Accepted Manuscript

Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour and Life Prediction for 2324-T39 and 7050-
T7451 Aluminium Alloys under Truncated Load Spectra

Rui Bao, Xiang Zhang

PII: S0142-1123(09)00361-2
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2009.12.010
Reference: JIJF 2401

To appear in: International Journal of Fatigue

Received Date: 17 September 2009

Revised Date: 14 December 2009
Accepted Date: 21 December 2009

Please cite this article as: Bao, R., Zhang, X., Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour and Life Prediction for 2324-T39
and 7050-T7451 Aluminium Alloys under Truncated Load Spectra, International Journal of Fatigue (2009), doi:
10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2009.12.010

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour and Life Prediction for 2324-T39 and

7050-T7451 Aluminium Alloys under Truncated Load Spectra

Rui Bao1*, Xiang Zhang2

1
Institute of Solid Mechanics, School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang

University (BUAA), Beijing, 100191, China

2
Department of Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering, Cranfield University,

Bedford, MK43 0AL, U.K.

Abstract: This paper presents a study of crack growth behaviour in aluminium alloys 2324-

T39 and 7050-T7451 subjected to flight-by-flight load spectra at different low-stress

truncation levels. Crack branching was observed in the higher truncation levels for the 2324

and in all truncation levels for the 7050. Mode-I crack growth life can be predicted for the

2324 alloy by the NASGRO equation and the Generalised Willenborg retardation model.

However, quantitative prediction of the fatigue life of a significantly branched crack is still a

problem. Material properties, test sample’s orientation and applied stress intensity factor

range all play dominant roles in the fracture process.

Keywords: Fatigue crack growth, fatigue load spectra, crack branching, retardation, life

prediction.

Nomenclature

a, a0 Half crack length, initial half crack length in middle-crack tension, M(T),

specimen

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 82338663.
Email address: [email protected] (R.Bao)

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C, n, p, q Material constants in the NASGRO fatigue crack growth rate law

Cf 0 Parameter in AFGROW crack closure model

da/dN Crack growth rate

E Young’s modulus

f Parameter in NASGRO equation taking account of the crack closure effect

K, Kmax Stress intensity factor (SIF), maximum SIF

∆K, ∆Kth SIF range, SIF threshold

Kcrit Apparent fracture toughness

N Number of cycles in crack growth laws and NASGRO equation

Nf Fatigue crack growth life in terms of flights

R Nominal stress intensity factor ratio (R = Kmin/Kmax = σmin/σmax)

SOR Shut-off Ratio in Willenborg retardation model

1. Introduction

For the damage tolerance design of aircraft structures, fatigue tests are required at all

structural levels according to the airworthiness regulations [1] to support and validate the

crack growth life predictions. There are several aspects in both the practical fatigue testing

and the development of predictive models.

Since a representative service loading spectrum can contain a large number of low amplitude

load cycles that do not cause fatigue damage but consume unacceptable testing time and cost

in the full scale fatigue tests (FSFT), an economic and common practice is to eliminate these

low amplitude stress cycles in the test spectrum. Tests and analysis on laboratory specimens

are necessary to determine an acceptable load truncation level for the FSFT of a structural

component. These laboratory sample tests are used to demonstrate that the elimination of

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certain low-range loads will not change the characteristic of the crack growth and have little

influence on crack growth life while considering the scale of time saving.

The second aspect is the requirement of life prediction tools. Fatigue crack growth (FCG)

behaviour and life prediction methods under the constant amplitude loads (CAL) have been

well established for commonly used aluminium alloys. The problem of predicting FCG life

under the variable amplitude loads (VAL) is still challenging due to the load sequence and

load interaction effects [2, 3]. For simple VAL sequences, e.g. large numbers of CAL cycles

plus occasional tensile overload cycles, or an overload followed by an underload, current

prediction methods include the Wheeler [4], the Generalised Willenborg [5, 6], and the crack

closure models [7, 8]. These models and a few others have now been implemented in

computer packages, such as the AFGROW crack growth analysis code [8]. However, the

problem of life prediction gets more complex when randomly ordered flight-by-flight loading

spectrum is used. In most of the cases, the low-amplitude load cycles that tend to be

eliminated contribute little to the fatigue crack growth. However, for some circumstances, the

elimination of small load cycles might shift the balance between the crack initiation and crack

growth phases [9]. Moreover, the overload retardation effect is found to be very sensitive to

subsequent underload cycles [2, 10, 11] as well as to the cycle numbers of subsequent lower

amplitude stresses [10].

