THE GROWTH OF SMALL CORROSION FATIGUE CRACKS IN ALLOY 2024

Abstract— The corrosion fatigue crack growth characteristics of small surface and corner cracks in aluminium alloy 2024 is established. The damaging effect of salt water on the early stages of small crack growth is characterized by: (1) crack initiation at constituent particle pits, (2) intergranular microcracking for a≤100μm, and (3) transgranular small crack growth for a≥100μm. In aqueous 1% NaCl and at a constant anodic potential of −700 mV_SCE, small cracks exhibit a factor of three increase in fatigue crack growth rates compared to laboratory air. Small cracks exhibit accelerated corrosion fatigue crack growth rates at low levels of Δ K (< 1 MPa√m) below the long crack Δ K _th value. When exposed to Paris regime levels of crack tip stress intensity, small corrosion fatigue cracks exhibit growth rates similar to that observed for long cracks. Similar small and long crack growth behavior at various levels of R suggest that crack closure effects influence the corrosion fatigue crack growth rates of small cracks for a≥100 μm. Contrary to the corrosion fatigue characteristics of small cracks in high strength steels, no pronounced chemical crack length effect is observed for alloy 2024 exposed to salt water.     

EFFECT OF SURFACE TEXTURE ON FATIGUE LIFE IN A SQUEEZE-CAST 6082 ALUMINIUM ALLOY

The effect of surface texture on fatigue life in a squeeze-cast Al-Mg-Si alloy has been investigated in terms of initiation and subsequent propagation of small fatigue cracks. Small cracks nucleated from defects on both as-cast and polished surfaces. However, the large (∼90μm in diameter) surface defects found on as-cast surfaces caused an approximate 20% reduction in fatigue life when compared to polished surfaces where cracks initiated from smaller (∼ 12 μm in diameter) microporosity. Integration of averaged small fatigue crack growth data enables the fatigue lives of both types of specimen to be predicted at stresses above the fatigue limit, showing that the difference in fatigue behaviour is principally due to the extra period of crack growth in the polished surfaces.     

MODEL-BASED STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF SHORT FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH IN Ti 6Al-2Sn-4Zr-6Mo

Abstract— The framework of a new probabilistic model of short fatigue crack growth was laid down in the preceding paper. In this paper, the model is used to analyze growth rate statistics for surface fatigue cracks in Ti 6Al-2Sn-4Zr-6Mo. Specific models are proposed for the evolution of the stochastic growth control variable, which appears subsequently as an independent variable in a parametric law for the growth rate. Comparison with data shows that for cracks of length 10–250 μm in Ti 6–2-4–6, fluctuations in the instantaneous rate of propagation of each surface crack tip depend only on the visible surface microstructure in the tip's immediate neighborhood. They are not influenced by the microstructural environment of the subsurface crack front. Furthermore, they probably depend only on the sizes of at most the three grains nearest the crack tip, i.e. those within about 30 μm of it.     

Fatigue crack growth acceleration due to intermittent overstressing in adhesively bonded CFRP joints

Double cantilever beam joints were used to investigate cohesive and interlaminar crack growth in bonded composite joints under constant and variable amplitude (VA) loading. Numerical crack growth integration was used to predict the VA fatigue life using constant amplitude data. This underestimated the fatigue crack growth rate for interlaminar cracks, indicating crack growth acceleration due to load interactions. This was also the case for cohesive cracks subjected to a moderate initial strain energy release rate (G_max). An unstable crack growth regime was also identified for the case of high initial G_max cohesive crack propagation. This behaviour is attributed to the development of a damage zone ahead of the crack tip.     

Fatigue life and crack closure in specimens subjected to variable amplitude loads under plane strain conditions

The propagation of fatigue cracks in specimens subjected to variable amplitude loading under plane strain conditions was investigated experimentally and numerically, to find the influence of the variable amplitude loading on the stabilised crack closure level. Experiments on four-point-bend specimens with a Gurney block load scheme, showed that the crack closure level depends on the crack length but not on the stress range of the fluctuations. Numerical simulations performed in the fatigue crack growth program FASTRAN-II showed good agreement with the experimental results. In addition, statistical uncertainty analyses performed on the fatigue life show that, for technical applications, the uncertainties in initial crack length and load levels have a greater influence on the uncertainty in fatigue life, than the fluctuation level of the load.     

