Accepted Manuscript

Title: Experimental and numerical investigations on fatigue

behavior of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 single lap
four-bolted joints

Authors: Xiaomei Liu, Hao Cui, Shangzhou Zhang, Haipo

Liu, Gaofeng Liu, Shujun Li

PII: S1005-0302(17)30238-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2017.09.020
Reference: JMST 1065

To appear in:

Received date: 2-6-2017

Revised date: 1-8-2017
Accepted date: 19-9-2017

Please cite this article as: Xiaomei Liu, Hao Cui, Shangzhou Zhang, Haipo Liu,
Gaofeng Liu, Shujun Li, Experimental and numerical investigations on fatigue
behavior of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 single lap four-bolted joints (2010),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2017.09.020

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Experimental and numerical investigations on fatigue behavior
of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 single lap four-bolted joints

Xiaomei Liu1, Hao Cui 1, Shangzhou Zhang 1, , Haipo Liu 1, Gaofeng Liu 2, Shujun Li3

1
School of Environmental and Materials Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005,
China
2
Oriental Bluesky Titanium Technology Co., LTD., Yantai 264005, China
3
Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

* Corresponding authors. Tel.: +86 535 670 6335; Fax: +86 535 6706038

E-mail address: szzhangyt@163.com (S.Z. Zhang)

[Received 2 June 2017; Received in revised form 1 August 2017; Accepted 19 September
2017]

The fatigue behavior of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 single lap four-bolted

joints was studied by high-frequency fatigue test and finite element (FE)
methods. The fatigue test results showed that a better enhancement of fatigue life
was achieved for the joints with high-locked bolts by employing the
combinations of cold expansion, interference fit, and clamping force. The
fractography revealed that fatigue cracks propagated tortuously; more fatigue
micro-cliffs, tearing ridges, lamellar structure were observed, and fatigue
striation spacing was simultaneously reduced. The evaluation of residual stress
conducted by FE methods confirmed the experimental results and locations of
fatigue crack initiation. The extension of fatigue lives can be attributed to the
evolution of fatigue damage and effect of beneficial compressive residual
stresses around the hole, resulting in the delay of crack initiation, crack
deflection, and plasticity-induced crack closure.
 Keywords: 7050 aluminum alloy; Bolted joint; Fatigue behavior; Finite element
analysis; Residual stress