Thirdly, the influence of the low-amplitude load cycles on crack growth rates also depends on

the material properties and test sample’s material orientation. In the last four decades, most

research efforts in the aircraft applications have been focused on the 2024 and 7075

aluminium alloys (AA). Consequently, adequate crack growth prediction models are now

available [12]. In recent years, trend in the aircraft industry is to gradually introduce new

versions of the 2000 and the 7000 series alloys due to their superior mechanical properties.

Their performance in terms of FCG life in flight-by-flight loads needs to be investigated.

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The materials investigated in this study are the AA 2324-T39 and AA 7050-T7451, which are

widely employed in the current generation of aircraft components. The former is a higher

strength version of AA 2024-T351 and is a high-purity controlled composition variant of

2024, and is mainly applied on the lower wing skin and center wing box components of new

commercial transport aircraft. The fracture behavior and crack growth behavior of 2324 have

been widely investigated in recent years for better understanding and further application of

this material [13]. Alloy 7050 is the premier choice for aerospace applications requiring the

best possible combination of strength, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance and

toughness. However, it is one of these highly anisotropic alloys; consequently, crack growth

behaviour along the short transverse direction (L-S) is found to be quite different from that

along the long transverse direction (L-T). Nevertheless, the L-S orientated plates have found

some applications in the spar caps and stringer webs of machined integral skin-stringer panels.

Progress has been made in understanding the crack growth behaviour in L-S orientated AA

7050-T7451 plates under CAL at different stress ratios [14, 15], in which comparisons of the

failure modes between the L-S and T-L plates under truncated loading spectra are also

presented. Small crack growth rates in AA 7050-T7451 subjected to simple load sequences

containing underloads are reported in [16] to generate constant amplitude crack growth data

for use in life predictions.

The experimental tests conducted in this study were designed to achieve two objectives: 1) to

select a suitable low-load truncation level for the FSFT; 2) to investigate the characteristics of

crack growth behavior under different load spectra with various truncation levels. The first

objective was achieved and reported in [17]. The purpose of this paper is to present the

investigation findings towards the second objective, which covers the studies of crack growth

behaviour under a flight-by-flight loading spectrum of a civil transport aircraft wing at

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different small-stress range truncation levels and the performance of current predictive models

in spectrum loads.

2. Experimental procedures

2.1 Material

Crack propagation tests were conducted using the middle-crack tension, M(T), specimens

made of AA 2324-T39 and AA 7050-T7451. The configuration and orientation of the

specimens are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. The material data is found in reference [18,19].

For alloy 2324, (WT.%), Si 0.1, Fe 0.12, Cu 3.8-4.4, Mn 0.3-0.9, Mg 1.2-1.8, Cr 0.10, Zn

0.25, Ti 0.15, others each 0.05, others total 0.15, Aluminum Remainder. For alloy 7050,

(WT.%), Si 0.12, Fe 0.15, Cu 2.0-2.6, Mn 0.10, Mg 1.9-2.6, Cr 0.04, Zn 5.7-6.7, Zr 0.08-

0.115, Ti 0.06, others each 0.05, others total 0.15, Balance Aluminum. The mechanical

properties are fully defined in [18, 19] and presented in Table 2. Crack growth rate and

fatigue properties are available for the L-T orientation (refer to Fig. 1) for both alloys [20].

A total of 66 specimens were tested; for each load truncation level six specimens were tested

for AA 2324-T39 and five specimens for AA 7050-T7451.

2.2 Load spectra

The baseline load spectrum is a flight-by-flight spectrum with each load block simulating

4200 flights. The gust and manoeuvres loads are represented by ten load levels flatulating

around the mean load corresponding to 1g flight condition. The flights in each load block are

classified into five types, stated as A, B, C, D and E, respectively, according to the stress

levels. Flight type A is the most severe loading condition occurring only once in each block,

whereas flight type E is the least severe occurring 2958 times in each block. The five flight

types were arranged randomly within one block except that flight type A was arranged to

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occur near the middle and in the second half of a block. The taking-off and landing taxiing

loads were taken into account by eight equivalent loading cycles in each flight. Fig. 2(a)

illustrates a loading segment of the baseline spectrum containing the flight types A, B and E.

