Influence of microstructures on fatigue damage mechanisms in Ti-15-3 alloy

In this study, the fatigue behavior of Ti-15-3 alloy thin plate specimens with two different microstructures was determined. Two kinds of specimens were prepared with different heat treatments: solution treatment (S) and solution treatment followed by aging (S+A). The effects of the microstructures on the fatigue properties and fatigue crack growth behavior were significant in both specimens. The fatigue crack in both specimens propagated in transgranular mode. In the specimen S+A, crack propagation has occurred on non-crystallographic and was closely connected with the configuration of the α-phase platelet, which was caused by the heat treatment. The damage was characterized by dislocation debris clustering ahead of the crack tip.     

Effect of heat treatment on small scale fragmentation of aluminium alloy

Abstract

Small scale explosions, using a detonator, of 7075 aluminium alloy cylinders, 15–100 mm outside diameter, were carried out to investigate the effects of heat treatment on fragmentation. This was the finest for the strongest as received alloy and coarsest for the softest overaged alloy. This effect was similar to that seen in investigations of the fragmentation of steel. Cylinders of 50 and 100 mm in diameter did not fragment but plastically deformed with maximum deformation at the cylinder bottom. Fragmentation of 33 and 42 mm diameter cylinders produced long fragments typical of the break-up of thick walled cylinders. At smaller diameters, break-up gave fragments of several shapes, finer fragments being largely associated with the smallest diameter cylinders and the highest strength alloys. Results followed those seen in large scale studies of cylinder break-up and suggest the possibility of using small scale fragmentation experiments in the investigation of the effects of composition, heat treatment and processing on natural fragmentation.     

Influence of matrix structure on the fatigue properties of an alloyed ductile iron

Rotary bending fatigue tests were conducted on ductile iron containing 1.25 wt% nickel, 1.03 wt% copper and 0.18 wt% molybdenum with various matrix structures. Several heat treatments were applied to obtain ferritic, pearlitic/ferritic, pearlitic, tempered martensitic, lower and upper ausferritic structures in the matrix of a pearlitic as-cast alloyed ductile iron. The tensile properties (ultimate tensile strength, 0.2% yield strength and percent elongation), the hardness and the microstructures of the matrixes were also investigated in addition to fatigue properties. Fractured surfaces of the fatigue specimens were examined by the scanning electron microscope. The results showed that the lowest hardness, tensile and fatigue properties were obtained for the ferritic structure and the values of these properties seemed to increase with rising pearlite content in the matrix. While the lower ausferritic structure had the highest fatigue strength, the upper ausferritic one showed low fatigue and tensile properties due to the formation of the second reaction during the austempering process.     

连续冷却搅拌A2017半固态合金流变行为研究

采用回转式熔体物性综合测试仪测定了A2017合金半固态浆料在连续冷却搅拌条件下的表观黏度变化,对其组织变化进行分析,研究了连续冷却搅拌条件下A2017合金半固态浆料的流变行为.实验结果表明,连续冷却搅拌条件下,A2017合金半固态浆料的表观黏度随固相率的增大而增大;在固相率一定的情况下,降低冷却速度或增大剪切速率,均导致表观黏度降低.显微组织观察表明,半固态浆料的流变行为与其微观组织结构有很强的关联,降低半固态浆料温度,浆料固相颗粒含量增加,表观黏度增大;降低冷却速度或增大剪切速率有利于半固态浆料固相颗粒形态向非枝晶形态的转变,因而半固态浆料表观黏度降低,流动性好.     

Frequency based fatigue analysis and temperature effect

This paper proposes a temperature modified Dirlik method to estimate the high cycle fatigue damage for uniaxial loadings caused by random vibrations directly from a power spectral analysis. Besides, the methodology for combining the frequency based fatigue analysis with the temperature effect is represented. This approach is based on a new definition of loading as a random Gaussian process. The fatigue damage estimation of the high pressure die-cast aluminium alloy AlSi₉Cu₃ is investigated at elevated temperatures. Finally, numerical simulations on the known power spectral densities with different shapes at different temperatures are performed in order to establish proper dependence between the temperature modified Dirlik method, the rainflow cycle counting, the linear cumulative fatigue damage and the spectral bandwidth parameters. The proposed method enables computationally fast fatigue damage estimation for the random loadings and the temperature histories.     

