance.

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