Failure analysis of a cracked aluminum 7075 wing internal angle in Airbus A-300

2016-07-05_16h39_20

 

An article in progress in « Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis », Volume 7 (october 2016).

 

There are 16 angles in Airbus A300s wing box. On the right side, rear spur, and lower flange area of the center wing box, one of these angles had been cracked with a length of 28 mm. This crack has decreased residual strength of the part under allowed values and resulted to a rupture in the rear spur lower cap. Several reports of the same occurrences in other Airbus A300 air crafts, highlight the importance of finding the causes of this failure.  Finally, it was concluded that corrosion fatigue was the main reason which itself comes from manufacturing, maintenance, metallurgical, and geometric reasons as were discussed in this study.

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