It can be seen that the spectrum is dominated by tension loads.

The baseline spectrum (S0) was filtered by removing small stress range cycles to obtain

different truncated spectra, while the taxiing loads during each flight were retained. A 9.82%

truncation level indicates that those load cycles with stress range less than 9.82% of the

maximum stress range in the S0 were removed, while the other parts of the spectrum were

kept unchanged. So no matter what the load truncation level is, the mean stress level remains

to correspond to the 1g acceleration. There are five truncation levels resulting in five different

truncated load spectra, named as S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5, shown in Table 3. Fig. 2(b) shows the

load sequences of flight type A in S0 and S5.

2.3 Fatigue testing

Pre-cracking was accomplished under constant amplitude load of σ max = 90 MPa, R = 0.06

which resulted in an initial half crack length a0 of about 5.5 mm. The FCG tests were

subsequently carried out under the aforementioned six load spectra until the half crack length

a was greater than 24 mm.

All the tests were conducted using the MTS 880 fatigue test system. Specimens were held in a

pair of 100 mm wide hydraulic wedge grips.

An observation system consisting of a digital microscope, servo motor and raster ruler was

used to record the crack tip position. Incremental crack length measurements were made on

both the right and left sides of the front surface of the specimen. The following rules were

adopted when recording the crack length: (1) If it is an ideal mode I crack, which is

perpendicular to the applied loads and propagating along the x-axis, the crack length is the

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true distance from the symmetric axis of the specimen to the crack tip, Fig. 3(a); (2) If the

crack has deviated from the horizontal x-axis, then the crack length refers to the projected

length of the crack on the x-axis, Fig. 3(b); (3) If the crack has branched, the recorded crack

length is the projected length of the longest branch, Fig. 3(c).

3. Prediction method

3.1 Review of available crack growth prediction models

Based on the principle of the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM), FCG rates can be

correlated with the stress intensity factor range ∆K. There are many empirical FCG laws to

describe this relationship. Paris law [21] is the first and most popular, which correlates crack

growth rate da/dN with only the ∆K. During the following decades, modifications to the Paris

law have been developed by taking into account of different factors. For example, the Forman

[22] and Walker equations [23] were proposed to encompass the mean stress effect. Both the

Paris and Walker equations work well for the stable crack growth stage showing good

linearity in double logarithm coordinate of da/dN vs. ∆K. The Forman equation [22] also

introduces the parameter of critical stress intensity factor Kc therefore can be applied in the

prediction of the final fracture regime. Hartman and Schijve [24] suggested a modified form

of Paris law by adding a parameter of stress intensity threshold which depended strongly on

the alloy and the environment. The NASGRO equation [8] takes account of the influences of

the mean stress, the critical and threshold SIF, and plasticity-induced crack closure by

introducing several empirical constants. Most of the empirical constants in the above

mentioned crack growth laws are obtained by fitting measured crack growth test data under

constant amplitude stresses.

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When variable amplitude loading is applied, crack growth behaviour shows more complicated

characters. One of the most important factors that should be taken into account is the

profound overload retardation effect [2, 12]. However, this effect is much reduced when the

tension overload is immediately followed by compressive underload [2, 12]. Furthermore, if a

load history has peak loads with a long recurrence period, i.e. peak overload cycle is followed

by large numbers of baseline stress cycles, it will result in large retardation in the crack

growth curve, while an almost regular crack growth curve may be resulted by a load history

which has peak loads with a short recurrence period [10]. These two factors were paid more

attention in this study, since the loading spectra in this study all contain a tensile overload in

the flight type A which is followed by a negative underload, and with the increase of load

truncation levels, the recurrence periods between the two overload peaks become shorter and

shorter.

A number of crack growth models have been developed to account for the load interaction

effects and thereby enable predictions of crack growth lives. Most of the retardation models

are based on either the crack tip plastic zone concept or the crack closure argument. Five

retardation models are available in the crack growth prediction software AFGROW; they are

the Closure model [7, 8], the FASTRAN model [25], the Hsu [26], Wheeler [4] and

Willenborg models [5, 6]. Each retardation model has one or more user adjustable

parameter(s), which are used to tune the model to fit the actual test data. Ideally, the

parameter in crack retardation models should be a material constant, which is independent of

other variables such as the spectrum sequence or load level. The Generalised Willenborg

model is a modified version of the original Willenborg model. Physical arguments were used

to account for the reduction of the overload retardation due to subsequent underloads. The

AFGROW code has adapted the treatment of the underload acceleration effect by using the

Chang’s model [8, 27] to adjust the overload induced yield zone size. Therefore the effect of

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compressive stresses after a tension overload is considered. This model is suitable to the

overload/underload pattern found in the load spectra used in this study as shown in Fig. 2(b).

