Paper Ref: S2408_P0369 3rd International Conference on Integrity, Reliability and Failure, Porto/Portugal, 20-24 July 2009

HEAT TREATMENT EFFECT ON FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH

Benachour Mustapha*, Hadjoui Abdelhamid*, Benguediab Mohamed** * LAT, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of the Engineering Sciences, University of Tlemcen Tlemcen, Algeria, Email: mbenachour_99@yahoo.fr, hadjoui_ab@yahoo.fr ** Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of the Engineering Sciences, University of Sidi Bel Abbes Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, Email: benguediab_m@yahoo.fr

ABSTRACT Aluminum alloys are the second most widely used metallic materials in aerospace when the choice of material for a given construction requires a major knowledge on its behavior. The study is undertaken on the SENT specimen out of aluminum alloy 2024 T3 and 2024 T62. This work presents the effect of the heat treatment or the state of material on the fatigue crack growth rate. The results show the influence of the heat treatment state on the shift of the fatigue life curves according to the propagated length. INTRODUCTION Aluminum and its alloys are being used successfully in a wide range of applications, from packaging to aerospace industries. Due to their good mechanical properties and low densities, these alloys have an edge over other conventional structural materials. 2024 variant alloys, such as higher purity 2124 and 2324 and 2024 in different tempered situations (T3, T351, T81, T62. etc) with improvements in strength and other specific characteristics, have also found application in critical aircraft structures. The 2024 aluminum alloy remains as an important aircraft structural material due to its extremely good damage tolerance and high resistance to fatigue crack propagation in T3 aged condition (Zender, 1996). Zhang et al (2001) studied the effect of shock waves excited by laser on aluminum alloy 2024 in T62 tempered condition. The ultimate tensile strength, surface hardness, elastic modulus and Poisson ratio increase on theirs effects. The relations between these factors and the fatigue life of the specimens are investigated by Zhang (1998). Genevois et al (2006) shown that the tensile properties of the various regions of the 2024 T351 and 2024 T6 welds are very heterogeneous and essentially controlled by the state of precipitation. The 2024 T6 base material is stronger than the 2024 T351 alloy, leading to more pronounced strain localization during transverse tensile tests and a lower overall ductility. The objective of this paper is to show the effect heat treatment state on fatigue life and fatigue crack growth rate. FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH OF SENT SPECIMEN Material and specimens The material used in this study is the aluminum alloy 2024 in two tempered situations such as T3 solution heat-treated, cold worked, and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition and T62 solution heat-treated and annealed when L-T orientation is subjected to numerical fatigue tests. The basic mechanical properties for Aluminum alloys 2024 are given in Table 1. Numerical fatigue crack growth in mode I used SENT specimen single edge through crack (figure 1).
-1-

Table 1. Mechanical properties for different aluminum alloy 2024

Aluminum alloy 2024 T3 T62

0.2 (MPa) 365.422 399.896

KIC

KC

MPa m
36.262 39.558

MPa m
72.524 79.116

E (GPa) 73.08 73.08

The stress intensity factor for the studied specimen SENT specimen with single edge through crack implemented in AFGROW code is written bellow:

Fatigue crack growth model

AFGROW code developed by NASA (2006) is used for simulation of fatigue crack growth with and without residual stress. Many models for fatigue crack growth are implemented. The interest model is NASGRO model when totality of fatigue crack growth curves is considered. NASGRO model are expressed bellow:

f present the contribution of crack closure and the parameters C, n, p, q were determined experimentally and Kth is the crack propagation threshold value of the stress-intensity factor range. For constant amplitude loading, the function f was determined by Newman (1984).
RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

The figure 2 present the variation of fatigue life for load ratio R = 0.24 in two tempered case under the same load in L-T orientation. The fatigue life for 2024 T3 is great comparatively to the fatigue life for 2024 T62. The effect of condition temper for aluminum alloy on fatigue crack growth rate is presented in figure 2. The aluminum 2024 T62 present a good resistance to the fatigue comparatively to the aluminum alloy 2024 T3 in final fracture. The difference between 2024 T3 and 2024 T62 for the fatigue crack growth in Paris region is very weak. At the same final crack length the stress intensity factor is highly for 2024 T62 (figure 3).

t = 5 mm

w = 100 mm a0 = 0.5 mm

Fig. 1 SENT specimen with single edge through crack

K = a .