Influence of heat treatment and cutting speed on chip segmentation of age hardenable aluminium alloy

Abstract

A change in chip shape has been observed as a function of age hardening and cutting speed during high speed milling of the aluminium alloy 7075. In order to study this effect systematically, the aluminium alloy was heat treated to produce different precipitation states and machined under carefully controlled conditions at cutting speeds between 1000 and 7000 m min^-1. The underaged state shows local shearing producing segmented chips. The degree of segmentation increases with cutting speed. In contrast, the overaged state shows continuous chips up to the highest cutting speeds. The chips obtained with the peak aged state show a fluctuation between segmented and continuous parts. These results can be understood in terms of the differing work softening/hardening behaviour of the under- and overaged states owing to the specific interactions between dislocations and precipitates during chip formation.     

Influence of anodization on the fatigue strength of 7050-T7451 aluminium alloy

In recent years, with higher demand for improved quality and corrosion resistance, recovered substrates have been extensively used. Consequently residual stresses originated from these coatings reduce the fatigue strength of a component. Due to this negative influence occasioned by corrosion resistance protective coatings, an effective process like shot peening must be considered to improve the fatigue strength. The shot peening treatment pushes the crack sources beneath the surface in most of medium and high cycle cases due to the compressive residual stress field (CRSF) induced. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence on the fatigue life of anodic films grown on 7050-T7451 aluminium alloy by sulphuric acid anodizing, chromic acid anodizing and hard anodizing. The influence on the rotating and reverse bending fatigue strength of anodic films grown on the aluminium alloy is to degrade the stress life fatigue performance of the base material. A consistent gain in fatigue life in relation to the base material was obtained through the shot peening process in coated specimens, associated to a residual stress field compressive near the surface, useful to avoid fatigue crack nucleation and delay or even stop crack propagation.     

Microstructural influence on the intrinsic fatigue properties of Al---Li 8090 alloy

A study has been made to investigate the influence of microstructure on the extrinsic and intrinsic fatigue properties of the Al---Li alloy, 8090. Two types of microstructure have been produced to compare the relative fatigue properties, one with a δ′ phase dominant microstructure and the other with a S′ + δ′ microstructure. Crack closure loads measured by the crack-opening displacement method have been used to obtain intrinsic fatigue resistance of the δ′ and S′ + δ′ microstructures. Results have shown that the extrinsic fatigue resistance of the δ′ microstructure was considerably higher than that of the S′ + δ′ microstructure, especially at lower growth rate, which was mainly due to the more severe crack path tortuosity and associated high levels of crack closure. In addition, the intrinsic fatigue resistance of the δ′ microstructure was also observed to be higher than that of the S′ + δ′ microstructure, presumably due to greater slip reversibility in the δ′ microstructure.     

Surface characterization and influence of anodizing process on fatigue life of Al 7050 alloy

The present study investigates the influence of anodizing process on fatigue life of aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 by performing axial fatigue tests at stress ratio ‘R’ of 0.1. Effects of pre-treatments like degreasing and pickling employed prior to anodizing on fatigue life were studied. The post-exposure surface observations were made by scanning electron microscope (SEM) to characterize the effect of each treatment before fatigue testing. The surface observations have revealed that degreasing did not change the surface topography while pickling solution resulted in the formation of pits at the surface. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to identify those constituent particles which were responsible for the pits formation. These pits are of primary concern with respect to accelerated fatigue crack initiation and subsequent anodic coating formation. The fatigue test results have shown that pickling process was detrimental in reducing the fatigue life significantly while less decrease has been observed for anodized specimens. Analyses of fracture surfaces of pickled specimens have revealed that the process completely changed the crack initiation mechanisms as compared to non-treated specimens and the crack initiation started at the pits. For most of the anodized specimens, fatigue cracks still initiated at the pits with very few cracks initiated from anodic coating. The decrease in fatigue life for pickled and anodized specimens as compared to bare condition has been attributed to decrease in initiation period and multi-site crack initiations. Multi-site crack initiation has resulted in rougher fractured surfaces for the pickled and anodized specimens as compare to bare specimens tested at same stress levels.     

