AN ENGINEERS VIEWPOINT ON DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL JOINTS

The design of structurally efficient joints in aircraft fuselage struc tures and wing skin splices is addressed. It is contended that the joi nts should be designed first and the gaps in between filled in afterwa rds, taking pains not to optimize the basic structure first and then d iscover that it either cannot be assembled or that, when it is assembl ed, it is full of weak-link fuses. Both adhesively bonded and mechanic ally fastened joints are covered. Analogies are drawn between the char acteristics of both classes of joints. The aspects of static joint str ength and fatigue lives are included. The work is applicable to metall ic as well as composite structures, and covers both high-load wing joi nts which have already been tested and new ideas for fuselage splices which have not. The effects of flaws and defects are associated with t he need for damage tolerance, particularly in fuselage structures.