Research on Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Testing of All-Composite Rudder Surfaces in Electric Aircraft

As a key component for controlling the flight attitude and direction, the structural integrity of aircraft rudder surfaces is of vital importance to flight safety. Before the first flight of an aircraft, it is necessary to complete the damage tolerance test of the aircraft rudder surfaces. In this study, fatigue and damage tolerance tests were conducted on the all-composite aircraft rudder surface structure adopted by a certain type of electric aircraft. Due to its significant differences in strength and stiffness compared to traditional metal structures, this was done to ensure its safety and reliability during use and to meet the requirements of Article 573 of the Civil Aviation Regulations of China (CCAR-23-R3). The study proposed a loading scheme and test verification method suitable for all-composite aircraft rudder surfaces, evaluated their fatigue performance and damage tolerance capacity, verified that the structure met the design strength requirements, and provided a basis for subsequent aircraft life assessment. At the same time, repairs were made to the damaged areas and post-repair test verification was carried out, providing technical support for extending the aircraft's service life and reducing operating costs. The research results can provide a reference for conducting damage tolerance tests on similar aircraft rudder surface structures.