Prediction of stress concentrations associated with interacting stress-raisers within aircraft design: Methodology development and application

Abstract In the design and manufacture of aerostructures and associated mechanical systems, situations arise where two or more stress-raisers are placed in proximity such that their associated stress fields interact. Under such circumstances, it is essential to determine accurately the resulting stress concentration effect, in order to evaluate the susceptibility of the structure to fatigue. The paper reports on new methodologies for predicting the location and magnitude of the maximum stress concentration around a range of commonly occurring two- and three-dimensional problems of feature interaction. The background research into the impact of multiple stress-raisers in proximity is reported and new techniques for the accurate prediction of stress concentrations associated with interacting features are described. The application and implementation of the methodologies within BAE SYSTEMS are discussed and the approach developed is illustrated by means of a case study.