The AFGROW Closure model is based on the original Elber’s crack closure concept [7] and

developed by Harter et al. [8]. This type of crack closure models has been very popular in

both the constant and variable amplitude loads because they correlate crack growth rates with

the effective stress intensity factor range, which is affected by the applied loads and crack

opening displacements; both can be related to the cyclic plasticity effect. The AFGROW

Closure model uses a single adjustable parameter (Cf 0) that is determined at stress ratio R = 0

in order to “tune” the closure model for a given material. The suggested Cf 0 value by

AFGROW for aluminium alloys is 0.3 [8].

3.2 Crack growth and retardation laws used in this study

In this study, FCG life predictions were accomplished by using the AFGROW computer

package [20] and employing the NASGRO equation [8], eq. (1). Since this equation takes

account of the influences of the mean stress, the critical and threshold SIF, and plasticity-

induced crack closure, it usually gives more accurate predictions provided that the required

material constants are available. The material constants used in the NASGRO equation for

commonly used aluminium alloys, including 2324-T39 studied here, are provided in the

database of the AFGROW package.

p
∆K th
n 1−
da 1− f ∆K
=C ∆K (1)
dN 1− R K
q

1 − max
K crit

In order to find a suitable crack retardation model for further analyses of the truncated load

spectra, attempts have been made to predict FCG life from a =5.5 mm to 22 mm under the S0

spectrum using the Generalised Willenborg model and Closure model. The prediction results

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are shown in Table 4. It indicates that both the No-retardation model and the Generalized

Willenborg model have achieved good agreement with the test result, whereas the Closure

model underestimated the life by 13% using the recommended C f 0 =0.3. Prediction is found

to be sensitive to the value of parameter C f 0 .

The following crack life predictions are performed by the NASGRO equation (no retardation)

and NASGRO equation plus the Generalised Willenborg model.

4. Results and discussion

4.1 Crack growth morphology

4.1.1 AA 2324-T39 L-T oriented specimen

It has been observed during the experiment that cracks subjected to load spectra S0, S1, S2

and S3 are perfect mode I cracks which are flat and straight and perpendicular to the applied

loads direction. However, significant crack meandering and/or branching are observed when

the low-load range truncation is increased to a certain level, i.e. S4 and S5, shown in Fig. 4. A

typical branched crack occurred under spectrum S4 is illustrated in Fig. 5. It is amazing that

the crack always tended to grow away from the centerline of the specimen rather than taking a

zigzag route.

The crack growth rate dropped significantly after the crack had branched. Some evidence has

been found for the relationship between the crack growth path change and the peak stress in

the flight type A. This will be discussed in section 4.3. However, branching was not observed

immediately after the maximum overload. It can be deduced that the tension overload had

introduced a few secondary cracks in the subsurface of the specimen, which were later

observed at the surface of the specimen. The lead crack and the secondary cracks kept

growing for a period of loading cycles until they were linked up, which has resulted in the

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observed branched crack. The appearance of the secondary cracks and the linking up process

are shown in Fig. 6.

The final failure mode of the branched crack under tension load is almost the same as the

perfect mode I crack, showing the typical characteristic of mode I crack in ductile materials,

see insert of Fig. 5.

4.1.2 AA 7050-T7451 L-S oriented specimen

Crack turning, meandering, branching and splitting (90 turn) were observed on some

specimens whatever the load truncation level was applied as shown in Fig. 7(a). However, not

all the specimens showed significant crack turning or branching. It is quit different from the

2324-T39 L-T specimens, in which crack branching occurred only under the spectrum S4 and

S5. Schubbe also observed crack branching and splitting in 7050-T7451 L-S oriented

specimens [14, 15]. He has pointed out that significant forward growth retardation or splitting

is evident at a threshold ∆K value in the range of 10-15 MPa m and a distinct crack arrest

point where vertical growth is dominating is found when ∆K is between 18 and 20 MPa m

[14]. In this study, the ∆K value corresponding to the peak stress range in flight type A at

initial crack length a0 =5.5 mm is already above 22 MPa m , therefore the reason for

observed crack branching and splitting is understood, whether or not the load spectrum was

truncated. However, it should be mentioned here that slight crack branching was also

observed occasionally during the pre-cracking stage with fatigue crack length no more than

0.5 mm from the edge of the saw-cut and ∆K < 10 MPa m , see Fig. 7(b).

