High durability of the Airware® solutions, a basis for future metallic aircraft: Illustration of the high fatigue performance of Airware® products

Recent commercial aircraft and space programs such as Airbus A350XWB, Bombardier CSeries or Falcon SpaceX selected Airware^® technology for primary structure parts to enhance the structural performance of the airframe in. During the qualification and ramp-up phase, a large amount of data has been generated with a particular focus on in-service conditions including surface treatment, different types of assemblies and various load case scenarios.

In addition to the well-reported advantages of Airware^® products regarding density and the strength-toughness balance, their excellent fatigue life, fatigue crack-growth and corrosion properties are key reasons for their selection. After a reminder of today’s Constellium‘s Airware^® technology usage illustrated by customer experiences and applications, a particular zoom will be given around the fatigue behaviour of Airware^® covering examples of fatigue cases for plate and sheet alloys with different property balances.

Crack initiation and propagation phenomena will be described in comparison with today’s incumbent products.