Partnership Program

The International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue (ICAF) is the premier international conference on aircraft structural fatigue problems and attracts leading representatives from industry, regulatory agencies, operators and members of academia. It begins with a two-day conference consisting of presentations by National Delegates from the fourteen member countries describing national research, development, and regulatory activities of international interest. This is followed by a three-day symposium on design, operations, regulatory and airworthiness topics related to aeronautical fatigue under the theme 'Structural Integrity: Influence of Efficiency and Green Imperatives' . The last ICAF meeting held in Canada was in 1987 and 24 years later we are proud to announce that the next ICAF meeting will be held in the beautiful and welcoming city of Montréal, in the heart of one of the greatest aerospace clusters from May 29 to June 3, 2011.

Two related imperatives are influencing the design of aeronautical structures: 1) the requirement for more efficient aircraft (reduction of life cycle costs, particularly operating costs) and 2) the requirement to reduce the environmental footprint, including noise, of aircraft. To meet these imperatives, the aerospace industry must reduce its manufacturing and operating costs while at the same time, introduce new technologies, new material applications and new design and certification processes. This includes issues such as a greater use of advanced lightweight materials in primary structure, introduction of techniques and concepts for increased utilization of environmentally sustainable materials, elimination of toxic chemicals and materials and reduction of waste in manufacturing and maintenance processes, life extension processes, and advanced systems design, use of modeling and simulation in lieu of test and a move from hydraulic to all electric aircraft system design.

Structural integrity must be maintained and even improved in this challenging environment. Current methods of design and certification need to be modified to address issues such as application of materials in non-traditional areas (e.g. composites in fuselage), hybrid structures, certification by analysis, and design and test spectra considering cyclic and time effects. Material selection will be influenced by factors other than just their structural performance. Life extension and repair of aging aircraft will also be affected. The theme of this symposium is to address the influence of the life cycle cost and green imperatives from a structural integrity viewpoint of fixed wing aircraft and rotorcraft.

Topics

1. Airworthiness
2. Advanced materials and innovative structural concepts
3. Actual and Virtual Full-scale fatigue testing of aircraft and aircraft structural components
4. Economic considerations - material selection and detailed design
5. Environmental considerations - material selection and detailed design
6. Minimum weight structures
7. Life extension, repair, and management of ageing fleets
8. Structural health and structural loads monitoring
9. NDI, inspections and maintenance
10. Fatigue crack formation and growth
11. Life prediction methods
12. Fatigue life enhancement methods and repair solutions
13. Probabilistic modeling and risk analysis

We are inviting you to help support this prestigious meeting by selecting one or more of the many opportunities listed which not only demonstrates your organization's commitment to the continuing efforts in the field of aeronautical fatigue but allows your company to raise their profile with the prominent international delegates.

 

Jerzy Komorowski
Conference and Symposium Chair, ICAF 2011, Montréal