The selection of a fatigue life category for riveted shear splices can now be made on the basis of a reasonable amount of data derived from full-size tests. The review of a representative number ofexisting design rules has shown that improvement is needed in some cases. The writers make the following recommendations:
1. A suitable fatigue life category for riveted shear splices is that shown in Fig. 2. 2. The fatigue life of riveted shear splices should be reported as the number of cycles at the time a crack has severed the first element of the cross section and another crack has appeared in a second element.
The writers make the following suggestions for research that will improve the understanding of fatigue life predictions for riveted shear splices:
1. The influence of bearing stress upon fatigue life. 2. The influence of rivet clamping force. 3. The effect of staggered hole patterns in fatigue crack growth. 4. The influence of method of hole forming upon fatigue life.