It was hard to get the normal mode I failure strength when performing the residual strength

testing after the half crack length a had reached 24 mm. Longitudinal splitting occurred

parallel to the load direction, as shown in Fig. 8.

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4.2 Crack growth lives

Since the loading cycle numbers are different in different load spectra corresponding to

different truncation levels, FCG life is defined as the number of flights, N f , rather than the

number of load cycles N. Initial half crack length a0 was 5.5 mm for all the specimens.

Measured a vs. N f data corresponding to the S0, S2 and S4 load spectra are shown in Fig. 9

(a) and (b) for the two aluminum alloys, which indicate good linearity in the log-linear

coordinate. For the clarity of illustration, measured data for spectra S1, S3 and S5 are omitted

in these figures. They do follow the same trend and similar scatter range. Fig. 9 (c) and (d)

present the best fitted curves of the test data with respect to all the loading spectra using

exponential linear least square method, eq. (2),

BN f
a = Ae (2)

where, A and B are fitting parameters. Since a0 = 5.5 mm, find A = 5.5 .

Crack growth retardation due to overload effect are not obvious in this figure for spectra S0,

S1, S2, and S3. The significant retardation found in the S4 and S5 spectra tests was partially

caused by the crack branching described in section 4.1 and partially by the removal of large

numbers of load cycles at these two higher truncation levels.

4.3 Prediction of crack growth lives

Crack growth life predictions were performed using the AFGROW code. Predicted a ~ N f

curves for AA 2324-T39 are shown in Fig. 10. The loading spectra and specimen

configuration used in the prediction are the same as those used in the experimental tests. In

the figures, “No Retardation” means no load sequence effect was considered; “Willenborg”

demotes the Generalized Willenborg model.

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Following observations can be made: (1) For S0, S1, S2 and S3, i.e. load range truncation

level of 0%, 9.82%, 11.72% and 13.98% of the maximum load range, the predicted lives

agree well with the test results. (2) Under the spectra S4 and S5, 17.11% and 21.36%

truncation levels, measured crack growth lives are much longer than the predicted by

Willenborg model. Such differences in the model and measurement cannot be related to the

overload retardation effect alone. The main reason is the occurrence of significant crack

meandering and branching under these two loading spectra, as mentioned in 4.1, which slow

down the lead crack growth rate significantly. This kind of crack growth retardation

mechanism is very different from that due to the overload induced plastic zone effect. Crack

path deviation was not observed in the tests subjected to load spectra S0, S1, S2 and S3.

Hence, the FCG life predictions are fairly accurate, even though the same tensile overloads

exist in these spectra as in the S4 and S5. (3) Predicted lives obtained by the “No Retardation”

model and “Willenborg” model do not differ from each other too much; both are located

within the scatter band of the test data. This is mainly due to the overload pattern: an

underload is immediately following the overload, see Fig. 2(b), reducing the retardation effect.

Considering the preferred conservativeness in practical applications, NASGRO equation

without overload retardation is applicable for such kind of load spectrum investigated in this

study with low-stress range truncation levels no higher than 14% of the maximum stress range.

Since the crack growth rate data in terms of da dN ~ ∆K is not available for the 7050-T7451

L-S orientation in the AFGROW package, FCG life prediction for this material under

spectrum loads was not conducted. Schubbe published some da dN ~ ∆K crack growth data

for AA 7050-T7451 L-S orientation under constant amplitude loads at different stress ratios in

[14]. Attempts have been made to use these data and the Harter T-method to predict crack

growth lives for 7050-T7451 under spectrum loads. However, the da dN ~ ∆K curves in [14]

have a characteristic divergent sinusoidal trend of growth when ∆K > 10 MPa m , where the

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growth mode alternates between arrested forward growth and splitting, or arrested vertical

growth and continuing forward progression. This crack growth data cannot be used in the

crack growth life prediction with the AFGROW, because there is no crack growth model that

can take account of such sinusoidal trend of crack growth.