1. Introduction

Bolted joints of mechanical components have the advantages of higher strength than
welded joints[1], high durability, low cost, and the ease of detachment, which are widely
used for connecting crucial parts (e.g. fuselage frame, wing skin) of modern aircrafts in
aerospace industries[2]. However, the drilled holes for bolted joints generated local stress
concentration, serving as potential sources for fatigue crack initiation during cyclic
loading[3]. Accordingly, many techniques, such as cold expansion, interference fit, and
clamping force, have been proposed to improve the fatigue life of single or double lap
joints[4-6]. These methods introduced the circumferential compressive stress or pre-stress
around the fastener hole to alleviate the detrimental tensile longitudinal stress and delay the
nucleation and propagation of fatigue cracks, leading to the improvement of fatigue life[7, 8].
There have been considerable researches devoted to isolated influencing factor of cold
expansion, interference fit, or clamping force on fatigue behavior of bolted joints. In the
cold expansion technique, an oversized tapered mandrel or ball went through a hole, and
then the hoop residual stresses created around the hole had a considerable effect on
improving fatigue life by a factor of 2‒10 than the non-expanded holes, either by retarding
crack initiation or more often by reducing crack growth rates[9-11]. After the cold expansion
of holes in Al 2024 alloys, the expansion method using the taper pin yielded more effective
compressive stress compared to the ball mandrel and hence proved to be more effective in
fatigue life improvement[12]. The interference-fit technology made an oversized fastener
installed into a hole, inducing a tensile tangential pre-stress at the edge of the hole, which
remarkably decreased the local cyclic stress amplitude and was beneficial to fatigue life
enhancement[13-15]. In carbon fiber-reinforced polymer/Ti alloy bolted joints, specimens
fitted with interference exhibited better performance in bearing strength and fatigue life
than those net fit, and the fretting fatigue life was associated with the interference-fit sizes
and the dynamic levels[16]. The clamping force due to the bolt tightening decreased the
stress concentration factor at the hole edge and stress intensity factor at the crack tip, and
consequently increased fracture strength[17].
In addition to the isolated factor, there are some investigations[18-20] about the
combination of these two techniques on the fatigue lives of bolted joints. The investigation
of different combinations of interference fit and bolt clamping for Al 2024-T3 double shear
lap joints revealed that the specimens with a smaller interference fit size and higher
clamping force had longer fatigue lives[21]. Applying the combination of cold expansion
and clamping torque for bolted joints significantly changed the fatigue behavior. When the
cold expansion degree was relatively low, the fatigue life was increased by applying
clamping torque. In contrast, when the cold expansion degree was high, the fatigue life was
decreased by applying of the clamping torque[22].
Finite element (FE) methods[23-27] have been used to study performances of bolted joints
and evaluate the local stress distribution. FE results highlighted the fact that cold expansion
reduced the local mean stress around the hole, and the residual stress distribution of the
hole edge was not uniform through the thickness with the largest amount of residual
compressive stress in the mid-bore[26]. Investigation of crack nucleation of
interference-fitted 7075Al-alloy joints demonstrated that fretting was the main reason, and
the crack nucleation location was precisely predicted and fatigue life enhancement was well
explained[27]. In the bolted assembly the developed FE modelling approach to simulate
clamping force was validated against the experimental results and allowed to provide
general design considerations[28]. Numerical investigation carried out on single cold
expanded holed 7075-T6 alloy plate showed that bolt clamping the cold-expanded hole
improved the compressive tangential residual stress by increasing its magnitude and
making its distribution uniform thus enhancing fatigue life[29].
A detailed knowledge about the combined effect of cold expansion, interference fit and
clamping force on fatigue lives is essential to the accurate and efficient design of bolted
joints. In this paper, experimental and numerical studies of the fatigue behavior of single
lap four-bolted 7050 aluminum alloy joints by applying above techniques are reported. FE
models were used to obtain the stress variation in the joint plates at the hole edge to help
explain the trends observed in the experimentally obtained fatigue data.

