Fatigue life prediction of aircraft structures—past, present and future

Abstract An exceptional lack of correlation between the fatigue life predicted from calculations and tests and the service life actually obtained has been reported many times. This may be due to one or several of the following causes: 1. 1. Incorrect load spectra were assumed in the calculations and applied in the tests including the full scale test. 2. 2. Miner's Rule was used in the life calculations. 3. 3. Unexpected failures occurred, starting from material flaws in non redundant structure built of high strength materials. 4. 4. The load sequence in the tests including the full scale test was over simplified. It is suggested in this paper that major improvements in the accuracy of fatigue life prediction should be possible using modern methods and modern data. These are compared to hitherto existing methods for life calculations in the design state, for component testing and for the full scale fatigue test. Reference is also made to other work in the same area.

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