Influence of the microstructure of aluminium alloys on their residual impact properties after a fatigue loading program

Consecutive loadings of fatigue and impact have been carried out on aluminium alloys. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of the microstructure on the residual impact behavior after a prior fatigue loading. Two alloys with different chemical compositions and hardening modes have been investigated: 2017A-T3 used in the aircraft industry and 5454-O used in automotive applications.The fatigue pre-loadings were carried out under fully reversed tensile-compression with several pairs (stress level, number of cycles) in the high cycle fatigue zone (10⁵– 10⁶cycles). The residual impact behavior was determined under tensile loading, in the range of medium strain rates (about ). To assess the prior fatigue damage and to follow its evolution during the impact loading, observation of the specimens (surface and fracture surfaces) were made.From this study, two conclusions have been highlighted: (1) there is no direct correlation between a given prior loading and residual behavior, whatever the material; (2) the material aspect is fundamental. At the mechanical (macroscopic) scale, the Al–Mg alloy (5454-O) remains insensitive to the prior fatigue loading whereas the Al–Cu alloy (2017A-T3) undergoes a large modification in its residual performance. At a lower scale, the pre-damage signature appears for the insensitive as well as for the sensitive material. The prior damage and its contribution to the process fracture appear to be strongly linked with the material’s microstructure.     

Effects of temper condition and corrosion on the fatigue performance of a laser-welded Al–Cu–Mg–Ag (2139) alloy

The effects of temper condition and corrosion on the fatigue behavior of a laser beam welded Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloy (2139) have been investigated. Natural aging (T3 temper) and artificial aging (T8 temper) have been applied prior to welding. Corrosion testing has been performed by exposing the welded specimens to a salt spray medium for 720 h. Aging influences the corrosion behavior of laser welds. In the T3 temper, corrosion attack is in the form of pitting in the weld area, while in the T8 temper corrosion is in the form of pitting and intergranular corrosion in the base metal. In the latter case corrosion is attributed to the presence of grain boundary precipitates. Corrosion degrades the fatigue behavior of 2139 welds. The degradation is equal for both the T3 and T8 tempers and for the corrosion exposure selected in this study corresponds to a 52% reduction in fatigue limit. In both cases fatigue crack initiation is associated with corrosion pits, which act as stress raisers. In the T3 temper, the fatigue crack initiation site is at the weld metal/heat affected zone interface, while for the T8 temper the initiation site is at the base metal. Fatigue crack initiation in uncorroded 2139 welds occurs at the weld toe at the root side, the weld reinforcement playing a principal role as stress concentration site. The fatigue crack propagates through the partially melted zone and the weld metal in all cases. The findings in this paper present useful information for the selection of appropriate heat treatment conditions, to facilitate control of the corrosion behavior in aluminium welds, which is of great significance for their fatigue performance.     

Influence of loading direction on the anisotropic fatigue properties of rolled magnesium alloy

The influence of loading direction on the fatigue behavior of rolled AZ31 alloy was investigated by conducting fully reversed stress-controlled fatigue tests along the rolling direction and normal to the rolling plane. Alternating twinning and detwinning behavior during initial cycling was found to cause asymmetric hysteresis loops, resulting in a compressive strain in the rolling direction and a tensile strain normal to the rolling plane. A transition in the dominant deformation mechanism from twinning–detwinning to slip occurs at around five cycles under both conditions due to cyclic hardening, thus making their loops symmetric. The lower twinning stress in tension along the normal direction leads to an increase in fatigue damage by plastic strain, resulting in a lower fatigue resistance than along the rolling direction.     

Effect of thermochemical and heat treatments on electroless nickel–boron

Electroless nickel–boron synthesized on mild steel was submitted different post-treatments (heat and thermochemical). The resulting surfaces were examined and characterized by scanning electron microscopy. XRD analysis was performed to investigate structural modifications. The samples were also tested under corrosion conditions and polarization measurements were performed.For both the as-plated and treated Ni–B coatings, correlations between electrochemical and microstructural characteristics were observed and it was found that post-treatments transform the coating to a crystalline form that increases corrosion resistance.     

Acceptable prior fatigue damage and failure threshold for impact loading of an aluminium alloy

In a competitive economic context that aims at gains in safety, some problems of combined fatigue-impact loadings are crucial, particularly in the case of light alloys used in the transport and aeronautical industries. One important challenge is to quantify the fatigue preloading effect on the residual dynamic plasticity of a 2017-A T3 aluminium alloy. From an experimental modal analysis, the change in mechanical properties of prefatigued material under impact loading allows us to define the best mechanical parameter for a limiting threshold between a no-damage state and weakened states due to fatigue predamage. For this situation a hybrid technique has been developed. A numerical model including voids (which represent surface micro-cracks produced by the fatigue preloading) is fitted to the results obtained by the modal analysis of the damaged sample. Hence, an acceptable damage threshold (i.e. a damage critical volume below which the impact toughness is not affected by fatigue preloading) and a failure threshold are established. On the basis of this methodology, it is possible to predict the energy required for the impact failure of prefatigued specimens and therefore to predict a safe or a dangerous mechanical state.     