2. Experimental procedures
The test joints were made from a 6.35-mm-thick aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 plate in the
rolling direction. Fig. 1 shows the dimensions and configuration of the single lap
four-bolted joints. Four bolts are 2 rows  2 columns arrangements. Two types of bolts, that
is HST12 high-locked flat head bolt resist to tensile, and HSL756 high-locked flat head bolt
resist to interference, manufactured from Ti‒6Al‒4V titanium alloy, were used to fasten the
plates, and the geometries are also shown in Fig. 1. The bolt has a tensile strength, b of
1200 MPa and a yield strength, 0.2 of 1100 MPa. For each joint group, cold expansion,
interference fit size, clamping force, the load type, bolt type and the fatigue bearing stress
levels are identified in Table 1.
As jointing the plates, cold expansion was firstly conducted on the plates. Then, two
sizes of interference fit in the tests were created: -0.2% and 1.4% (The diameter of titanium
alloy bolt was 6 mm, and the hole diameters of aluminum alloy plates were designed to
different sizes). Interference fit size is given by the relation: I%=(D-d)/D100%, where d is
the specimen hole diameter and D is the bolt diameter. Finally, the clamping force was
applied on the joints.
The fatigue tests were performed on a QBG-400 high-frequency fatigue test machine
with a maximum load capacity of 250 kN at room temperature. The tests were carried out
by applying cyclic sinusoidal load type with stress ratio, R of 0.1 and the frequency of 70
Hz. Fatigue tests were conducted according to the NASM1312.11. Several certain
percentages of the ultimate strength (67%b, 50%b, 30%b, 15%b, 10%b, and 7%b)
were used to determine the fatigue stress level. Four specimens were used to obtain the
fatigue cycle numbers for every stress level. The increase of potential significant
temperature would occur due to relatively rapid motion between the joint parts during
fatigue test, which may cause premature failure of the joints. Thus, the compressed cooling
air blowing directly toward the bolt was used. The tensile properties were conducted on a
WAW-2000 electronic universal test machine. The mechanical properties of the 7050
aluminum alloy and stress levels for fatigue test of joints are shown in Table 1. To
investigate the locations of fatigue crack initiation in different types of the joints, the
fatigue propagation and fractured surfaces were examined by optical microscopy (ZEISS
Axio Lab A1) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JSM-7610F).
In order to obtain the stress distribution in the joints, three-dimensional FE models were
simulated by ANSYS software. The bolt and nut are modeled as rigid bodies, whereas
aluminum plates are modeled as elasto-plastic with kinematic hardening behavior. The FE
mesh is presented in Fig. 2 and the minimum mesh size around the hole was 1 mm. The
employed models were according to the dimensions of the experimental joints. The elastic
modulus and Poisson’s ratio of 7050 alloy were measured to be E=72 GPa and =0.33.
Flexible to flexible contact option was selected to define the friction coefficient of 0.15
between the plates and 0.1 between bolt shank and the hole surface [19].
With simulating the fatigue process, FE analysis was carried out starting with cold
expansion process. Firstly, the mandrel was positioned on the upper face along the hole
depth, and pushed into the hole and removed fromAthe other side. Then, the bolt shank was
shrunk gradually and a displacement was imposed on the face of the bolt to achieve the
desired interference fit equal to 1.4%. Subsequently, the clamping force value was
produced by applying corresponding appropriate axial displacement at the bottom surface
of the bolt shank. Finally, a tensile remote load of maximum value 20 kN was applied to
both ends of the model by loading and unloading.

