The role of environmental exposure in the fatigue behaviour of an aluminium alloy

This paper reports measurements of fatigue crack velocities for an aluminium alloy 7017-T651 in high purity gaseous environments with different values of water vapour pressure and frequency. Also a detailed fractographical analysis by SEM is presented and the fracture surface morphology is correlated with the testing parameters and with the crack stress intensity level. Within a range of environmental exposure (defined as the product between the pressure and the time available for surface reaction during one fatigue cycle) crack propagation rates depend linearly on the exposure. The experimental fatigue crack propagation data are satisfactorily explained in terms of a corrosion-fatigue model for gaseous environments.