Methods for fem analysis of riveted joints of thin-walled aircraft structures within the imperja project

Abstract

The paper deals with the modelling of riveted joints in aircraft structures with Finite Element Method. Presented works were carried out within Eureka project No. E!3496 called IMPERJA. The goal of the IMPERJA project is to increase the fatigue life of riveted joints, which will lead to an increase of the aircraft service life, a smaller number of inspections and lower operation costs of an aircraft. The project assumed FEM modelling of the operating aircraft's structure at three different complexity levels, namely considering the complete structure, a structural detail and a single riveted joint. The paper presents analyses of various rivet models and calculations of a structure and a riveted joint. In the first part examples of various models, at global and local level, were presented and usefulness of them was discussed, influence of the following simplification was analysed; • neglection of rivets in a model (elements are jointed continuously) • rivet as a rigid element (MPC) • neglection of contact phenomenon • neglection of secondary bending • neglection of residual stresses after riveting process The basis of the analysis was the asymmetric butt joint model with 14 rivets. The model which took into account secondary bending and contact phenomenon was analysed as well. The method of modelling residual stresses with temperature and thermal coefficient was used. In the second part, the example of analysis of riveted joint was demonstrated for a wing of PZL M28 Skytruck aircraft. It's is a twin-engine, high-wing, cantilever monoplane of all-metal structure with maximum take-off and landing weight 7500 kg. A submodeling technique was used there. At first, part of the wing model, based on a CAD model, was built. It includes 7 ribs and 6 bulkheads between them. Dimensions of the model eliminate stress perturbation, connected with boundary conditions, in the area near the middle rib. It was a shell model. The boundary conditions were taken on a basis of operation data. Presence of rivets wasn't taken into account. Instead of this, parts were connected continuously (nodes were merged). The Linear model of material was used. The purpose of the part of the wing model was to gain accurate boundary conditions for next model of riveted joint on the middle rib. The behaviour of whole model is correct but stress distribution around rivets is not correct. A shell model of riveted joint was build. A boundary conditions were set on a basis of result from previous analysis. Forces, instead of displacements, were used, as boundary conditions, on account of a large stiffness difference between part models (part of wing and riveted joint model). The nonlinear model of material was used. A contact effect and secondary bending were taken into account. Thanks to that, phenomena around rivets were represented considerably better. Results from this analysis could be used as boundary conditions in a detailed calculation of one or few rivets with solid elements. Such a model was considered as well. The presented method allows to analyse phenomena that appear around a rivet in a real structure, during operation. Analyses were performed with MSC PATRAN, NASTRAN and MARC software. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.