(1)

K th n 1 1 f K da = C K q dN 1 R K max 1 K crit

(2)

-2-

0,045 0,040 0,035 0,030 0,025 0,020 0,015 0,010 0,005 0,000 0

crack lengh (m)

2024 T62

2024 T3

50000

100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 N (number of cycles)

Fig. 2 Fatigue life for two aluminum alloy

1,0E-02 1,0E-03 da/dN (m/cycle) 1,0E-04 1,0E-05 1,0E-06 1,0E-07 1,0E-08 1,0E-09 1,0E-10 1 10 DK (MPa.Sqrt(m )) 100
2024 T62 2024 T3

Fig. 3 Fatigue crack growth rate for two aluminum alloy

The considered specimens are subjected to a constant loading with various load ratios when the Kmax fracture criteria are adopted for the limit of crack growth. Figures 4 and 5 showed the effect of load ratio on fatigue crack growth rate for material 2024 aluminum alloy obtained in T3 and T62 situations and illustrates a general increase in da/dN with R for a given K. An important effect of R has been observed clearly for this material at high K. Theses results are in agreement with the results of different authors (Srivastava and Garg, 1985; Kujawski, 2001; Kermanidis and Pantelakis, 2001). A weak reduction in the fatigue crack growth rate is announced to the low values of the factor stress intensity factor with the variation of load ratio R. For the same crack growth rate a decreasing of stress intensity factor with increasing stress ratio. At high stress, the fatigue crack growth is important.

-3-

1,0E-02 da/dN (m/cycle) 1,0E-04 1,0E-06 1,0E-08 1,0E-10 1 10 DK (MPa.Sqrt(m )) 100

R = 0.1 R = 0.24 { R = 0.50

Fig. 4 Load ratio effect on fatigue crack growth rate for 2024 T62

1,0E-02 da/dN (m/cycle) 1,0E-04 1,0E-06 1,0E-08 1,0E-10 1 10 DK (MPa.Sqrt(m )) 100

R = 0.1 R = 0.24 { R = 0.50

Fig. 5 Load ratio effect on fatigue crack growth rate for 2024 T3

CONCLUSIONS

Paper presents the results of simulation of fatigue crack growth using AFGROW code. The effect of heat treatment (tempered situation) for aluminum alloy 2024 is investigated. The results showed that the aluminum 2024 T3 and 2024 T62 present the same resistance and the fatigue life is affected by temper condition. The increasing of load ratio increases the fatigue crack growth rate and decreases the threshold stress intensity factor.
REFERENCES

Genevois C., Deschamps A, Vacher P. Materials Science and Engineering, A415; 2006, p162170. Harter, J.A., AFGROW users guide and technical manual: AFGROW for Windows 2K/XP, Version 4.0011.14., 2006, Air Force Research Laboratory. Kermanidis AL. TH., Pantelakis SP. G. Fatigue Fracture Engineering Materials Structure, 24; 2001, p 699-710 Kujawski D. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 68(12); 2001, p 13571369. Newman J.C. International Journal of Fracture, 24(3); 1984, p R131-135.
-4-

Srivastava Y.P., Garg B.L. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 22(6); 1985, p 915-926. Zehnder J. In Aluminum: Technology, application, and environment, a profile of a modern metal (ed) Dietrich G Altenpohl (Pennsylvania: TMS Warrendale), 1996, p. 319. Zhang Hong, Yu Chengye, Materials Science and Engineering, A257; 1998, p. 322327. Zhang Y.K, Hu C.L, Cai L, Yang J.C, Zhang X.R, Appl. Phys, A72; 2001, p. 113116.

-5-