Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are considered revolutionary because they could fundamentally change the way products are designed. Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a metal based AM process with significant and growing potential for the manufacture of aerospace components. Traditionally a material needs to be listed in the Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization (MMPDS) handbook if it is to be considered certified. However, this requires a considerable amount of test data to be generated on the materials mechanical properties. Therefore, the MMPDS certification process does not lend itself easily to the certification of AM components as the final component can have similar mechanical properties to wrought alloys combined with the defects associated with traditional casting and welding technologies. These defects can substantially decrease the fatigue life of a fabricated component. The primary purpose of this investigation was to study the fatigue behaviour of as-built Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) samples. Fatigue tests were performed on the Ti-6Al-4V specimens built using SLM with a variety of layer thicknesses and build (vertical or horizontal) directions. Fractography revealed the presence of a range of manufacturing defects located at or near the surface of the specimens. The experimental results indicated that Lack-of-Fusion (LOF) defects were primarily responsible for fatigue crack initiation. The reduction in fatigue life appeared to be affected by the location, size and shape of the LOF defect.
Material imperfections usually play a substantial role in the early stages of fatigue cracking. This article presents some observations concerning fatigue crack initiating flaws and early crack growth in 7050‐T7451 aluminium alloy specimens and in full‐scale fatigue test articles with a production surface finish. Equivalent initial flaw size (EIFS) approaches used to evaluate the fatigue implications of metallurgical, manufacturing and service‐induced features were refined by using quantitative fractography to acquire detailed information on the early crack growth behaviour of individual cracks; the crack growth observations were employed in a simple crack growth model developed for use in analysing service crack growth. The use of observed crack growth behaviour reduces the variability which is inherent in EIFS approaches which rely on modelling the whole of fatigue life, and which can dominate EIFS methods. The observations of realistic initial flaws also highlighted some of the significant factors in the fatigue life‐determining early fatigue growth phase, such as surface treatment processes. Although inclusions are often regarded as the single most common type of initiating flaw, processes which include etching can lead to etch pitting of grain boundaries with significant fatigue life implications.
This paper presents results which demonstrate that polymeric filler materials, such as lowviscosity epoxies, can be vacuum-infiltrated into fatigue cracks in 7050 aluminium alloy to produce significant levels of fatigue crack retardation. It was found that the main test variable affecting the degree of retardation was the stress level at which the adhesive was introduced and cured. Two infiltrated adhesives were tested.Infiltration at 0% (of the original) peak fatigue stress level produced negligible retardation, while infiltration at the 80% stress level produced about 300% increase in fatigue life for one adhesive and 3000% for the other adhesive. For the highest infiltration stress level both crack-face wedging and adhesion contributed initially to the retardation, but the adhesive component ceased after a crack grew through the adhesive to the original crack tip position. The results are discussed in terms of the applicability of the technique to highly-stressed aircraft components. NOMENCLATURE a =crack length E = Young's modulus K,,, =stress intensity factor (peak applied stress; reference) Kmin = stress intensity factor (minimum applied stress) AK =stress intensity factor range (Kmax -K~" ) K(bond) = stress intensity factor (local, from bond) K(wedge) =stress intensity factor (local, from wedge) K,,,(eff) = maximum stress intensity factor (net) Kfin(eff) =minimum stress intensity factor (net) K(c1os) = stress intensity factor (local, from crack closure) AK(eff) =effective stress intensity factor range (K,,(eff) -K,,(eff)) W = specimen width
Metal and glass-bead peening treatments, widely used throughout the aircraft industry to enhance the fatigue performance of many steels and titanium alloys, are now being routinely applied to high-strength aluminium-alloy components. This paper describes the effects of peening on the fatigue life of 7050 aluminium alloy material, which is representative of alloys used for many components in modern military aircraft. Using simulated service loading, two proposed peening/re-peening procedures were evaluated and compared with both the original peened surface and a simple hand-polished surface. The results show that optimisation of peening parameters to reduce surface damage can provide a substantial improvement in fatigue life over both the original peening treatment and the polished surface treatment, however, poor control of peening procedures, or unnecessary "overpeening" can lead to a relatively poor fatigue life. For re-peened surfaces, a procedure incorporating a polishing step, designed to repair any damage from the severe peening applied initially, gave the best fatigue performance. Results are discussed in relation to the stability of the residual surface stresses under fatigue loading, the surface roughness, and the number and types of defects introduced by the peening treatments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.