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stress analysis for fatigue behaviour investigation of aileron lever structure

Conference Paper · March 2015

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 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
Tirunelveli-TN/INDIA, March 27-28, 2015

STRESS ANALYSIS FOR FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR INVESTIGATION

OF AILERON LEVER STRUCTURE
P. Govindarajan1, J. Bruce Ralphin Rose2
1
PG Scholar, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Regional Centre of Anna University,
Tirunelveli, India, 627007.

2
Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Regional Centre of Anna University,
Tirunelveli, India, 627007.
* Corresponding author (bruce@auttvl.ac.in)

Abstract: Fatigue problems commonly exist among the airplane control systems and components because of the
oscillating aerodynamic forces. In this article, the fatigue stress analysis of an aileron control lever used for an
A320-200 transport aircraft is presented. The aim of this work is to design the aileron lever with high fatigue
strength against the aerodynamic loads acting on the commercial transport aircraft wings. The optimum design
parameters are computed and the model is designed by using the computational design tool. Finite element
method is incorporated for computing the possible yield stresses after the evaluation of complete air loads acting
on the wing. A simplified procedure of finite element method is followed to do the stress analysis on the aileron
lever control. Fatigue cracks are expected to appear at the location of high tensile stress regions. The numerical
analysis revealed the regions that possess the high stress concentration invariably. Fatigue life calculations for
typical service loading conditions require the detailed stress distribution data by cost effective methodologies.
By using the constant amplitude S-N data for various stress ratios, the local stress history and stress
concentration will be evaluated. The numerical analysis part of this work is done using the MSC NASTRAN &
PATRAN package and the results are presented subsequently.

Keywords: fatigue crack, aerodynamic loads, stress concentration, high tensile stress.
 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
Tirunelveli-TN/INDIA, March 27-28, 2015

