Fatigue Crack-Growth of Aluminum Integral Stiffened Panel under Constant Amplitude Loading

The widespread adoption of integral stiffened panel in the aviation industry due to its valuable advantages lead to constant research with focus in the improvements in the crack-growth analysis and its numerical modelling. In this context, the experimental characterization of the mechanical behavior of such structures is an essential demand for a proper usage. The current work intends to describe the characterization of one aluminum integral stiffened panel through experimental fatigue crack-growth tests and numerical analysis. The work describes the finite element model approach to assess the behavior of the stiffened panel under tensile load and describes the fatigue crack-growth tests setup and corresponding results. Additionally, the work describes some findings about the instrumentation adopted in the laboratory tests. The results presented an overall good correlation between the numerical and experimental test results, verifying the proposed numerical model approach.