Residual Strength Improvement of an Aluminium Alloy Cracked Panel

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.