Fretting in aerospace structures and materials

Fretting, the deleterious and synergistic combination of wear, corrosion, and fatigue phenomena driven by the partial slip of nominally clamped surfaces, has been linked to severe reductions in service lifetimes of a myriad of contacting components, including bearings, turbine blades and mechanically fastened joints-both structural and biological. This paper serves to frame the aggregate of economic, operational, and technical developments responsible for engendering renewed interest in netting fatigue of critical structural elements of both commercial and military aerospace systems, including riveted primary structure and the blade/disk pair in jet propulsion plants. A collection of both empirical evidence of fretting-induced componential degradation and an overview of results from recent investigations conducted by the authors serves to motivate the need for design-oriented metrics that can be used to ensure the structural integrity and safe operation of both current and future aerospace systems.