Derivation of crack closure and crack growth rate data from effective-strain fatigue life data for fracture mechanics fatigue life predictions

This study deals with the behavior of short cracks growing out of notches. Three types of load histories are used: (a) a fully-reversed constant amplitude history; (b) a periodic compressive overload history consisting of repeated load blocks containing one fully-reversed constant amplitude yield–stress magnitude cycle (the overload) followed by a group of smaller constant amplitude cycles having the same maximum stress as the overload cycle; (c) and a service strain history. Procedures are presented for deriving crack closure data and crack growth rate vs effective stress intensity factor range data from data obtained by subjecting a small number of smooth laboratory specimens to simple periodic compressive overload tests to obtain closure-free strain-life data. These procedures are illustrated in an example in which fatigue life predictions are made for a service strain history applied to notched plate specimens. The fatigue life predictions based on the measured and the derived crack closure and crack growth rate data are in good agreement with the experimentally determined fatigue lives.     

Small crack growth rates from simple sequences containing underloads in AA7050-T7451

Fatigue crack growth in materials that display confined slip show crack path changes that are dependant on the loading history. In these materials certain variable amplitude loading patterns can produce strong slip bands ahead of the crack tip. One of these patterns of loadings involving bands of high R cycles followed by one or two underloads also produce distinct features or progression marks on the fracture surface that have been used to delimit small blocks of constant amplitude cycles. The same loading pattern also produces strong slip bands ahead of the fatigue crack both in the plane of the crack and out of plane. These slip bands affect the direction and possibly the rate of propagation of the fatigue crack. Thus these loading patterns make an ideal marker to look at small crack growth rates in the presence of slip bands.This paper reports on the crack growth rates for a series of fatigue cracks grown in AA7050-T7451 coupons, from near initiation to near failure. The aim of this work was to generate constant amplitude crack growth data for use in predictions that is more useful for predicting crack growth lives than that obtained from long crack constant amplitude tests. Three simple sequences which applied small bands of constant amplitude loading were used in the fatigue tests preceded by a loading sequence to produce a progression mark to delimit the bands. The fatigue cracks in the coupon initiated from etch pits on the surface of the coupons. The width of the bands of constant amplitude growth in these sequences were measured under a microscope. The growth in these sequences was found to be faster than for long cracks under constant amplitude loading.     

THE APPLICABILITY OF NEURAL NETWORKS IN MODELLING THE GROWTH OF SHORT FATIGUE CRACKS

This paper examines the use of a neural network to model the chaotic behaviour of the growth of short fatigue cracks which are characterized by a decreasing crack growth rate with increasing crack length. Fatigue crack growth is modelled in terms of the Hobson short fatigue crack growth law. The neural network is exclusively trained and tested on Hobson's experimental data of short fatigue cracks propagating in a 0.4% carbon steel. The empirical constants d, α and C of Hobson's growth law are determined from the neural network predictions and are found to be within the following approximate ranges 63 < d < 400 (μm), −0.27 < α < 0.08 and 1 × 10⁻⁴ < C < 509 × 10⁻⁴ with no proportional relationship observed between the constant C and the applied cyclic stress. It is shown that neural networks are a viable computational tool for modelling the chaotic behaviour of short fatigue crack growth.     

MIXED MODE SMALL CRACK GROWTH

Abstract— The fatigue crack growth behavior of small part-through cracks in 1045 steel and Inconel 718 subjected to biaxial loading has been investigated. Experiments were performed on thin-wall tubular specimens loaded in tension, torsion and combined tension torsion. Crack sizes analyzed ranged from 20 μm to 1 mm and growth rates ranged from 10^-7 to 10^-4 mm/cycle for 1045 steel and from 10^-5 to 10^-2 mm/cycle for Inconel. Nucleation and the early growth of cracks occurs on planes of maximum shear strain amplitude for both of these materials even in tensile loading. An equivalent strain based intensity factor was employed to correlate the crack growth rate under mixed mode loading conditions In loading conditions other than torsion, a transition from mode II to mode I was observed for 1045 steel. Principal strains were used to analyze mode I cracks. Cracks in Inconel 718 grow in mode II for the majority of the fatigue life. The maximum shear strain amplitude and the tensile strain normal to the maximum shear strain amplitude plane were used to calculate the strain based intensity factor for mixed mode loading.     

Propagation of short fatigue cracks from notches in a Ni base superalloy: experiments and modelling

A notched specimen containing a semicircular slot (0.1 mm deep) was designed to simulate the growth of three-dimensional short cracks under a stress concentration. Fatigue tests were performed on N18 superalloy at 650 °C with trapezoidal loading cycles. A high-resolution optical measurement technique proved to be capable of detecting half-surface crack increments as small as 10 μm, and the potential drop method was found to be inappropriate for very small crack lengths. The stress intensity factor, Δ K , was calculated using a weight functions method. Non-uniform stress fields were determined by FEM modelling using elasto-viscoplastic constitutive equations. The plasticity-induced crack closure effect was calculated within the specimen using viscoplastic FEM modelling. The prediction of crack aspect ratio was used to investigate differences of closure along the crack front. The role of notch plasticity on these differences is discussed. Using these calculations, it is shown that the apparent differences between the growth behaviour of short and long cracks can be largely accounted for.     

