Hasan G Pasha ME06M045

DETERMINATION OF FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH RATE

OBJECTIVE Determine the fatigue crack growth rate for the given aluminum alloy under fluctuating tensile load Plot the fatigue crack growth rate against the stress intensity factor range APPARATUS 1. Universal material testing machine with control unit 2. Traveling microscope THEORY ON FATIGUE AND FRACTURE MECHANICS [The contents of this section were composed using excerpts from Wikipedia, eFunda and a host of other resources available on the World Wide Web] Stress concentration A stress concentration is a location in an object where stress is concentrated. An object is strongest when force is evenly distributed among it, but an area of stress concentration results in a localized increase in stress at that location. Geometric discontinuities cause an object to experience a local increase in the intensity of a stress field. The examples of shapes that cause these concentrations are: cracks, sharp corners, holes and, changes in the cross-sectional area of the object. High local stresses can cause the object to fail more quickly than if it was not there. Fatigue Fatigue is the progressive, localized, and permanent structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic or fluctuating strains at nominal stresses that have maximum values less than (often much less than) the static yield strength of the material. The resulting stress may be below the ultimate tensile stress, or even the yield stress of the material, yet cause catastrophic failure. Characteristics of Fatigue failures The following characteristics are common to fatigue in all materials: The process starts with a microscopic crack, termed the initiation site, which then widens with each subsequent movement, a phenomenon analyzed in the topic of fracture mechanics Failure is essentially probabilistic. The number of cycles required for failure varies between homogeneous material samples. Analysis demands the techniques of survival analysis. The greater the applied stress, the shorter the life Damage is cumulative. Materials do not recover when rested. Fatigue life is influenced by a variety of factors, such as temperature and surface finish, in complicated ways Some materials (e.g., some steel and titanium alloys) exhibit an endurance limit or fatigue limit, a limit below which repeated stress does not induce failure, theoretically, for an infinite number of cycles of load. Most other non-ferrous metals/alloys (e.g., aluminum and copper alloys) exhibit no such limit and even small stresses will eventually cause failure. 1

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 As a means to gauge fatigue characteristics of non-ferrous and other alloys that do not exhibit an endurance limit, a fatigue strength is frequently determined, and this is typically the stress level at which a component will survive 107 loading cycles. High-cycle fatigue Most attention is focused on situations that require more than 104 cycles to failure where stress is low and deformation primarily elastic. S-N curve In high-cycle fatigue situations, materials performance is commonly characterized by an S-N curve, also known as a Whler curve. This is a graph of the magnitude of a cyclical stress (S) against the cycles to failure (N). S-N curves are derived from tests on samples of the material to be characterized (often termed coupons) where a regular sinusoidal stress is applied by a testing machine which also counts the number of cycles to failure. This process is sometimes known as coupon testing. Each coupon test generates a point on the plot though in some cases there is a run-out where the time to failure exceeds that available for the test. Analysis of fatigue data requires techniques from statistics, especially survival analysis and linear regression. Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics The account above is purely phenomenological. Though it allows life prediction and design assurance, it does not enable life improvement or design optimization. For the latter purposes, an exposition of the causes and processes of fatigue is necessary. Such an explanation is given by fracture mechanics in stages. Fracture Mechanics Fracture mechanics is a method for predicting failure of a structure containing a crack. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics to characterize the material's resistance to fracture. Fracture mechanics is an important tool in improving the mechanical performance of materials and components. It applies the physics of stress and strain, in particular the theories of elasticity and plasticity, to the microscopic crystallographic defects found in real materials in order to predict the macroscopic mechanical failure of bodies. Crack Initiation, Propagation and Failure Failure of a material due to fatigue may be viewed on a microscopic level in three steps: i. Crack Initiation: The initial crack occurs in this stage. The crack may be caused by surface scratches caused by handling, or tooling of the material; thread fasteners; slip bands or dislocations intersecting the surface as a result of previous cyclic loading or work hardening. ii. Crack Propagation: The crack continues to grow during this stage as a result of continuously applied stresses iii. Ultimate ductile failure: Failure occurs when the material that has not been affected by the crack cannot withstand the applied stress. This stage happens very quickly. Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) assumes that the material is isotropic and linear elastic. Based on the assumption, the stress field near the crack tip is calculated using the 2

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 theory of elasticity. When the stresses near the crack tip exceed the material fracture toughness, the crack will grow. In Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, most formulas are derived for either plane stresses or plane strains, associated with the three basic modes of loadings on a cracked body: i. Opening a tensile stress normal to the plane of the crack ii. Sliding a shear stress acting parallel to the plane of the crack and perpendicular to the crack front iii. Tearing a shear stress acting parallel to the plane of the crack and parallel to the crack front LEFM is valid only when the inelastic deformation is small compared to the size of the crack, which is termed small-scale yielding. If large zones of plastic deformation develop before the crack grows, Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM) must be used. Crack Tip Stresses Crack tips produce a 1/r singularity. The stress fields near a crack tip of an isotropic linear elastic material can be expressed as a product of 1/r and a function of with a scaling factor K.