3. Results
3.1 Fatigue life
The double logarithmic S‒N curves for the joints using two bolts with cold expansion,
interference fit, and clamping force are illustrated in Fig. 3. If the cold expansion was not
applied, increasing the interference fit has almost no effect on fatigue life of the joint with
HST12 bolts (0230 and 0240 joints). As the interference fit size is 1.4%, the effect of cold
expansion and bolt clamping force on fatigue lives of the joints with different bolt types
was studied. The 0250 joint with higher clamping force has higher fatigue life than that of
0240 joint. Compared to the fatigue lives of 0240 and 0270 joints with HST12 bolts, 0250
and 0280 joints with HSL756 bolts, cold expansion significantly improves fatigue life. For
the joints with different bolt types applying cold expansion and interference fit, the results
demonstrated that fatigue lives of the 0270 and 0280 joints are similar.
3.2 Fatigue fracture modes
The fatigue crack propagation path and fracture surfaces of the different joints were
examined by optical microscopy and SEM, respectively. Fig. 4 shows the fatigue damage
of the joints for maximum applied load equal to 30% of the static tensile strength. The
failure of the joints is caused by net-tension of the plate. Moreover, the photographic
observation of the fracture mode found that the locations of the fracture and the crack
propagation paths depended on cold expansion, interference fit and clamping force.
For the 0230 joint, fatigue failure occurred at the hole edge, and fatigue crack nearly
propagated across the middle plane of the hole. As compared to the 0230 joint, the crack
propagation path in the interference fitted 0240 joint slightly moved towards hole edge. The
0250 joint has the similar behavior to the 0240 joint. For the 0270 and 0280 joints with cold
expansion, fatigue failure occurred somewhere far from the hole edge, indicating that cold
expansion affected the residual stress distribution. With increasing cyclic load, the fatigue
crack initiated at the hole edge and tended to spread towards to the middle plane of the hole.
Observations on the migration of the crack nucleation locations and crack paths with
[13, 21,
applying clamping force or interference fit have been also made by Chakherlou et al.
24]
.
Fig. 5 shows the optical micrographics of fatigue crack propagation. In the case of the
0230 joint, the crack propagation paths were relatively smooth and straight. Even if
interference fit was applied on the 0240 and 0250 joints, the fatigue crack propagation was
not obviously changed, and it was still flat. But tortuous crack propagation paths that
contained many deflections and crack closures were observed in the 0270 and 0280 joints
with applying cold expansion, and exhibited a “Z” mode. Moreover, the second cracks
along the main crack path that only grew a very short distance was observed in Fig. 5(e).
These crack deflections, fracture surface plasticity-induced crack closure, and crack
branching increased the fatigue crack growth resistance and slowed the rate of crack
propagation in the 0270 and 0280 joints.
Fig. 6 represents the fatigue cracks initiation, propagation and final fracture of the 0230
joint at 30% of tensile strength observed by SEM. The other joints have similar
fractography. The topography showed that fatigue fracture surface is divided into three
zones: crack initiation zone, crack propagation zone, and final crack zone. The locations of
crack initiation were always at the stress-concentrated regions near the entrance surface, as
illustrated in Fig. 6(a), and the fatigue crack development showed radial. Fig. 6(b) shows
the fracture morphology of transition region between the fatigue crack propagation and
1mm
final fracture region. The fatigue crack propagation region at the upper side of the boundary
mainly consisted of faceted surfaces. Static load rupture characteristics can be observed in
the final fracture area, where the surfaces are characterized by large amount of ductile fine
dimples.
Fig. 7 shows the fractography of fatigue crack propagation of 0240, 0250, 0270, and
0280 joints subjected to 30% of static tensile strength. In the case of the 0230 joint, the
surface contained several flat-faceted areas. However, as interference fit was further
induced on 0240 and 0250 joints, the surface was characterized by minor fibrous beach
marks that were roughly parallel to the principal fatigue crack growth direction, and more
fatigue micro-cliffs appeared.
It is worthy of noting that tear ridges and a lamellar structure caused by inhomogeneous
plastic deformation were observed in the 0270 and 0280 joints along the fracture path.
Some secondary crack showed discontinuous distribution, and can be found as well as
clearly crystallographic features, such as uneven crystallographic facets and river-like
features, indicating that the crack propagated along different crystallographic planes in
different grains. In the micro-cliffs that parallel to fatigue crack propagation directions,
there are many stepped-like pattern, demonstrating that lateral slip of crack tip in the crack
propagation occurred. These phenomena indicated that crack propagation required more
strain energies in the 0270 and 0280 joints than other joints during inhomogeneous plastic
deformation, resulting in higher fatigue lives of 0270 and 0280 joints, which are in
agreement with the fatigue test results.
3.3 Fatigue striation
Localized magnification views of fatigue striations in the fatigue crack propagation
region are shown in Fig. 8. The fatigue cycle striation is a typical microscopic morphology
of fatigue crack at the stable propagation stage. It is shown that large amount of fatigue
striations with smooth and regular intervals were observed, even on tiny fracture faces. The
fatigue striations with some secondary cracks parallel to each other, and are cambered
outwards and perpendicular to the direction of localized crack propagation. In addition, the
fatigue striations may distribute on different planes, and can step over from one plane to
another due to the existence of preferred orientation grains in crack tip or grain boundary.
In order to compare the spacing of fatigue striations, fracture surface in the middle of
failed aluminum plate was selected for observations. It is shown that the spacing between
fatigue striations varied with cold expansion, interference fit and clamping force. An
average spacing of 0.47 m for the 0230 joint with no interference fit is presented in Fig.
8(a). After applying interference fit and clamping force for the 0240 and 0250 joints, the
corresponding fatigue striations spacings were 0.50 m and 0.45 m, respectively. With
exerting cold expansion on 0270 and 0280 joints, the fatigue striations spacings were
determined to be 0.32 m and 0.27 m, respectively. The 0270 and 0280 joints exhibited
the lowest striation width, indicating an increased resistance to fatigue crack growth in both
joints, which is in agreement with the experimental results displayed in Fig. 3.