Effect of corrosion on the fatigue life and fracture mechanisms of 6101 aluminum alloy wires for car manufacturing applications

An innovative solution for the automotive industry is to replace the copper used for wiring harnesses with aluminum alloys, such as the aluminum–magnesium–silicon 6101 alloy. Wiring harnesses are composed of thin strand arms obtained by a wire drawing process. These strands are susceptible to exposure to a corrosive environment and fatigue solicitations simultaneously. The fatigue endurance of this alloy was studied using the stress-life approach for three metallurgical states representative of three cold-drawing steps. Fatigue tests performed in corrosive media tests highlighted a strong decrease of the 6101 alloy lifetime due to fatigue–corrosion interactions and a modification of failure modes.     

Effects of heat treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a 6061 aluminium alloy

This paper describes the mechanical behavior of the 6061-T6 aluminium alloy at room temperature for various previous thermal histories representative of an electron beam welding. A fast-heating device has been designed to control and apply thermal loadings on tensile specimens. Tensile tests show that the yield stress at ambient temperature decreases if the maximum temperature reached increases or if the heating rate decreases. This variation of the mechanical properties is the result of microstructural changes which have been observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).     

Influence of process parameters for induction hardening on residual stresses

Fatigue behaviour of induction hardened parts is largely dependent on the correct combination of hardening depth and the magnitude and distribution of residual compressive stresses in the surface layer. The objective of this work was to study experimentally the residual stresses at the surface layer of induction hardened cylindrical specimens. Two microstructures, quenched-tempered and normalised were investigated. The process parameters of induction hardening were varied to give a constant hardness penetration depth. The residual stresses were measured using the X-ray diffraction method. The investigated induction hardened samples showed a constant biaxial residual stress-state at the surface. The directions of the principal stresses deviated slightly from the defined circumferential and longitudinal directions. However, the shear stresses at the surface were of a small magnitude. This experimental investigation showed that the process parameters of induction hardening influence the residual stress-state of hardened parts to a great extent.     

Influence of constitutional liquation on corrosion behaviour of aluminium alloy 2017A

The purpose of this work was to investigate microstructural aspects of constitutional liquation in the aluminium alloy 2017A and to determine its effect on corrosion behaviour of this alloy. Non-equilibrium melting of the alloy in the naturally aged condition was provoked by rapid heating above the eutectic temperature and immediate cooling in air. Corrosion testing was performed by exposure to a marine onshore atmosphere. The microstructure examinations were carried out using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersion and X-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that, due to rapid heating rate, coarse θ (Al₂Cu) particles were melted by constitutional liquation and this way introduced strong susceptibility of 2017A alloy to intergranular corrosion.     

The influence of porosity on the fatigue life for sand and permanent mould cast aluminium

The automotive industry always strives to achieve light weight components to reduce fuel consumption and to meet environmental requirements. One way to obtain weight reduction is to replace steel components with components made of aluminium or other light weight materials. Aluminium has good corrosion properties and a high strength to weight ratio which makes it favourable in many applications. The increased use of aluminium castings in the automotive industry does also imply that the need for design data for aluminium increases. Especially for castings, the influence of casting defects are always an issue. For this reason fatigue properties for as-cast sand and permanent mould specimens with different contents of porosity have been studied.

Sand cast and permanent mould cast aluminium specimens of two different geometries were fatigue tested in cyclic bending at R = −1. Prior to fatigue test specimens were examined by X-ray and sorted into three quality groups depending on the porosity level. The aim of this work was to investigate the fatigue life for sand cast and permanent mould cast AlSi10Mg with different amounts of porosity. An additional aim was to predict the largest defect contained in a specified volume of a component, by using a statistical analysis of extreme values, and relate it to the fatigue life.

The results showed that fatigue strength for a smooth specimen geometry decreases by up to 15% with increased porosity. For specimens with a notched geometry, no influence of porosity on the fatigue strength was found. This is believed to be due to a much smaller volume subject to high stress than for specimens with low stress concentration.