FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH OF AGE-HARDENED Al ALLOY UNDER ULTRASONIC LOADING

Abstract

An age-hardened and extruded Al alloy 7075-T6 was fatigued under both ultrasonic loading (20kHz) and rotating bending (50Hz) in the environments of controlled humidity, distilled water and oxygen gas respectively, to investigate the availability of ultrasonic fatigue test as a timesaving tool for the reliability evaluation of materials subjected to conventional frequency loading. Although fatigue strength decreased slightly at relative humidity below 60-70%, it degraded significantly when the humidity was increased beyond that level, irrespective of the loading frequency. However, the mechanisms of strength degradation involved in high humidity are quite different. Under rotating bending, fatigue strength decreased because crack growth was accelerated due to brittle fracture, whileas the decrease in fatigue strength under ultrasonic loading was caused by crack propagation transition from tensile mode to shear mode cracking.