This page explains how stress and fatigue affect aircraft materials and why understanding them is critical for aircraft design and safety.
Aircraft structures experience different types of stress during flight, including tensile stress, compressive stress, and bending stress. These stresses can weaken materials over time, especially in high-load areas like fuselage joints or wings.
Fatigue refers to the weakening of a material due to repeated loading and unloading cycles. Over time, fatigue can lead to crack formation, which, if not properly monitored and managed, can grow and lead to structural failure.
Engineers use fatigue testing and predictive models like NASGRO to analyze how long aircraft parts can safely last under operational stress before cracks become a problem.
Fatigue testing is a crucial part of aircraft certification. Engineers run simulations and real-world tests to understand how materials will behave under repeated stress. NASGRO is often used in these tests to predict crack growth and inform design decisions.