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11:00   Full-Scale Fatigue Testing of Aircraft and Aircraft Structural Components Chair: Claudio Dr. Dalle Donne 11:00 30 mins BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND OPERATIONAL PRACTICE - A TEST CONCEPT FOR FUTURE AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE PANELS Roald Best, Thomas Fleischer, Matthias Götze, Mirko Sachse, Martin Semsch Abstract: During the past 17 years IMA GmbH Dresden has especially focused on static and fatigue testing of aircraft fuselage structures and components. Having been involved in full scale fatigue test projects as well as in performing barrel tests, curved and flat panel tests, coupon tests and other structures lead to a wide-spread basis of engineering services and know-how. The idea of “IMA Panels” means a special test concept: Curved sections were inspected while creating the basic conditions required for these. The multi-axial and continually applied cyclical loads on the load-bearing structures sufficiently reflect the practice. One way of carrying theory into practice is to perform tests of relevant aircraft structures by representing real life conditions. One key structure of modern civil aircraft is the fuselage. Tests of the fuselage can be done by testing a barrel or just a curved panel. The latter variant is more flexible, faster and cheaper. This presentation will show the latest curved fuselage panel test rig of IMA GmbH Dresden, its capabilities, the tests carried out so far and selected results. The test rig enables complex combined loading of the test panel. Loads include internal pressurisation, longitudinal loading both compressive and tensile as well as in plane shear loads. Key to the test system is a dummy structure representing 7/8 of the fuselage circumference while the panel represents 1/8. There is a continuous connection between both. Frames may have a wide range of intervals and have a boundary condition too. The test rig is designed highly modular to allow testing for different aircraft types and research programmes. The 1st test series showed a very consistent strain distribution of all components within the test area of the panel. This is a main requirement for effective testing of the behaviour of artificial damages during static and fatigue loading. Generalised test results will be shown to give an overview about the research work done so far. 11:30 30 mins LOADS-BASED FRACTURE SURFACE MARKING TO AID QUANTITATIVE FRACTOGRAPHY (QF) OF FATIGUE IN METALLIC MATERIALS Simon Barter, Lorrie Molent, Russell Wanhill Abstract: The selection of fracture surface marking methods based on exploiting or altering the required fatigue loads is of much interest for many fatigue test programmes. This is particularly true when crack growth measurements during testing are not possible or insufficiently accurate. In such cases, and as a check on crack growth measurements taken during testing, post-test Quantitative Fractography (QF) of fatigue crack growth is an invaluable tool. The QF can be made possible and/or greatly facilitated by fracture surface markings that can be related to loading events during the testing. This paper reviews and discusses many examples of fatigue loadings that create fracture surface markings both naturally, as sometimes happens, and intentionally. These examples are from fatigue life tests of aircraft alloy components and specimens, particularly high strength aluminium alloys, under normal environmental conditions (air at ambient temperatures). To better understand the visibility of markers, which is obviously important, a model is presented of how some aluminium alloy fatigue fracture surface features are produced by certain load combinations. This model is still being developed, and should lead to improvements in numerical modelling of the fatigue crack growth process. The advantages and disadvantages of the intentional marking methods are also discussed with a view to obtaining guidelines and procedures for optimising the fatigue fracture surface topographies for QF. 12:00 30 mins SUBSTANTIATIONS OF AN AIRBORNE COMPOSITE RADOME MOUNTED ON AN AIRCRAFT DOME Iddo Kressel Abstract: A dome mounted composite structure Radome was design and substantiated for an early warning surveillance system. This Radome is 10m long composite part manufactured at IAI. Appropriate facilities were built including a new clean room, autoclave, assembly hangar and a dedicated NDT system. The substantiation process includes development of material design allowables, coupons and elements static and fatigue testing and a full scale static test to the maximum ultimate design loads.