Methodology to Capture Induced Strains on Riveting Process of Aerospace Structures

Riveting is a very common manufacturing process in assembly of large aerospace structures such as fuselage cross sections. Large deformations involved in this process generate large displacements of components. This problem is pronounced when dealing with large structures such as fuselage panels. This fact may result in penalties on the assembly line of an aircraft, and the manufacturing is usually forced to develop tools to make feasible the assembly of fuselage cross sections.

This work presents a bibliographic review about this subject, and presents a methodology to capture induced strains on the riveting process of aerospace structures. An experimental test was performed on a row of rivets to study this behavior. After that, finite element simulation was performed and deformation results were obtained for a single rivet. This result was extrapolated for a row of rivets with the assumption of sequential riveting. The experimental result validates the simulation methodology. Finally, challenges for the development of a riveting sequence strategy to improve the assembly process of large panels are presented.