INITIAL FATIGUE QUALITY CONFIDENCE-INTERVAL APPROACH FOR DETERMINATION OF INSPECTION INTERVALS

An approach is proposed for the determination of the inspection interv al of metallic aerospace components; it makes use of the Initial Fatig ue Quality Model proposed by the U.S. Air Force. Once the structure ha s been qualified through the latter model, an upper and a lower bound for the inspection time are obtained. Such bounds are derived on the b asis of a statistical procedure based on the knowledge of confidence i ntervals. Tables of general applicability have been obtained through M onte Carlo simulations to allow the determination of the interval in w hich the inspection time should lie. An example problem is discussed t o show an application of the proposed method.