4.4 Crack growth rate

It has been mentioned in section 4.2 that the “No Retardation” option in AFGROW gives

good FCG life predictions under the load spectra S0, S1, S2 and S3. However, when the crack

branching or splitting occurred under S4 and S5, the observed significant crack growth

retardation is not caused by the overload induced yield zone effect; hence it cannot be

predicted by these retardation models in AFGROW. Another point is that the crack branching

was not observed immediately after the maximum stress in the block. Since it is difficult to

observe the overload effect from these a ~ Nf curves, the crack growth rate data may shed

light on the effect immediately after each overload. Attempts have been made to find

explanations for the relationship between crack growth retardation and tensile overloads.

Fig. 11 shows the measured da/Nf ~ Nf curves for the 2324-T39 L-T and 7050-T7451 L-S

specimens under different load truncation levels. Locations of the peak loads in the flight A

are marked by the vertical lines. The effect of these peak loads on crack growth rate can be

observed. These crack growth rate vs. flights curves show periodic changes in both aluminum

alloys. Following observations can be made: (1) The occurrences of crack retardation follow

the maximum tension overload regularly in each load block. (2) Retardation is more

significant at higher truncation levels, S4 and S5, than that at lower truncation levels, S0, S1,

S2 and S3. (3) Crack growth retardation in 2324-T39 L-T specimens is more significant than

that in 7050-T7451 L-S specimens, especially with spectra S4 and S5.

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It is mentioned in 4.1 that crack branching was only observed under spectrum S4 and S5 for

the 2324-T39 specimens, but for the 7050-T7451 specimen, crack branching and splitting

were observed on almost all the six loading spectra. These observations are also reflected by

plots in Fig. 11. Remarkable retardation was also found under S2, S3 for 7050-T7451,

especially when the crack became long, as shown in Fig. 11 (b). However, significant

retardation can only be seen under S4 and S5 for 2324 alloy in Fig. 11 (a). Referring to Fig.

10(e) and (f) and discussion in section 4.3, currently available crack growth models are

incapable of prediction these crack growth morphologies.

Although it can be said from Fig. 10 (a) - (d) that both the “No Retardation” and

“Willenborg” model are applicable for 2324-T39 under S0, S1, S2 and S3 spectra, in which

no macro-level crack branching was observed, there are still some signs of crack retardation

even under the baseline spectrum as shown in Fig. 11 (a); this was predicted by the

Willenborg model, Fig. 10 (a)-(d), and the predicted lives are on the conservative side. Fig. 12

shows the “Willenborg” model predicted crack growth rate and comparison with the test

measurements of 2324-T39 under S0. It indicates that: (1) Although tension overload was

followed immediately by an underload, the crack retardation phenomenon can still be

observed during the experiment of AA 2324-T39 under S0 with no crack branching. (2)

Although the generalised Willenborg model can predict the crack growth rate in trend, it

cannot model precisely the crack retardation introduced by such loading spectrum.

5. Conclusions

(1) Fatigue crack growth tests on AA 2324-T39 L-T and AA 7050-T7451 L-S oriented M(T)

specimens under truncated spectrum loading have shown some abnormal behaviours. For the

2324 alloy, crack branching was observed when the low-load range truncation was increased

to a certain level. There was no noticeable crack branching under lower truncation levels. For

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the 7050 L-S specimens, crack branching and slitting were observed in some of the specimens

irrespective of the load truncation levels, which means that these are mainly resulted from the

test material orientations.

(2) Crack growth life predictions using the AFGROW code have demonstrated that both the

NASGRO equation without a retardation model and NASGRO plus the generalised

Willenborg retardation model give good predictions for the 2324 alloy under lower stress

range truncation levels when there is no significant crack branching; therefore, both models

can be employed in crack growth prediction of structural components subjected to these kind

of loading spectra. However, all current retardation models derived from the cyclic plasticity

argument cannot predict the crack retardation caused by crack branching effect.

(3) Crack growth rate analysis has indicated that the crack growth retardation always followed

the peak tensile overload in the spectrum. For the 2324-T39 specimens tested under spectra

S0, S1, S2 and S3, these retardations are mainly caused by the crack tip and crack wake

plasticity effect, since there is no significant crack branching. For the same specimens tested

under higher truncation levels, spectra S4 and S5, retardation effect is more significant which

is mainly due to the crack branching. It can be deduced indirectly that the observed crack

branching phenomenon has a close relationship with the tensile overload, although it was not

observed immediately after the overload.