3.4 FE analysis
To find the stress distribution at different types of the joints, cold expansion, interference
fit, clamping force and longitudinal cyclic tensile load were successively applied on the
three dimensional models. Fig. 9 shows the attained pre-stress contours of the resulted
residual stress for all models. Because all the failure occurred at nearby the hole ‘A’ shown
in Fig. 2, residual stress distributions are analyzed around hole ‘A’. Bolt clamping the 0230
joint resulted in a zone around the hole containing compressive residual stress, where the
distribution is relatively uniform. In interference fitted 0240 and 0250 joints, as shown in
Fig. 9(b and c), the created pre-stress is non-uniform through the plate thickness. Although
the interference fits produced pre-stress around the hole, the magnitude of the compressive
stress is considerably raised. After bolt tightening on the 0270 and 0280 joints, the
compressive stress field induced by bolt clamping superimposed to the primary
compressive residual stress field of cold expansion and interference fit. It is noted that there
are a small zone of tensile stress at the hole edge in the joints except the 0230 joint, which
will influence fatigue crack initiation.
After applying longitudinal load, the variation of circumferential and radial resultant
stress in longitudinal direction on the hole edge are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The
circumferential stress varied with the distance from the hole edge. At the entrance plane,
the stresses for all joints are tensile, and decrease away from the hole edge, reach the
minimal values at about 2.2 mm. Then the stresses increase, and pass through a peak
maximum at about 3mm. The stresses of the 0270 and 0280 joints are less than that of the
0240 and 0250 joints beyond 2.2 mm away from the hole edge. At the middle plane, the
circumferential stress for the 0230 joint is initially tensile at the hole edge, but it is
compressive by about 0.9mm distance from the hole edge, and then approaches zero
gradually. However for the other joints, the residual stress is compressive at hole edge and
gets to maximum tensile stress by about 1.2mm distance away from hole edge. The tensile
stress is zero gradually after the maximum point. The residual stresses of the 0270 and 0280
joints are lower than that of the 0240 and 0250 joints. The same sequence occurred at the
exit plane. In the thickness direction, as shown in Fig. 10d, the stresses reduce from the
entrance plane towards the exit plane and reach a platform at a depth of about 4 mm. The
0230 joint has the highest residual stress and the 0270 and 0280 joints have the lowest
stresses.
The distribution of radial residual stresses shown in Fig. 11 are different from the
circumferential stresses. The magnitude of the radial stress is the highest for the 0230 joint
in all planes. The 0240 and 0250 joints have slightly lower stresses than the 0270 and 0280
joints. The radial stress is tensile for the 0230 joint at the hole edge, and is compressive for
about 1 mm around the hole, and then it is gradually close to zero. The stresses are
compressive for other joints expect at the entrance plane. The compressive residual stresses
have a minimum magnitude at the entrance plane and a maximum at the exit plane at the
hole edge. In the thickness direction, the stress distributions are similar to that of Fig. 10d.
The variation of circumferential and radial resultant stresses in transverse direction on
the hole edge are similar to longitudinal direction. The average stress fields in the
transverse direction are shown in Fig. 12.
4. Discussion
In the experimental procedures, clamping force was applied on all the joints, and the
interference fit was induced in the joints except 0230 joint, which can introduce the
circumferential compressive stress around the hole. From the S‒N curves, the fatigue lives
of the 0230 and 0240 joints were almost same, although the interference fit was applied on
the 0240 joint. Fractography observations show that the crack propagation was relatively
smooth and the fractured surface was flat-faceted areas. This indicated that interference fit
has no effect on the fatigue lives of the bolt clamping joint.
[16] [21]
Li et al. and Chakherlou and Abazadeh revealed that specimens fitted with
interference exhibited better performance in fatigue lives than those net fit, and the fatigue
lives were improved by employing the combination of a smaller interference fit size and
bigger clamping force. In the 0250 joint, the applied maximum clamping force is higher
than that in 0230 and 0240 joints. FE analysis show that the compressive circumferential
and radial stresses around the hole created by higher clamping force would be much bigger,
resulting in the higher fatigue lives of the 0250 joint than that of the 0230 and 0240 joints.
Cold expansion was firstly exerted on the plates of 7050 aluminum alloys, and then the
plates were assembled with high-locked bolts by applying interference fit and finally
clamping force. Based on FE results in Fig. 9(d and e), the plates of 0270 and 0280 joints
