At the event, organized at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Studies of Cassino, three Officers from the Experimental Flight Center of Pratica di Mare participated. Three Officers from the Experimental Flight Center (C.S.V.) of Pratica di Mare also participated in the seminar, who presented some cases of academic interest drawn from investigations carried out on real cases investigated by the Air Force. The event is part of a memorandum of understanding signed by the Experimental Flight Center and the University of Cassino regarding research and experimentation in the field of materials used in aeronautical and aerospace applications, as well as the components and structures used in both aircraft already in service and those destined for future use. The seminar was opened by Francesco Iacoviello, Professor of Metallurgy at the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (DICeM) and President of the Italian Fracture Group. Lieutenant Colonel Manuele Bernabei, Head of the Chemical Department of the C.S.V., in his speech initially highlighted the aspects of the failure analysis, and subsequently presented a case study from the MB-339 fleet, concerning a phenomenon of fatigue failure on a canopy lever. Lieutenant Colonel Fabrizio De Paolis, on the other hand, illustrated the mechanism of crecurrent corrosion in the recently conducted survey on the engine palettes of the C-27J fleet. Finally, Captain Mikael Amura showed the calculation methodologies for the fatigue life of mechanical components based on the experimental data collected as part of two case studies related to the HH-3F and AMX fleets. Failure analysis It is a particular investigation that, through the execution of various tests and observations, allows determining the causes of the behavioral abnormalities of the components. Such research requires considerable knowledge of the materials, experience, excellent instrumentation, and the availability of as many information as possible regarding the component’s operational behavior. The C.S.V. Chemical Department, thanks to its almost thirty years of experience in the field of technical investigations of flight accidents, encompasses, among other things, all these capabilities, establishing itself over the years as a national point of reference in the inter-service field in the identification of the primary causes and the factors that have favored the propagation of anomalous phenomena in aeronautical components, and in proposing appropriate solutions or recommendations aimed at preventing the recurrence of the conditions that triggered the phenomenon.