(4) For the 7050 L-S specimens, the stress intensity factor ranges corresponding to the peak

stresses are high enough to cause crack branching and splitting resulting in reduced crack

growth rates. With the increasing crack length, peak stress effect on SIF range is even greater,

hence crack retardation becomes more significant.

Acknowledgements

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The authors thank Ms. Hailing Tian at the Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute in China for

providing the specimens and load spectra used in this study. They also thank Dr. Jianyu

Zhang and all the PhD students in the fatigue and fracture research group at BUAA for

helping with the experiments. The National Natural Science Foundation of China is

acknowledged for supporting the project (10802003), and finally, R Bao also thanks the

China Scholarship Council for offering her the opportunity to visit the Cranfield University

where part of this study was performed.

References

[1] Federal Aviation Administration, Advisory Circular - Damage Tolerance and Fatigue

Evaluation of Structure, Federal Air Regu-lations 25, AC No.25.271-1C, 1998.

[2] J. Schijve, Fatigue crack propagation in light alloy sheet material and structures,

Advances in Aeronautical Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 387-408. Pergamon Press,1961.

[3] J. Schijve, Fatigue crack growth predictions for variable-amplitude and spectrum

loading, Proceedings of Fatigue 87, 1685-1720.

[4] O.E. Wheeler, Spectrum Loading and Crack Growth, Transaction of the ASME, Journal

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[5] J.P. Gallagher, T.F. Hughes, Influence of yield strength on overload affected fatigue crack

growth behaviour in 4340 steel, AFFDL-TR-74-28,1974.

[6] J.P. Gallagher, A Generalized Development of Yield-Zone Models, AFFDL-TM-74-28,

Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 1974.

[7] W. Elber, The Significance of Fatigue Crack Closure, Damage Tolerance in Aircraft

Structures, ASTM STP 486, American Society for Testing and Materials, 1971: 230-242.

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[8] J. A. Harter, AFGROW users guide and technical manual, AFRL-VA-WP-TR-2006-

xxxx, AFGROW, version 4.0011.14, June 2006. Website (accessed July 2008):

http://www.siresearch.info/projects/afgrow/downloads/afgrow/download.php.

[9] P. R. Underhill, D.L. DuQuesnay, The effect of dynamic loading on fatigue scatter factor

for Al 7050, Int J Fatigue, 30(2008): 614-622.

[10] M. Janssen, J. Zuidema, R. J. H. Wanhill, Fracture Mechanics (2nd edition). Abingdon:

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[12] J. Schijve, Fatigue of Structures and materials (2nd Edition), 2009, Springer.

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threshold conditions for high load ratio and constant Kmax tests, Int J Fatigue, 31(2009):

1780-1787.

[14] J. J. Schubbe, Fatigue crack propagation in 7050-T7451 plate alloy, Eng Frac Mech,

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[16] P. White, S. A. Barter, C. Wright, Small crack growth rates from simple sequences

containing underloads in AA7050-T7451, Int J Fatigue, 31 (2009) 1865–1874.

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Growth for Al 2324-T39 and Al 7050-T7451, Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, 22(2009):

401-406.

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[18] Alcoa Mill Products: 2324 Aluminium Alloy Plate and Sheet; Website (accessed Aug.

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[23] K. Walker, The Effect of Stress Ratio During Crack Propagation and Fatigue for 2024-T3

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Crack Growth under Random Loading, ASTM STP 748, 115-132, 1981.

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Table 1 Specimen dimensions (mm) and orientation

Half length of the

Length ( L ) Width ( W ) Thickness ( t ) Orientation
sawcut ( a n )
2324-T39 350 98.5 4.5 4 L-T
7050-T7451 350 98.5 6 4 L-S

Table 2 Material mechanical properties

Tensile Strength Yield Strength Elongation KIC (plane strain)

(MPa) (MPa) (%) ( MPa m )

38.5-44
2324-T39 475 370 8
( t = 19.05-33.02 mm)

31.9 (L-T), 27.5 (T-L)

7050-T7451 510 441 9
( t = 25.42 - 50.80 mm)

