The growth of short fatigue cracks in titanium and aluminium alloys

An investigation has been made of the growth of An investigation has been made of the growth of short fatigue cracks in aluminium and titanium alloys, with special emphasis on the effects of microstructure. \ud \ud For the commercial aluminum alloys examined (7010 and 2014A) a degradation in short fatigue crack resistance accompanied an increase in the degree of ageing, as is commonly reported for long, through thickness cracks. The short cracks however, were seen to propagate at substantially faster rates than conventional, long cracks at the same apparent applied ΔK and R - ratio. The similar, faceted fracture produced for both types of crack suggests that the same propagation mechanism was operative, despite the differences in growth rate. Discontinuous growth was observed for microstructurally short cracks, associated with the crack tip being held up over large numbers of cycles at grain boundaries both at the surface and in the interior of the specimen. The discontinuous nature of propagation and the anomalously fast growth continued until the maximum plastic zone size ahead of the crack tip approximated to the grain size of the material. At greater crack depths propagation rates, at equivalent ΔKs, for long, through thickness cracks and short cracks showed reasonable agreement, small discrepancies being explained in terms of the variation in closure contribution for the two types of crack. \ud \ud Similar propagation characteristics were observed for the two titanium alloys studied (IMI 318 and IMI 550) with substantially faster propagation for microstructurally short cracks than for long cracks at equivalent ΔKs. In contrast to long crack behaviour however, an increase in grain size resulted in a deterioration in short crack propagation resistance. The microstructure which was found to be the most resistant to the growth of short cracks consisted of fine primary α and transformed β grains with the volume fraction of each type of α approximately equal. The grain boundaries between the two distinct α-morphologies were seen to be particularly effective in reducing the propagation rate. In contrast, a coarse, aligned, Widmanstätten α-morphology exhibited the worst resistance to short crack growth. Even though colony and prior β grain boundaries were useful in retarding crack growth, propagation across packets of Widmanstätten laths was very rapid. \ud \ud Crack shape effects were considered to be important. A study was made to assess the variation in crack shape and the effect on crack propagation, particularly in non-equiaxed microstructures. Cracks with depths approximating to the grain size were seen to vary significantly in shape, though they all eventually took a semi-elliptical form, with half surface length/ depth (a/c) ratios between 1.0 and 0.8, at greater crack depths. It is suggested that a better correlating parameter for short crack growth is crack area rather than surface crack length which is commonly used at present. In this way, the effects of crack shape can be accommodated