Damage tolerance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damage tolerance is the ability to withstand damage. The term is most often used in aerospace engineering to indicate the following characteristics of a component or material:

the effects of impact (what size, shape, force of an impacting object will cause structural failure?)
the conditions required to cause metal fatigue
the ability to withstand fatigue (how long will the part last under a certain type of loading)
the residual strength of the part after it has undergone impact or fatigue

In aerospace engineering, structure is considered to be damage tolerant if a maintenance program has been implemented that will result in the detection and repair of accidental damage, corrosion and fatigue cracking before such damage degrades structural strength below an acceptable limit.