Crack tip stresses

In actual cases, the maximum stress near the crack tip is of primary interest and whether its value exceeds the fracture toughness. Thus, the stress intensity factor K is commonly expressed in terms of the applied stresses at r 0 and = 0.

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045

Crack infinite plate under uniform tension For a through crack in an infinite plate under uniform tension, the stress intensity factor is

KI Stress intensity factor under tensile loading Stress a Half the width of the crack Stress-intensity factor Stress-intensity factor, K, is used to more accurately predict the stress state (stress intensity) near the tip of a crack caused by a remote load or residual stresses. When this stress state becomes critical a small crack grows (extends) and the material fails. The load at which this failure occurs is referred to as the fracture strength. The experimental fracture strength of solid materials is 10 to 1000 times below the theoretical strength values, where tiny internal and external surface cracks create higher stresses near these cracks, hence lowering the theoretical value of strength. Critical stress intensity factor and Fracture toughness Based on the linear theory, the stresses at the crack tip are infinity but in reality there is always a plastic zone at the crack tip that limits the stresses to finite values. It is very difficult to model and calculate the actual stresses in the plastic zone and compare them to the maximum allowable stresses of the material to determine whether a crack is going to grow or not. An engineering approach is to perform a series of experiments and reach at a critical stress intensity factor Kc for each material, called the fracture toughness of the material. The crack stability can then be determined directly by comparing K and Kc.

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 Mode I

Mode I: Opening

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 Mode II

Mode II: Sliding

Mode III

Mode III: Tearing

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045

For linear elastic materials, the principle of superposition applies. A mixed-mode problem can be treated as the summation of each mode.

TEST DETAILS AND TERMINOLOGY [Excerpted from ASTM Standard reference# E 647] Crack size, a: a linear measure of a principal planar dimension of a crack. This measure is commonly used in the calculation of quantities descriptive of the stress and displacement fields and is often also termed crack length or depth. Cycle/Stress Cycle: under constant amplitude loading, the force variation from the minimum to the maximum and then to the minimum force. Fatigue-crack-growth rate, da/dN crack extension per cycle of loading Force range P, the algebraic difference between the maximum and minimum forces in a cycle is expressed as:

P = Pmax Pmin

Force Ratio, R the algebraic ration of the minimum to maximum forces in a cycle.

R = Pmin/Pmax

Maximum force, Pmax the highest algebraic value of the applied force in a cycle. Tensile forces are considered positive and compressive forces are considered negative. Maximum stress-intensity factor, Kmax the maximum value of the stress-intensity factor in a cycle. This corresponds to Pmax. Minimum force, Pmin the lowest algebraic value of the applied force in a cycle. Tensile forces are considered positive and compressive forces are considered negative. Minimum stress-intensity factor, Kmin the minimum value of the stress-intensity factor in a cycle. This corresponds to Pmin when R > 0 and is taken to be zero when R 0. Stress intensity factor range, K the variation of the stress intensity factor in a cycle

K = Kmax Kmin K = (1-R) Kmax for R 0 and K = Kmax for R 0

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 Applied-K curve a curve obtained from a fracture mechanics analysis for a specific specimen configuration. The curve relates the stress-intensity factor to crack size and either applied force or displacement. The resulting analytical value is termed a K calibration and frequently available in data books for stress intensity factors. Fatigue crack growth threshold, Kth that asymptotic value of K for which da/dN approaches zero. Fatigue crack growth, K, da/dN the rate of crack extension cased by fatigue loading and expressed in terms of average crack extension cycle per cycle. Normalized K gradient, C = (1/K). dK/da the fractional rate of change of K with increasing crack size K-Decreasing test a test in which the value of C is nominally negative. In this test method KDecreasing tests are conducted by shedding force, either continuously or by a series of decremental steps, at the crack grows. K-Increasing test a test in which the value of C is nominally positive. For the standard specimens in this method the constant-force-amplitude test will result in a K-Increasing test where the C value increased but is always positive. Summary of test method This test method involves cyclic loading of notched specimen which have been acceptably precracked in fatigue. Crack size is measured, either visually or by an equivalent method, as a function of the elapsed fatigue cycles and these data are subjected to numerical analysis to establish the rate of crack growth. Crack growth rates are expressed as a function of the stress-intensity factor range, K, which is calculated from expressions based on linear elastic stress analysis. Significance and Use Fatigue crack growth rate expressed as a function of crack-tip stress-intensity factor range, da/dN versus K, characterizes a materials resistance to stable crack extension under cyclic loading. This test method can serve to establish: i. The influence of the fatigue crack growth on the life of components subjected to cyclic loading, provided data are generated under representative conditions and combined with appropriate fracture toughness fat, defect characterization data and stress analysis information. ii. Material selection criteria and inspection requirements for damage tolerant applications iii. Quantitative terms for the individual and combined effects of metallurgical, fabrication, environmental, and loading variables on fatigue crack growth

