Improved stress intensity factor solution for cracks in panels with arbitrarily located stringers

This paper presents a stress intensity factor solution for cracks located in panels reinforced with arbitrarily located stringers. The new solution was developed by modifying the constituting equations of a solution for symmetrically and periodically spaced stringers with riveted rigid fasteners. The new solution supports arbitrary stringer locations with respect to the crack location, includes the capability to model compliant fasteners, improves the accuracy of the equivalent stringer compliance by considering Poisson's effect, and allows the fasteners to be arbitrarily located within each stringer. The stress intensity factors calculated using the new closed-form solution were compared to linear static finite element analysis results and very good agreement was obtained for the tested cases. Through two examples for the CC-130 aircraft, it was shown that the closed-form solution developed for a center crack in an infinite sheet could also be used to model an edge crack growing in a relatively large panel.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye