Residual strength reliability of MSD panel on aircraft structure

Multiple-crack on the aircraft structure is a major cause the influences adversely structure reliability and integrity. An approach which considers interaction of cracks and stable tearing is employed to calculate the residual strength of Multiple-Site Damage (MSD) panel. Fracture mechanism finite element model of a certain MSD panel is used to evaluate the residual strength; both fracture toughness and R-curve are considered. On the basis of Weibull distribution of residual strength and normal distribution of load, the residual strength reliability model is developed. Numerical results of 2024-T3 aluminum alloy MSD panels are compared with the test results. The agreement between analysis and experiment is shown to be reasonable. Comparison indicates preliminarily that the proposed approach can give a better prediction and will be useful for investigating MSD panel on aircraft structure.