FATIGUE GROWTH OF MULTIPLE-CRACKS NEAR A ROW OF FASTENER-HOLES IN A FUSELAGE LAP-JOINT

The fatigue growth of multiple cracks, of arbitrary lengths, emanating from a row of fastener holes in a bonded, riveted, lap joint in a pressurized aircraft fuselage is studied. The effects of residual stresses due to a rivet misfit, and of plastic deformation near the hole, are included. A Schwartz-Neumann alternating method which uses the analytical solution for a row of multiple colinear cracks in an infinite sheet (the crack-faces being subject to arbitrary tractions), is developed to analyze this MSD problem on a personal computer. It is found that for a range of crack lengths, a phenomena wherein the shorter cracks may grow faster than longer cracks may exist.