Professorial lecture UiTM: fatigue life monitoring of fighter airplanes / Wahyu Kuntjoro

Fatigue is paramount in the design of airplanes. Fatigue failure is almost always "spectacular" and catastrophic in nature. A very specific fatigue requirement is laid down in any airworthiness regulation. To consider fatigue in the design of airframes (aircraft structures) is mandatory. Particularly in fighter airplanes, the branch of fatigue analysis that is employed is rather special, due to fighter spectrum loads that tend to be high. This is logical as fighter airplanes are highly maneuverable and tend to do high "g" flights. Hence a specific analysis type of fatigue that is called Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) has grown to meet the high "g" fatigue load requirement.