induced by bolt tightening on cold expanded and interference fitted hole would introduce
the larger and permanent compressive residual stress field around the hole. As a result, the
induced compressive residual stress compelled the crack to close, causing the
plasticity-induced crack closure and contributing to delay the crack nucleation during cyclic
deformation, as shown in Fig. 5. Therefore, plasticity-induced crack closures of the 0270
and 0280 joints are obviously larger than that of the other joints, which may therefore
contribute to the enhanced resistance of fatigue crack propagation. For the other joints, the
effect of plasticity-induced crack closure is insignificant. As a consequence, a smooth and
straight crack paths were observed.
Due to the compressive residual stress, fatigue crack deflection or branching observed in
Fig. 5 increased the crack closure intensity factor, and then made the fracture surfaces
rougher, resulting in a high degree of mismatch between the cracked surfaces. The fatigue
surfaces observations demonstrated that large of tearing ridges, lamellar structures, and
secondary cracks occurred in the 0270 and 0280 joints, which could also generate
plasticity-induced crack closure effect, and then reduce the crack driving force for crack
propagation.
The fatigue striation spacing is the approximation of crack propagation rate. While
comparing with 0230 joint, fatigue striations spacings for the 0240, 0250, 0270 and 0280
joints reduced in sequence, indicating that the induced high-amplitude compressive residual
stresses decreased the crack-tip stress intensity factor and had the positive effect on the
enhancement of fatigue performance through reducing the fatigue crack propagation rate. It
is inferred that the 0270 and 0280 joints obtained the most obvious improvement of
resistance on fatigue crack propagation due to the narrowest fatigue striation spacing.
The examinations of fractured sections in Fig. 4 show the variation of crack nucleation
locations for different joints, which is a consequence of modified residual stress distribution
and can be explained by the FE results. In the 0230 joint, the circumferential and radial
stresses are tensile and the largest stresses are on the hole edge, making the hole edge more
susceptible to fatigue crack initiation and propagation. In this case, the failure was caused
by the bearing of the bolt at the hole. However, as cold expansion or interference fit were
exerted on the 0240, 0250 or 0270, 0280 joints, which increased locally the flexural rigidity
of the plates, the bolt would be stretched in tension and the jointed plates would be
compressed transversally. Due to Poisson’s ratio the plates would be radially stretched. At
the same time the plate far away would resist against stretching, and thus compressive
residual stresses are created around the hole. Therefore tensile residual stress concentration
shown in Fig. 9 appeared near or far away the hole edge. After applying remote load, the
stresses near the hole edge are compressive, and with the distance of 1 mm away from hole
edge the stresses reach maximum values and are tensile (see Figs. 10 and 11). The
compressive stresses around the hole weakened the stress concentration induced by the hole
or applied load, and the fields of tensile residual stresses were favorable for fatigue crack
initiations, making the damage away the hole edge. Such trends were more significant for
the 0270 and 0280 joints, which is in accord with the experimental results of Fig. 4.
5. Conclusions
Experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on aluminum alloy
7050-T7451 single lap four-bolted joints. From the investigation the following conclusions
can be drawn.
(1) Fatigue life of the joint fitted with interference is similar to that net fit. The joints
with high-locked bolts applied combination of cold expansion, interference fit, and
clamping force exhibit better performance in fatigue lives than other joints.
(2) Fracture observations revealed that the joints failed far away from hole edge and
fatigue cracks propagated more tortuously in the 0270 and 0280 joints, while the 0230,
0240 and 0250 joints failed at the hole edge or near the hole edge, and a relatively straight
crack propagation paths with no obvious deflection were observed.
(3) The fatigue striations spacings for the 0270 and 0280 joints were significantly
decreased compared with other joints, and the fractography showed the more plastic
deformation, such as fatigue micro-cliffs, lamellar structures and tearing ridges.
(4) FEM simulations showed that the residual stress distributions have a good agreement
with the experimental fatigue test results, as the joints with higher compressive residual
stresses have longer fatigue lives.
(5) The extension of fatigue lives for the single lap four-bolted joints are beneficial to the
evolution of fatigue damage and the improved compressive residual stresses, resulting in
the retardation of crack initiation and decrease of fatigue crack propagation.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province,
China (No. ZR2014JL031).
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Figure List

