INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT OF AN AIRCRAFT CYLINDER ASSEMBLY WITH A CRACK

Abstract

The repeatability of the air-cooled piston engine cylinder assembly failure due to a crack in the cylinder head, as well as its severity from the aspect of crew and passenger safety were the main motives for our research. In this paper an integrity assessment of a cylinder assembly with a crack was performed. By modeling cracks of different lengths in the cylinder head and considering the values of stress intensity factors and J-integral values at a given crack length on the one hand and determining the critical values of these fracture mechanics parameters on the other hand, the stability of the crack was examined. As part of the research, the dependence of the crack length on the stress intensity factor was established. The methodology proposed in this paper can be adapted to assess the integrity of other similar structural elements.