High cycle fatigue characteristics of 2124-T851 aluminum alloy

The fatigue crack growth rate, fracture toughness and fatigue S-N curve of 2124-T851 aluminum alloy at high cycle fatigue condition were measured and fatigue fracture process and fractography were studied using optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that at room temperature and R = 0.1 conditions, the characteristics of fatigue fracture could be observed. Under those conditions, the fatigue strength and the fracture toughness of a 2124-T851 thick plate is 243 MPa and 29.64 MPa · m^1/2, respectively. At high cycle fatigue condition, the higher the stress amplitude, the wider the space between fatigue striations, the faster the rate of fatigue crack developing and going into the intermittent fracture area, and the greater the ratio between the intermittent fracture area and the whole fracture area.