Fig. 1. Dimensions (mm) of single lap four-bolted joints (a) and HST12 bolt (b), HSL756
bolt (c)

Fig. 2. Mesh size of bolted joints

Fig. 3. Effect of cold expansion, interference fit, clamping force, bolt types on S‒N curves
for fatigue test joints

Fig. 4. Fatigue failure of the joints for maximum applied load equal to 30% of static
tensile strength: (a) 0230 (3.97104 cycles), (b) 0240 (3.6104 cycles), (c) 0270 (7.37104
cycles), (d) 0280 (8.78104 cycles)
Fig. 5. Fatigue crack propagation paths of the joints for maximum applied load equal to
30% of static tensile strength: (a) 0230, (b) 0240, (c) 0270, (d) 0250, (e) 0280
Fig. 6. Fractography of fatigue crack initiation (a) and final crack zone (b) of 0230 joint
subjected to 30% of static tensile strength

Fig. 7. Fractography of fatigue crack propagation of 0240 (a), 0270 (b), 0250 (c), 0280 (d)
joints subjected to 30% of static tensile strength
Fig. 8. Fatigue striation patterns of different joints subjected to 30% of static tensile
strength: (a) 0230, (b) 0270, (c) 0250, (d) 0280
Fig. 9. Maximum principal stresses created around the hole of the joints: (a) 0230, (b)
0240, (c) 0250, (d) 0270, (e) 0280
Fig. 10. Circumferential residual stresses of the joints at entrance plane (a), middle plane
(b), exit plane (c), and through thickness (d) subjected to cyclic load range of 2‒20 kN.
Fig. 11. Radial residual stresses of the joints at entrance plane (a), middle plane (b), exit
plane (c), and through thickness (d) subjected to cyclic load range of 2‒20 kN.

Fig. 12. Average circumferential (a) and radial residual stress fields (b) of the joints
subjected to cyclic load range of 2‒20 kN.
 Table 1 Interference fit, cold expansion, clamping force, bolt types, and stress levels for
fatigue test of different joints
Joint Interference Cold expansion Clamping Bolt Ultimate strength, Stress
number fit size (IF) (CA) force (CF) type b (MPa) level
0230 -0.2% 0 24.54 KN HST12 359.6 5-67%b
0240 +1.4% 0 24.54 KN HST12 367.0 5-67%b
0270 +1.4% 1% 24.54 KN HST12 352.2 5-67%b
0250 +1.4% 0 32.72 KN HSL756 300.1 5-67%b
0280 +1.4% 1% 32.72 KN HSL756 319.9 5-67%b