Behaviour of short cracks in alloy 800HT under biaxial fatigue

Biaxial in phase fatigue tests were carried out on thin walled tube specimens of alloy 800HT at ambient temperature. The loading modes included tension, torsion, and combined tension—torsion with a tensile/shear plastic strain range ratio Δ?p/Δγp = 3^1/2. The influence of effective strain amplitudes and biaxiality on the initial growth of fatigue cracks was investigated using the replica technique. The results indicated that the loading conditions strongly affected the growth rates of short cracks. In torsion the cracks grew significantly more slowly than under axial or biaxial loading. A mean tensile stress perpendicular to the shear crack promoted its growth and reduced the fatigue life. The growth of the cracks could be described by the ΔJ integral for axial and biaxial loading; the integration predicted the fatigue life under axial and biaxial loading correctly. However, significantly conservative lifetime predictions were obtained for pure torsional loading since ΔJ does not include crack closure and crack surface rubbing.

MST/3234     

Q345R钢多个过载作用下疲劳裂纹扩展行为研究

单一过载使得疲劳裂纹扩展速率减缓,可以提高疲劳寿命,但对于多个过载作用下疲劳裂纹扩展仍未明确,有待于进一步研究。针对Q345R标准紧凑拉伸试样,在常幅循环加载条件下引入多个拉伸过载,研究多个过载作用对疲劳裂纹扩展行为的影响。研究结果表明:在保持应力比、过载位置和过载比不变的情况下,随着过载间距增加,迟滞效应先增加后减小;过载间距循环数是单一过载迟滞循环数的一半时,da/dN_min达到最小,迟滞效应最明显。采用含有过载交互作用参数Ø_I的修正Wheeler模型对不同的过载间距疲劳裂纹扩展行为试验结果进行预测,预测的结果与试验结果能够很好的吻合。     

Short crack approach for multiaxial fatigue assessment

A significant part of the fatigue life is spent during short crack growth. Therefore, modelling of short fatigue crack growth offers an opportunity to improve the accuracy of numerical life assessment. Besides stating some general remarks on the short crack approach itself and on multiaxial fatigue criteria, a short crack growth based fatigue life prediction approach for multiaxial non‐proportional loading is presented. This approach accounts for the geometrical size effect by considering the geometry correction functions for semi‐elliptical surface cracks in inhomogeneous gradient stress fields. The geometrical size effect is becoming significant for notch radii smaller than four times the defined technical crack size. Additionally, life influencing factors due to the statistical size effect have been taken into account. The comparison of calculated and experimentally observed fatigue lives of shouldered shafts made of S460N with notch radii of 0.2 to 4.0 mm under non‐proportional tension and torsion loading yields a satisfying accuracy.     

FEM analysis of crack closure and delay effect in fatigue crack growth under variable amplitude loading

An analysis of fatigue crack closure under variable amplitude loading was made by using the finite element technique. Two basic types of variable amplitude loading were selected for the analysis; constant amplitude loading with a single overload and block loading. A characteristic variation of a crack closure level was found to exist for both types of loading: the trace of the crack closure level vs crack length rose to a maximum value and then decreased asymptotically. The characteristic behavior was explained in terms of the residual stress which had been induced by an overload or a load preceding to the variation. The predicted fatigue crack growth behavior which was obtained analytically was consistent with the experimental results, and it was concluded that the retardation and acceleration phenomena are closely correlated with the crack closure.     

Experimental investigations on the growth of small fatigue cracks in naval steel

The concept of damage tolerance is now largely employed to evaluate the fatigue life of structures. However, part of this fatigue relies on the initiation and growth of small cracks. The fatigue behaviour of a naval structural steel (S355NL) was investigated. In order to characterize the behaviour of short and long cracks, tests were performed under constant amplitude loading for several load ratios between –1.0 and 0.5. A major part of fatigue life is constituted by short crack initiation and propagation.     