1 Introduction cycles to crack initiation and propagation to the

critical size. This approach successfully predicts the
In an aircraft flight control system the
location of crack initiation, propagation path and
aileron lever control is a censorious single-point
propagation rate. Probability design approach using
breakdown for A320-200 transport aircraft. Stick
a Monte Carlo simulation is used to determine the
loads from the pilot are transferred through the lever
sensitivity of the fatigue life. The majority of
arm to the servo valve, which moves the ailerons up
damage occurs on the upper and lower surfaces of
or down during flight in relation to stick movements.
the lever at both 11 and 1o’clock position and the
If the lever arm were to break in flight,
results had shown the locations and propagation
uncommanded rolling of the aircraft would occur. In
paths of cracks without presumption [5]. Virtual
critical situations such as takeoff and landing with
crack-closure technique was utilized to investigate
little time to recover, uncommanded rolling could
the fatigue life of a Friction stir welding fuselage
result in loss or substantial damage to the airframe or
panel. For cracks starting between double welds, the
death or serious injury to the flight crew and the
crack grows slower than parallel and perpendicular
aileron lever arm is identified as a critical safety
to friction stir welds and larger crack growth rate in
item [5]. The main objective of this investigation is
the single weld [6]. Sub modeling technique is used
about increasing the fatigue life of aileron lever and
in the finite element approach to investigate the
to estimate the fatigue limit stress of aileron lever.
stress rate in the rivet area for Helicopter riveted T-
The damaged model is incorporated to the advanced
Joint on fuselage panel [7]. It helps to obtain an
recent fatigue analysis simulation tool MSC Nastran
accurate stress- strain field in the stressed riveted
& Patran. A sample aileron lever control connected
area and the residual stresses. This analysis is
to the actuator arm assembly is presented in Fig 1.
usually done by using different fatigue load ratios.
This fatigue stress analysis is efficiently utilized to
Aircraft Aluminum alloy 2024 T351 is used for the
predict the crack initiation location on the aileron
fatigue life calculation by providing constant
lever component. The fatigue crack initiate at the
amplitude loading and local strain approach. During
notched portion of the component because of the
the investigation, flat plate of double through crack
high stress concentration factor. Further, fatigue
at hole is used. This local strain approach predicts
crack growth prorogation depends on the residual
the effect of stress ratio, fatigue initiation life and
stress effect of the high tensile stress location.
fatigue crack growth rate. The result shows that the
crack initiation and crack propagation are dependent
2 Literature Survey on the component geometry and applied stresses.
The increment in holes dimension characterizing the
To predict the fatigue life of a composite
notch effect that decreases the fatigue life. Fatigue
panel, the fatigue life prediction capabilities was
crack growth rate is improved by increasing the
incorporated into the HyperSizer by applying cycle
stress ratio and fatigue initiation life was reduced by
jumping technique. It helps to find the local damage
increasing of notch radius [8].
increment and also the number of additional cycles
to reach this damage increment [3]. Center cracked
centerAl stiffened was inspected to calculate the
fatigue life of the stiffened panel by implementing
multi scale progressive failure analysis and virtual
crack closure techniques. This analysis clearly
shows the crack growth of a stiffened panel and its
durability. The damage tolerance approach would
find the damage initiation and propagation, fracture
initiation and propagation and final failure [4].
Earlier, the trainer aircraft T-38 aileron lever was
used to calculate the crack initiation and propagation
by incorporating successive-initiation modeling Fig.1. Aileron lever connected to the actuator arm
approach to the model and it does not require any (courtesy from [5])
initial crack or damage. This method works based on
updating the damage in material and accumulating Aluminum Alloy 2024 T351 is used to
damage in individual elements according to their predict the fatigue limit stress on the aileron lever.
stress-life history. It is used to predict the number of The total fatigue life stress of the material was
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 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
affected by the stress ratio R. To increase the fatigue
life by increasing the stress ratio and fatigue crack
growth was affected by crack orientation of L-T and
T-L. The more fatigue resistance will occur at L-T
orientation when compared to the T-L orientation
[9]. Friction stir welded aluminum 2024 alloy is
selected to investigate the effect of residual stress on
the crack propagation rate. In this investigation, the
effect of the inclination angle of the weld line on the
direction of crack propagation is calculated. The
result shows that the crack propagation rate is
accelerated at high tensile residual stress around the
weld line and angle of weld line does not affect the
crack propagation rate [10].
3 Problem description
Among the airplane component failure
modes, more than 55% of failures are caused by
fatigue limit stresses. It plays a key role in the
material selection part of an airplane structure since
it is also caused by corrosion, overload, stress
corrosion cracking, and wear/ abrasion. In the past
few decades, most of the structural failure
investigations are involved on aircraft fuselage
panel, helicopter riveted joints, wing fuselage
attachment bracket, and composite stiffened panels.
During the takeoff and landing operations, aileron
lever function is severe than the rudder and elevator
lever controls in terms of the magnitude of
aerodynamic forces acting on the control surfaces.
The aileron lever component used in a typical
transport aircraft model similar to A320-200 is being
considered for the present critical stress analysis. It
is made of Al 2024-T3 alloy material with sufficient
fracture toughness properties.
4 Finite element analysis
The basic steps involved in the finite
element analysis are presented below.
Represent continuous structure as a collection
of grid points connected by discrete elements
Formulate element stiffness matrices from
element properties, geometry and material
Combine all element stiffness matrices into a
global stiffness matrix
Apply boundary conditions to constraint model
(i.e. remove certain degrees of freedom)
Tirunelveli-TN/INDIA, March 27-28, 2015
Apply loads to the models
(forces, moments pressure etc.)
Solve matrix equation {F} = [K] * {Q} for
displacements results {Q}
Calculate element forces and stresses from
displacements results
The finite element analysis consists of the three
processes such as pre-processing, solving and post
processing.
4.1 Design of aileron control lever
Based on the standard dimensions of a
commercial transport airplane wing, aileron control
lever efficiently is designed by using the damage
tolerance design philosophy approach. The designed
component of aileron lever is shown in Fig 2. One
end of the aileron lever is attached with lever arm
that is connected to the aileron lever actuator and the
other end is linked with the pivot moving up and
down. Each part detail is modeled by using the
computational design tool.
Fig.2. Computational design of Aileron control lever
4.2 Material used for analysis
Selection of aircraft materials depends on many
considerations that can be categorized as cost and
structural performance. Al 2024-T3 is used for
aileron control lever in the present analysis because
of the high strength and fatigue resistance properties.
The FEA is focused at this point to optimize the
suitable material for multiple DOF system with high
amplitude variable loading. Once the load system
analysis is completed, the experimental fatigue
properties can be validated to ensure the limit stress
properties. The specifications of the Al 2024-T3
material is tabulated as follows.
3
 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
Tirunelveli-TN/INDIA, March 27-28, 2015

