This book provides a concise discussion of fatigue crack growth (FCG)
failure and lifing analysis methods for metallic aircraft structures and
components. After a reasonably concise historical review, surveys are
made of (i) the importance of fatigue for aircraft structural failures
and the sources of fatigue nucleation and cracking, (ii) contemporary
FCG lifing methods, and (iii) the Quantitative Fractography (QF)
required for determining the actual FCG behaviour. These surveys are
followed by the main part of the book, which is a discussion, using case
histories, of the applicabilities of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
(LEFM) and non-LEFM methods for analysing service fatigue failures and
full- and sub-scale test results. This discussion is derived primarily
from the experiences of the Defence Science and Technology Group in
Melbourne, Australia, and the Netherlands Aerospace Centre, Marknesse,
the Netherlands.