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 Specimen configuration, size and preparation Standard specimens: While selecting the specimen adequate care should be taken in measuring and factoring the residual stresses and stress relief. The residual stresses can be minimized by selecting symmetrical specimen configurations. Specimen size: In order for results to be valid according to this test method it is required that the specimen be predominantly elastic at all vales of applied force. The minimum in plane specimen sizes to meet this requirement are based primarily on empirical results and are specific to the specimen configuration. An alternative size requirement may be employed for high-strain hardening materials. The uncracked ligament requirement for specific specimen geometry may be relaxed by replacing the yield strength with a higher and effective yield strength which accounts for the material strain hardening capacity. Notch preparation: The machined notch (crack starter notch) for standard specimens can be made by EDM, milling, broaching grinding or saw-cutting. DESCRIPTION Specimen Details Type Notch preparation method Thickness B Width W General Details Test machine Universal material testing machine with electrohydraulic actuators for loading the specimen using computer generated sinusoidal load commands and wedge grips for supporting the specimen Traveling microscope Tensile constant sinusoidal form force-amplitude loading in Aluminum alloy Saw-cutting 6 mm 50 mm

Equipment used to measure crack size Type of loading Technique used to convert a versus N to da/dN

Secant and 7-point polynomial methods

Apart from the above, it would be desirable to give an account the following details: Test material characterization in terms of heat treatment, chemical composition and mechanical properties, product size and form, method of stress relief if applicable The crack plane orientation If specimen is removed from a large product form, its location with respect to the parent product should be given The terminal values of K, R and crack size from fatigue pre-cracking. If pre-crack forces were stepped-down, the procedure employed and the amount of crack extension at the initial force level shall be given. 9

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045

Environmental variables: temperature, chemical composition, pH for liquids and pressure for gases and vacuum. For tests in air, the RH should be reported. For tests in inert reference environments, such as fry argon, estimates of residual levels of water and oxygen in the test environment shall be given. Nominal values for all of the above environmental variables, as well as max deviations through out the duration testing, shall be reported. Specific procedure used to correct for crack curvature and magnitude of crack curvature correction PROCEDURE 1. A notch was prepared by saw-cutting on the aluminum alloy specimen and it was precracking under fatigue 2. The specimen was held in the testing machine and constant force-amplitude loading in sinusoidal form was given using computer at a 10 Hz cycle 3. Using a traveling microscope, the crack growth was observed for a 0.2 mm length 4. After 0.2 mm growth readings for cumulative number of cycles, maximum and minimum load applied were recorded. A loading cycle with 1 Hz frequency was given during this period. 5. The following information was observed and tabulated for a total crack length of 17.6 mm: a, N, K and da/dN PICTURES

Material testing machine Wedge grips 10

Hasan G Pasha ME06M045

Crack growth in specimen

PLOT The da/dN (ordinate) values as a function of K (abscissa) were plotted in log-log co-ordinates. The value of da/dN was obtained by using both secant and 7-point methods. As per the recommendation by ASTM, for optimum data comparisons the size of the K log cycles should be two or three times larger than da/dN log cycles FORMULAE K = [(P)/A] * (* a) * f(a/w) 0.857 + 0.265 (a/ W) 0.265*[1(a/W)]^4 + [1-(a/W)]^(3/2) Pmax Pmin Stress intensity factor range Geometric factor Cross-sectional area Crack length Force range m2 M N MPa (m) N MPa (m)

f(a/W)

P K F(a/W) A a P

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Hasan G Pasha ME06M045 SAMPLE CALCULATION a W Pmax Pmin = = = = 11 50 24571 1958 mm mm N N

f(a/W)

0.857 + 0.265 (11/50) 0.265*[1(11/50)]^4 + [1-(11/50)]^(3/2) 1.427 [(P)/A] * (* a) * f(a/w) 24571-1958 * ((* 11 * 10-3) * 1.427) 50 * 6 * 10-6 MPa (m) MPa (m)

= K =

RESULT The fatigue crack growth rate for given aluminum alloy was determined The values of fatigue crack growth rate were was plotted against the stress intensity factor range by using the Secant and 7-point polynomial methods

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