Effect of Anisotropy on Fatigue Crack Initiation Behaviors in AA2024-T6 Aluminum Alloys
摘要
Four-point bending fatigue tests were conducted on the L-T (rolling-transverse), L-S (rolling-short transverse), and T-S (transverse-short transverse) planes of an AA2024-T6 alloy plate in air at room temperature, a frequency of 20 Hz, and a stress ratio of R = 0.1. The fatigue limits were 255.7 MPa on the L-T plane, 234.4 MPa on the L-S plane, and 184.8 MPa on the T-S plane, separately. The densities of the crack initiation sites were also measured quantitatively and found to follow a Weibull-type function of the applied maximum cyclic stress with the maximum values of 0.37, 0.93, and 0.15 mm−2 on the L-T, L-S, and T-S planes respectively. Cracks in the L-T and L-S planes were predominantly initiated at the pre-fractured Fe-containing second-phase particles, while the T-S plane tended to originate at Si-containing particles. Quantitative evaluation of the densities and strength distributions of the fatigue crack initiation sites on different planes of the AA2024-T6 plate revealed the mechanisms for fatigue crack initiation, providing new insights into the anisotropy of fatigue performance of the alloy plate, which might be of value for optimizing alloy design and manufacturing to improve the fatigue properties of the alloy.