Evaluation of the tensile and fatigue behaviour of ingot metallurgy beryllium/aluminium alloys

The tensile and fatigue behaviour of ingot metallurgy beryllium/aluminium alloys produced by Nuclear Metals, Inc., is determined as a function of temperature. The wrought alloy and the casting alloy are both shown to have a very high stiffness to density ratio compared with common structural materials. The wrought alloy was found to have superior fatigue strength, tensile strength and ductility relative to the casting alloy; it also maintained a greater fraction of its tensile strength as a function of temperature. The stiffness of the materials can be readily explained using standard composite theory, where the material is treated as a discontinuous beryllium-reinforced aluminium matrix composite. The strength of the casting alloy is controlled to a large extent by the strength of its aluminium alloy matrix. In contrast, strengthening increments from both dislocation-based mechanisms and load transfer appear to be operative for the wrought material. Fractographic analysis of tensile specimens showed that preferential failure of the aluminium regions or the beryllium/aluminium interfacial regions occurs under certain circumstances. Fracture analysis of fatigue samples revealed no obvious fracture initiation sites and no evidence of limited/controlled crack growth regions. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.