Studies on fatigue crack growth for airframe structural integrity applications

A review is made of efforts at the National Aerospace Laboratories in the development of fatigue crack growth prediction technology for airframe applications. The research was focused on extension of rainflow techniques for crack growth analysis and development of accelerated crack growth calculation methods for spectrum loading. Fatigue crack closure forms a crucial element of modelling and fractographic techniques were developed for its study. These, combined with binary coded event registration enabled crack growth and closure mapping for part-through cracks in metallic materials. Experimental research on short cracks at notches led to discovery of the hysteretic nature of crack closure, which explains well-known history-sensitive local mean stress effects in notch root fatigue. Optical fractography of failures obtained under simulated service conditions revealed that short cracks do not exhibit any more scatter than long cracks at comparable growth rates. The nature of multi-site crack initiation and growth of small cracks at notches was investigated and the effort extended to lug joints that are widely used in airframe applications. Results from this work suggest the possibility of modelling crack growth from a size smaller than 50 microns through to failure, thereby accounting for a major fraction of total life. The work described in this paper enjoyed the strong support of Dr S R Valluri, Prof R Narasimha and Dr K N Raju. Financial support for the effort was provided by Aeronautical Research & Development Board, Aeronautical Development Agency and Department of Science and Technology.     

FATIGUE DAMAGE IN 1045 STEEL UNDER VARIABLE AMPLITUDE BIAXIAL LOADING

Abstract— During constant amplitude loading, two different types of crack systems have been reported In the high cycle fatigue (HCF) region, cracks nucleate on a small number of maxium shear strain amplitude planes One of these cracks becomes a dominant crack and leads to failure of the specimen In the low cycle fatigue (LCF) region, equally developed microcracks are observed over the entire gage section and grow during the majority of the life. The failure is due to a linking in which the microcracks join up during the last few cycles of the fatigue life.
To investigate the interaction of these two types of crack systems in biaxial fatigue, experiments were performed on thin-wall tubular specimens in tension, torsion and combined tension-torsion loading The test program included step loading and block loading in which two equivalent strain amplitudes were employed. One of the equivalent strain amplitudes is in the HCF region and the other was in the LCF region
Fatigue lives were predicted from constant amplitude damage curves when a single crack system dominated the fatigue process Two competitive crack systems were sometimes developed on the maximum shear strain amplitude planes in a single specimen under block loading This resulted in a conservative prediction of the fatigue life.     

PROPAGATION BEHAVIOUR OF SHORT FATIGUE CRACKS IN Q2N STEEL

Abstract— The work described in this paper characterizes short fatigue crack growth behaviour of Q2N steel having a complex microstructure and designated for pressure vessel and offshore structure applications. Short and long fatigue crack growth tests for this steel were conducted under three point bend loading conditions. It was found that, in the initial stages of growth, short cracks propagate much faster than those of long cracks when correlated with the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) parameter Δ K. A period of crack growth retardation was observed at crack lengths of approx 50 μm. The theory of the interaction between short cracks and grain boundaries fails to predict the occurrence of this deceleration minima. A new short crack deceleration mechanism is proposed based on experimental observation. Observation of the characteristic behaviour of short cracks allowed the development of a short crack growth model based on microstructural fracture mechanics analyses.     

Prediction of the fatigue crack delay due to an overload based on the short crack theory

It is well-known that a single tensile overload, during the fatigue crack growth under constant loading amplitude, can induce the delay phenomenon. One of the basic mechanisms for fatigue crack growth in ductile metals is based on the crack-tip blunting under tensile loads. In this article, we investigate the fatigue crack growth delay behavior due to the single overload in the case of 12NC6 steel through compact tension specimens. An analytical method based on properly modified εN concepts is presented to predict the delay lives. The combination knowledge of the short cracks and the 3D constraint effect is important for the analysis in the vicinity of the blunt crack tip after overload. The present approach provides an analytical means to quantify the crack delay cycles in fatigue following a single tensile overload. The experimental results are in good agreement with the analytical modeling for different overload distributions.     

CRACK GROWTH AND CLOSURE BEHAVIOUR OF SURFACE CRACKS UNDER AXIAL LOADING

Abstract— Crack growth and closure behaviour of surface cracks in 7075-T6 aluminium alloy are investigated under axial loading, noting the difference in fatigue growth behaviour at the maximum crack depth point and at the surface intersection point and also with through-thickness crack growth behaviour. The plane strain closure response at the point of maximum depth of a surface crack is monitored using an extensometer spanning the surface crack at the midpoint of its length. The plane stress closure at the surface intersection point is observed by multiple strain gauges placed at appropriate intervals ahead of the crack tip and continuously monitored without interrupting the fatigue test. The crack opening ratio is found to be about 10% greater at the maximum depth point than at the surface intersection point. Under axial loading, the difference in plane strain crack closure behaviour between the surface crack and the through-thickness crack is relatively small. Growth rates of surface cracks can be well described by the effective stress intensity factor range based on the closure measurements made in this study. The growth rates in terms of the effective stress intensity factor range seem to be slightly slower in surface cracks than in through-thickness cracks.