Influence of the Peak Tensile Overload Cycles on the Fatigue Crack Growth of Aluminum Alloy Under Spectrum Loading

Many structures such as aircrafts, risers, and offshore pipelines that are in contact with fluids, become subjected to complex variable amplitude loading (VAL) stress-time histories during their service lives. As a result, the structural life assessment and damage-tolerant analyses of such structures are considered as two important design criteria. In this paper, a VAL stress-time history is used to study the fatigue life of 6061-T651 aluminum alloy, with focus on the retardation effect resulting from the applied peak tensile overload cycles (TOLCs). Various so-called “clipping” levels are tested, and the results are compared with those obtained through an analytical method, using the Willenborg retardation approach, in conjunction with the Walker fatigue crack growth model. The results would demonstrate the significant influence of the TOLC present within VAL scenarios on retarding the fatigue crack growth rate of the material. The study also investigates the influence of various clipping levels on the fatigue response of the material, also highlighting the limitations of the analytical approach in estimating the resulting crack growth rate. It is observed that the analytical method predicts a higher fatigue life for the material subjected to VAL, which is non-conservative for design purposes. Some suggestions are provided for fatigue life estimation of the material when subjected to VAL scenarios.