Fatigue damage assessment in 7075 and 7050 aluminum alloys at low cyclic stresses.

摘要

Dynamic loads from buffeting, shock waves, and separated flow cause aircraft structural fatigue. Increases in aircraft performance cause sonic high cycle fatigue (HCF) in structural components. The accuracy of HCF damage predictions and fracture mechanics analysis has been limited in the past by the maximum cyclic rate of fatigue test equipment. Constant load amplitude axial fatigue data has previously been acquired at rates on the order of 100 Hz or less. Understanding HCF damage mechanisms has been hindered by this limitation. Recent improvements in test technology and analysis methods have made axial HCF experiments practical.; X-ray diffraction line broadening analysis is used here to quantify microstructural changes in 7075-T651 and 7050-T7451 precipitation hardened aluminum alloys after exposure to fatigue loading. The Stokes deconvolution and Warren-Averbach method are used to compute size and strain broadening from line broadened X-ray diffraction patterns. Changes in domain size, strain, domain size anisotropy, and particle size distribution are used to assess fatigue in the alloys. Mechanisms which account for the observed microstructural changes are proposed. Peak splitting produces double maxima in the X-ray diffraction data. Double maxima are previously reported in the literature. Possible sources of the double maxima in precipitation hardened aluminum alloys are considered.; In addition to assessing fatigue related microstructural changes in 7075 and 7050 aluminum alloys, the line broadening method applied to fatigue related assessment of these alloys is determined to be a promising approach. The method may have application to evaluation of aircraft in production. Possible applications and future work needed to apply the line broadening method to damage evaluation of engineering problems are proposed.