REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

www.mod.gov.rs

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Material Resources Sector

Defensive Technologies Department

Military Technical Institute

www.vti.mod.gov.rs

Some Aspects of Operation Life Extension of Aircraft Structures

STEVAN MAKSIMOVIĆ

Military Technical Institute, Belgrade, s.maksimovic@open.telekom.rs

RODOLJUB DOŠIĆ

Tehnička Dijagnostika, Belgrade, rddijagnostika@gmail.com

ZORAN VASIĆ

Military Technical Institute, Belgrade, vti@vti.vs.rs

Abstract: Fatigue performance of materials can be significantly reduced by corrosive environments. The effect of the corrosion environments on the structural integrity is a critical issue for damage tolerance design and analysis and need to be carefully investigated. Attention in this paper is focused on application of Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) methods in process of extension of operation life of aircraft structures. NDI is used as part of program for extension of operation life of G-4 Super Galeb aircraft structures that have been in service in Myanmar Air Force for many years. Material performance of aluminum alloy can be greatly degraded because of corrosion and corrosion fatigue, which severely affect the integrity and safety of aircraft structure. The corrosion and corrosion fatigue failure process of aircraft structure are directly concerned with many factors, such as load, material characteristics, and corrosive environment and so on. The methods and practice steps that diminish the negative effects of corrosion process were shown in this paper. These steps enable to extend service life of aircraft structures beyond its designed service life with accurate prediction of further service reliability.

Keywords: aircraft structure, nondestructive inspection, corrosion, residual life prediction.