Table 3 Details of the truncated loading spectra

Name of spectrum S0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Truncation level (%) 0 9.82 11.72 13.98 17.11 21.36
Cycles eliminated in each block (%) 0 26.56 46.87 62.95 73.35 78.58

Table 4 Predicted FCG life using two different retardation models (spectrum S0, AA 2324-
T39)

Model and No Closure model Willenborg model Test

parameter retardation C f 0 =0.3 C f 0 =0.5 SOR = 3.0 * result

FCGL (flights) 12739 11755 5517 13729 13495

Error (%) -5.6 -12.9 -59.1 1.7 ----
* SOR=3.0 is recommended by AFGROW technical menu [8] for aluminium alloys.

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Fig. 1 Configuration of M(T) specimen and definition of material orientation.

a 1.0

0.8

0.6
max

0.4
......
/

...... ......
0.2

0.0
flight type E flight type E flight type A flight type B
-0.2
load cycles

b 1.0 load cycles of flight type A in S0

0.8 load cycles of flight type A in S5
max

0.6
/

0.4
0.2
0.0
-0.2
load cycles

Fig. 2 Segments of the loading spectrum: (a) baseline spectrum, (b) load sequence of flight
type A in S0 and S5.

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(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 3 Recorded crack lengths with respect to different crack morphologies.

a b

c d

e f

Fig.4 Crack morphologies under different loading spectra; (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) are for
the S0, S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 spectrum respectively.

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Fig. 5 Crack turning, meandering and branching for 2324-T39 (L-T) (the example shown here
is under the spectrum S4 of low-load range truncation level of 17.11%)

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 6 Appearance of secondary surface cracks and cracks linking up (the example shown here

is under the spectrum S5 of truncation level about 21.36%): (a) lead crack ①, secondary crack

②; (b) another secondary crack ③; (c) link-up of the two secondary cracks with the lead

crack.

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Fig. 7 Crack morphology of the L-S oriented 7050-T7451 specimens: (a) crack branching and
splitting during propagation under spectrum S0, (b) crack branching during pre-cracking
under constant amplitude loads.

Fig. 8 Final splitting failure of a L-S oriented 7050-T7451 specimen under static residual
strength test.

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25 25
a b
20 20

15 15
a

a
10 10

S0 S0
S2 S2
S4 S4

5 5
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000
Nf Nf

25 25
c d
20 20

15 15

S0
a

10 10
S1 S0
S2 S1
S3 S2
S4 S3
S5 S4
S5

5 5
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 22000 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000
Nf Nf

Fig.9 Test crack length vs. flights: (a), (b) are test raw data; (c), (d) are best fitting curves; (a),
(c) are for 7050-T7451; (b), (d) are for 2324-T39.

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25 25
a test data b test data
No Retardation No Retardation
Willenborg Willenborg
20 20

15 15
a

a
10 10

5 5
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000
Nf Nf

25 25
c test data d test data
No Retardation No Retardation
Willenborg Willenborg
20 20

15 15
a

10 10

5 5
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
Nf Nf

25 25
e f

20 20

15 15
a
a

10 10
test data test data
No Retardation No Retardation
Willenborg Willenborg

5 5
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000
Nf Nf

Fig. 10 Comparison of predicted a - Nf curve with the test data; (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) are
for S0, S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 spectrum, respectively.

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Nf

a 0.01 S0
1E-3
1E-4
1E-5

0.01 S1
1E-3
1E-4
1E-5

0.01 S2
1E-3
1E-4
1E-5
da / dNf

0.01
S3
1E-3
1E-4
1E-5

0.01 S4
1E-3
1E-4
1E-5

0.01
1E-3
S5
1E-4
1E-5
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000

Nf

b 0.01 S0
1E-3

1E-4

0.01 S1

1E-3

1E-4

0.01 S2
1E-3

1E-4
da / dNf

0.01
S3
1E-3

1E-4

0.01 S4
1E-3

1E-4

0.01
S5
1E-3

1E-4
0 5000 10000 15000 20000

Nf

Fig. 11 Peak overload locations (vertical lines) and effect on crack growth rates: (a) AA 2324-
T39, (b) AA 7050-T7451.

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0.01

da / dNf

1E-3

test data
Willenborg model

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000

Nf

Fig. 12 Comparison of Willenborg retardation model and measured crack growth rate of Al
2324-T39 under S0.