| Abstract | This paper presents and compares two continuing damage modelling approaches: a simplified approach, which approximately models diametrical cracks as two independent radial cracks, and an improved approach that accurately models the interaction between the cracks. Stress intensity factor closed-form solutions were developed for the improved approach to accurately model continuing damage growth in a structure. Through several examples, it was shown that the simplified approach, commonly used by the aircraft industry, always resulted in smaller continuing damage sizes and shorter fatigue lives compared to the improved approach. For the tested cases, the continuing damage sizes calculated using the simplified approach were underestimated by up to 24 times and the fatigue lives were overestimated by up to 1.4 times. |
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