Table.1. Specifications of the Al 2024-T3 material

S.
Properties 2024-T3
No
1. Density 2770 kg/m3
2. Ultimate tensile strength 483 MPa
3. Tensile yield strength 362MPa
4. Young’s modulus 73.1 GPa
5. Fatigue Strength 138 MPa
6. Poisson ratio 0.33
Fig.4. Aileron lever meshing in patran meshing tool.
7. Fracture Toughness 72.37 MPa m
8. Material Constant, C 5x10-11 Table.2. Aileron lever mesh summaries
9. Material Constant, n 3 Total Total
4.3 Imported model of aileron lever Type of
Component number of number of
element
Elements Nodes
The pre-processing part involves the Aileron
preparation of nodal co-ordinates & its connectivity, Solid 18622 4414
lever
meshing the model, application of loads & boundary
conditions. The aileron lever component design is The mixed mode element type is the most
imported into computational simulation tool such as common element type used for the better mesh
MSC Patran to perform the finite element analysis. pattern distribution. At this point, the tetrahedral
Part model details and element selection are done in element meshing option is selected for fatigue stress
the first stage of pre- processing. In this stage, the analysis and quick convergence.
imported geometry is utilized to do the discretization
of aileron lever component by SOLID element 4.5 Loads and boundary conditions
meshing. The imported aileron lever geometry is
shown in Fig.3. To determine the maximum tensile stress
location at the control lever, the loads and essential
boundary conditions are applied. The boundary
conditions of aileron lever are one of the right ends
such as servo valve attach point is constrained with
six degree of freedom. Then, the upper and lower
surface of the aileron lever is also constrained with
six degree of freedom. The other end is called the
rod end attach point which is moving in upward and
downward motion during takeoff and landing
operation. In this region, the takeoff and landing
Fig.3. Imported model of aileron lever loads are applied to calculate the stress distributions
and deformation at aileron lever. The detailed
4.4 Discretization of aileron lever boundary conditions are tabulated below.

Discretization is simply described as the Aileron lever components

process in which the given body is subdivided into Servo
Boundary Lower Rod
equivalent system of finite elements. The finite valve
condition and end
elements may be triangles or quadrilateral for a two attach
upper attach
dimensional continuum. Solid type element with one point
surface point
mid-node is selected for structural and fatigue
analysis. Element shapes are triangles, tetras Constraine
Constraine Moving
preferred over quad and hex. The aileron lever 1 d with 6
d with 6 with 6
meshing is developed by a computational meshing DOF
DOF DOF
tool (HYPERMESH) as presented in Fig.4.
Table.3. Detailed boundary conditions

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 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
4.6 Results and Discussions
 The upper and lower surface of the analysed
lever is presented. The pre-processing of the
aileron lever was completed by MSC Patran
computational tool and stress analysis of
aileron lever was solved by MSC Nastran
computational simulation tool.
 The post processing of the aileron lever was
done by MSC Patran tool. In this post
processing stage stress value and
deformation at aileron lever is obtained.
 The maximum tensile stress is occurs at
lower surface of the lever component and
minimum tensile stress is obtained at servo
valve attach point.
 This result is clearly shown in the figure as
below.
Conclusions
Fig.5. Maximum tensile stress region at aileron lever.
Fig.6. Upper surface stress distribution at aileron
lever.
Future work
Tirunelveli-TN/INDIA, March 27-28, 2015
Fig.7. Maximum displacement at the aileron lever.
 The damage tolerance design philosophy is
generally used in the aircraft aileron lever
design to reduce the weight of the structure
and increasing the fatigue strength of the
aileron lever.
 Transport aircraft aileron lever design was
made by computational design tool.
 Stress analysis of the aileron lever is carried
out by using computational simulation tool
and maximum tensile stress and maximum
deformation was identified at the aileron
lever.
 The upper and lower surface was identified
as critical region at aileron lever control
because the maximum stress occurred.
 In this upper and lower region will initiate
fatigue crack and propagate.
 Damage tolerance design philosophy was
implemented to develop the aileron lever by
using computational design tool.
 The finite element dynamic stress analysis
method is followed for the stress prediction
on the aileron control lever.
 The maximum tensile stress of 255 N/mm2 is
observed on the lower and upper surface of
the aileron lever and the minimum stress
about 0.0229 N/mm2 is observed at the servo
valve attach point.
 The maximum displacement of the aileron
lever is computed as 2.47mm.
 Fatigue crack initiation and crack growth
analysis can be carried out on the aileron
lever using the stress analysis output.
 Calculations on the fatigue crack growth
rate, number of cycles required for crack
5
 INDO-BRAZIL Bilateral International Conference on
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING – ICAMM 2015
growth and predict the crack locations and
directions.
 Fatigue analysis of the aileron lever can be
carried out for the complete validation of all
theoretical calculations.
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