Full-scale testing of fuselage panels

Author

Bakuckas, John G., Jr. ; Bigelow, Catherine A. ; Tan, Paul W. ; Awerbuch, Jonathan ; Lau, A.C. ; Tan, T.M.

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

827

Lastpage

846

Abstract

A unique state-of-the-art facility to assess the structural integrity of aircraft fuselage structure was established at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center. The Full-Scale Aircraft Structural Test Evaluation and Research (FASTER) facility is capable of testing full-scale fuselage panel specimens under conditions representative of those seen by an aircraft in actual operation. The test fixture features a novel adaptation of mechanical, fluid, and electronic components and is capable of applying pressurization, longitudinal, hoop, frame, and shear loads to a fuselage panel. A high-precision, Remote Controlled Crack Monitoring (RCCM) system was developed to inspect and record crack initiation and progression over the entire fuselage panel test surface. A detailed description of the FASTER facility along with representative results from a variety of experimental test programs will be presented

Keywords

aerospace test facilities; aircraft testing; crack detection; FASTER facility; aircraft fuselage panel; crack inspection; electronic component; fluid component; frame load; full-scale testing; hoop load; longitudinal load; mechanical component; pressurization load; remote controlled crack monitoring system; shear load; structural integrity; Aerospace electronics; Aircraft; Control systems; Electronic components; Electronic equipment testing; FAA; Fixtures; Remote monitoring; Surface cracks; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

AUTOTESTCON Proceedings, 2001. IEEE Systems Readiness Technology Conference

Conference_Location

Valley Forge, PA

ISSN

1080-7225

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7094-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AUTEST.2001.949465

Filename

949465