Corrosion is a major factor in the aircraft industry.

It is a major concern in

deciding the airframe life. Repeated cyclic loads or fatigue is one of the

reasons for stress corrosion combined with residual stress. The worst factor in

this kind of corrosion is the crack propagating inside the material without

giving visual indication.

Comparing a pure mechanical fatigue to corrosion assisted fatigue the latter

has no fatigue limit load. Both corrosion fatigue and fretting is in this class.

The much lower failure stresses and shorter failure times can occur in a

corrosive environment than in a non corrosive environment having alternative

stresses.

The fatigue fracture is brittle and more often transgrannular but is not

branched as in Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC). The crack propagation is

accelerated by corrosive environment at a lower tension than in dry air. In the

case of aluminium structures a mild corrosive atmosphere reduces 75 – 25

percent of fatigue strength than dry air (1).

. But fatigue corrosion differs from Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) due to

the fact the loads/stresses here are cyclic and fluctuating. The fatigue

corrosion damage can be monitored and reduced. The methods used are

component design modification, peening to reduce surface compressive

stresses or even polishing the surface and usage of corrosion inhibitors.

Another corrosion caused by fatigue is fretting corrosion due to movement of

two metal surfaces under cyclic loads and compressive loads. To make it

worse, if a corrosive medium is present the process becomes tribocorrosion.

The most likely area to have fretting corrosion would be the wing to fuselage

joint. They can be prevented by lubrication to reduce friction and block

oxygen, increasing hardness of one of the materials or modifying the

amplitude of movement between the surfaces (2).

The main concern of ageing aircraft structures are corrosion and fatigue

damage as they can lead to catastrophic damage. The interaction of corrosion

and fatigue damage makes it dangerous as the structure ages. The particular

concern is for the longitudinal lap splices in transport aircraft pressure cabins.

One of the investigations of lap splices from several aircraft types showed

either corrosion or fatigue. Multiple Site Damage (MSD) fatigue cracking is

not initiated by severe corrosion but solely by fatigue with little help from

environment. Splice fatigue analysis methods with simulation to determine the

extent of MSD fatigue cracking.

The main area of concentration as discussed above is at structural joints.

Taking the Aloha Airlines incident into consideration, it was seen that

corrosion combined with MSD along lap splice lead to sudden loss of

structural integrity resulting in catastrophic accident. But the corrosion wasn’t

the major factor for its cause it was the dis-bonding that increased stress

concentration at rivet holes and mechanically induced MSD.

After analysis using eddy current, X-Ray, radiography and Scanning Electron

Microscopy (SEM) it was found out that 95 percent of cracking was

intergranular due to exfoliation and stress corrosion. The rivet hole cracks
were of fatigue cracking and its initiation had nothing to do with pitting

corrosion. The intergaranular cracks were mainly associated with secondary

fatigue cracks not directly from rivet holes (3).

Corrosion prevention is a widely debated and continually researched area as

it assumes a high matter of importance. Aluminium alloys attaining a good

corrosion resistance thereby no origination of crack by stress and inter

crystalline corrosion is a researched topic. In a recent publication of structural

damage tolerance of Russian aircraft, an An-10A aircraft accident in 1972

spread light into aircraft structures having Widespread Fatigue Damage

(WFD) as a result of MSD and Multi Element Damage (MED). This was when

investigations were carried out to detect and eliminate fatigue cracks along

with more research into fatigue was put into. After the incident new aircrafts

were designed so that WFD initiation will occur during operation within design

goal.

Further investigations concluded no aircrafts shall operate with MSD. The

various other experiments and analytical methods developed were put into

practice. It is to be noticed that during the last 35 years the Russian transport

aircrafts did not have any accidents caused by fatigue cracks in structures (4).

In the present day there are a lot of ageing aircrafts in operation around the

world. Considering the above examples the severity of fatigue cracks and
corrosion and both in conjunction can be understood very clearly. Hence the

widespread efforts being put into research to detect and eliminate fatigue

stresses. They can be achieved by improving design standards along with

developing better alloys to withstand cyclic loading under different operating

conditions. New design technologies are being currently used on airframe

structures. But it would take time to find out the effects of cyclic loading

combined with corrosion on the structure as it would need to attain a certain

amount of operational period.

Airframe structure fatigue and corrosion phenomena-a report.

INTRODUCTION:

All flying objects have one phenomena that affects their airframes in common

which is corrosion and fatigue both of which are closely associated to each

other having compounding effects that occur mainly on aged aircrafts and

aircrafts that are exposed to the saline atmosphere and not inspected

regularly for corrosion and fatigue related stresses on their airframe.

Analysing the given topic there are two things involve in it which are corrosion

and fatigue.

Corrosion:

It is the electrochemical deterioration of metal resulting from reaction with the

surrounding environment. Since corrosion is one of main things that an

aircraft is being checked for during regular inspection an engineer may spend

an reasonable amount of time searching for it.

Fatigue:
This may be defined as one of those damages that are localised and that

keeps progressing due to the material concerned being subjected to loads

that occur regularly or cyclically.

Corrosion and its effects:

Corrosion as explained above is a electrochemical reaction which can affect

the safety of an aircraft to unacceptable levels .there are various types of

corrosion one needs to be aware of such as galvanic corrosion, stress

corrosion which are further classified into many types .

The main thing that needs to be taken into account is that how and why

corrosion occurs. The cause of corrosion occurrence is the absence of

protection to the material from the atmosphere and other factors that in

influence corrosion hence it is necessary that a materials needs to be covered

or stay protected in an appropriate manner.

Types of corrosion:

1. Pitting corrosion

2. Crevice corrosion

3. Stress corrosion

4. Galvanic corrosion

5. Fretting corrosion

6. Microbiological corrosion

Pitting corrosion:

This is a form of corrosion is also known as pitting and it is highly localised

and it can be identified by the way it creates small holes on the surface of the
material. This type of corrosion penetrates the mass of the material easily and

it occurs by the lack of oxygen in one area and excessive in the other area

thus a much localised galvanic corrosion takes place.

Crevice corrosion:

This type of corrosion usually occurs in spaces to which the working fluid

cannot be accessed easily such as spaces filled with deposits and sludge

piles, and under gaskets or seals.

Stress corrosion:

This is a type of corrosion that occurs with metals that have high strength zinc

bearing light alloys more often than some of the others this is also a form of

intergranular corrosion.

Galvanic corrosion:

This type of corrosion is caused by two dissimilar metals coming in contact

when one of the two metals corrodes electrochemical reaction takes place

resulting in the other metal also corroding. This can be prevented by using a

metal separator thus avoiding them from coming in contact.

Fretting corrosion:

This type of corrosion is caused under circumstances such as repeated

surface motions or vibrations.

Microbiological corrosion:
This type of corrosion takes place usually in fuel tanks where water present in

fuel condenses and allows growth of microbiological structures which is very

dangerous as it may block fuel lines and starve the engine of fuel. This can be

prevented by usage of additives in the fuel that prevents the growth of these

microbes.

Causes of corrosion:

The main reason for corrosion to occur is the absence of shielding from

attacks of the atmosphere. Since corrosion is a very common of trouble one

faces it can be prevented but there can always be catches. For an example a

organisation that commonly uses Alclad structure is required to use a clad

sheet of metal that leaves the inner surface of material vulnerable to attack

entirely A few decades ago makers of crew and passenger seating’s were

very much interested in manufacturing their structures with welded tubing

where the application of protective coating is highly not possible. Regrettably

a surface needing shielding against corrosion is left uncovered as the surface

cannot be reached and thus also cannot be seen so any presence of

corrosion cannot be seen and so it remains undetected. One of the other main

reasons for corrosion is the failure to notice signs of corrosion during routine

inspection.

Prevention of corrosion:

The most typical and suitable method of shielding a material from corrosion is

that of covering it by either application of paints or plating them or leave them

to produce their own oxide covering without any interruption. The most

common ways used to prevent corrosion are explained briefly as follows.

Oxide film:

Most of the oxide films produced by the materials are strong and unbreakable

but some are thin and broken easily although this no matter for concern as a

new layer is formed immediately. The only thing with this method of

prevention is that the engineers concerned should make sure that the surface

of the material is clean and finished properly or polished properly if left

unconcerned then it ,may result in serious corrosion. Generally it is a fact that

higher the strength of the alloy the more is it vulnerable to corrosion.

ALCLAD:

This process is a highly resourceful and easy way of protecting a material

from corrosion by covering the defenceless high strength sheet with a coating

of non-vulnerable low strength pure aluminium.

Cadmium Plating:

One of the main protection methods for steel parts is cadmium plating.

cadmium plating is helpful in three ways the first is since it is passive to

atmospheric attack it offers good resistance to corrosion. This property alone

made it a sole option for using it for the protection of important structural

elements.

It also acts as a sacrificial anode in a similar away as in alcladding.

And also cadmium has a electro-potential acceptable to both aluminium and

stainless steel.

Anodising:
This process produces the naturally present tough oxide film in an artificial

way.

The British specification is DEF STAN 03-24.

The American specification is MIL-A-8625.

There are various other methods of protecting aircraft components from

corrosion such as using of protective pastes such as alocrom which produces

a protective coating and painting of surfaces appropriately.