The Open Mechanical Engineering Journal

2013, 7 : 90-97
Published online 2013 November 29. DOI: 10.2174/1874155X20131023001
Publisher ID: TOMEJ-7-90

Residual Strength Improvement of an Aluminium Alloy Cracked Panel

F. Caputo , G. Lamanna and A. Soprano
School Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, Second University of Naples, via Roma 29 - 81031 Aversa, Italy.

ABSTRACT

This work deals with the application of the micromechanical Gurson-Tvergaard (GT) model to the determination of the residual strength of analuminumflat stiffened panel (2024 T3) with a central through crack, by means of finite element simulations. The load condition is represented by a monotonic traction along the direction orthogonal to the crack plane. The used Finite Element code is WARP 3D®, which allows simulating ductile damage propagation by considering the GT model.

Numerical results have been compared with experimental ones available in literature. In the second part of the work, a home madeprocedurefounded on the SDI (Stochastic Design Improvement) technique is presented and applied to the improvement of the residual strength properties of the considered panel.

Keywords:

Fracture mechanics, Gurson model, R-Curve.