Study of multi-site damage of fuselage lap joints

The downturn in the world economy coupled with the cost of new aircrafts has meant that there are now ageing fleets whose continued airworthiness requires special attention to corrosion treatments, repair design, fatigue and fracture analysis, and improved crack detection techniques. To assist in this goal the present paper first summarises recent Australian efforts into the development of a simple experimental test specimen which is capable of reproducing the crack growth and failure mechanisms seen in the fuselage lap splice of a wide bodied transport aircraft. The development of a composite repair to overcome these phenomena is then discussed.