Failure Analysis of an Outer Main-Wheel Half of Fokker F 28

Introduction
An outer main-wheel half of a Fokker 28 fractured during taxiing at Pontianak Airport, in which incident almost the entire flange of the wheel broke away. The broken flange was missing and thus not available for examination. The remaining wheel was forwarded to our laboratory for failure examination about two months after the accident, which took place on 27 June 2002. Black stains, apparently from the tyre rim that burst out following the wheel flange failure, covered part of the fracture surfaces.

Wheel history
The outboard main-wheel (part number: 95504632) was made from aluminium alloy 2014 - T6 forging. The part has been in service for almost 28 years and has completed 17782 landing cycles. Details of repair information were not available except for tyre changes, which have been recorded as "repair and tyre change". Eddy current inspection during the tyre change did not disclose evidence of incipient failure.

Investigation
The failed wheel half is shown in Figure 1. Examination of the fracture surfaces revealed one large area of fatigue crack. More than 2 cm long, the crack was observed to have propagated through about two third of the entire thickness of the wheel before overload failure had caused separation of the rim (flange). The fatigue crack originated at the outer cylindrical face of the wheel (area marked by arrow in Figure 1 and its corresponding enlarged fracture surface in Figure 2). This face is loaded in

tensile, the amplitude of which is maximum when the relevant area of the wheel is at the bottom and the wheel is supporting the aircraft weight. The propagation of the fatigue crack on a plane approximately normal to the wheel side is consistent with the sideways flexure of the flange. Close examination of the crack origin (Figure 3) indicates the presence of discontinuities in form of large inclusions (and or second phases) rich in carbon and oxygen and also sodium as shown by the EDS spectra shown in Figure 4. Such a discontinuity was located in the sub-surface of the highly stressed region of the component and appeared to have acted as a discrete stress concentrator responsible for fatigue initiation as evident from the radial marks shown in Figure 2 and Figures 3a and 3b. Enlarged view of parallel patches (the rectangled area in figure 1) revealed rather faint, closely spaced striations on flat plateaus.

Conclusions and recommendations

The failure of the outer main-wheel half was caused by fatigue. Fatigue cracking initiated at the outer cylindrical face of the wheel, i.e. the region highly stressed. Large inclusions in its sub-surface contributed to fatigue crack initiation. At the time of failure, the fatigue crack had propagated through about two third of the wheel thickness and had a length of about 2 cm. The crack took place in the flange, i.e. the area most prone to cracking. Fatigue failure in the flange is not uncommon to happen. Quite a number of similar cases have been reported (relevant documents are available upon request). Given this fact and the fact that the part has been in service for a substantially long period, a fatigue failure should have been foreseen and suspected. That the routine inspection technique currently employed by the operator did not detect such an incipient failure entails that the inspection procedure needs reviewing.

Although very versatile, eddy current (let alone visual inspection) has a shallow depth of penetration. It could have happened that the inspections (especially the routine ones) were only carried out at the inner cylindrical face of the wheel, so that cracks originated at the other side of the wheel wall were not detectable. Furthermore, the sharp curve around the "neck" of the flange may have caused difficulties in probing the area. To avoid reoccurring of similar incidents, a more rigorous inspection procedure needs to be employed, particularly on parts that have been in service for long period or on those with substantially high landing cycles, such as the one under investigation.