EFFECT OF STRAIN HARDENING ON FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE IN ALUMINUM ALLOY UNDER CONSTANT AMPLITUDE WITH SINGLE OVERLOAD

<p>In this study effect of strain hardening on crack closure has been examined with the help of experiments and finite element method on the side edge notched specimen of five different Aluminum alloy (3003 Al, 5052 Al, 6061 T6, 6063 T6, 6351) in mode I under constant amplitude fatigue loading with single overload using Abaqus® 6.10 which is very well accepted FEM application in research. Extended Finite Element Method Module has been used to determine effective stress intensity factor at the crack tip while propagation takes place. FEM results have given good agreement with experimental results. Regression analysis has also been done with SPSS^® 16 and dependency of strain hardening coefficient on crack closure has analyzed. A generalized empirical formula has been developed based on strain hardening to calculate effective stress intensity range ratio and a modified Paris law has also been formulated for these aluminum alloy.