Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols 66-68 (2011) pp 1477-1482 Online: 2011-07-04

© (2011) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.66-68.1477

An Experiment of Fatigue Crack Growth under

Different R-ratio for 2024-T4 Aluminum Alloy

Yang Guanga, Gao Zengliangb, Xu Fengc, and Wang Xiaoguid

College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, China

a
yangguang_zjut@163.com, bzlgao@zjut.edu.cn, cethan.xf@gmail.com, dhpcwxg@zjut.edu.cn

Key words: Fatigue crack growth rate; R-ratio; 2024-T4 aluminum alloy; Stress intensity factor
amplitude

Abstract. The fatigue crack growth tests of compact tension (CT) specimens of 2024-T4 aluminum
alloy were conducted under constant amplitude loading with different R-ratios, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75,
respectively. The thickness of the specimen is 3.8mm. All the fatigue crack growth experiments
were carried out in ambient air without a pre-crack. The early crack growth region reflects the
influence of the notch. An optical reading micrometer with a magnification of 40 was used to
measure the crack length. The size of the notch together with the loading conditions has a great
influence on the early crack growth within the notch influenced region. Beyond the notch
influenced zone, the stable fatigue crack growth is reached and can be characterized by the Paris
law. The experimental results indicate that fatigue crack growth rate increases with the R-ratio for a
given stress intensity factor amplitude.

Introduction
The fatigue crack tip growth of high-strength aluminum alloy is the most important reason of
aircraft damage. An identical material was used for the study of multiaxial fatigue in an earlier
publication [1] where the basic mechanical properties, including monotonic tension, monotonic
torsion, uniaxial fatigue, and biaxial fatigue, were reported.
Since Paris, most research on fatigue crack growth has related the crack growth properties to
the stress intensity factor. The Paris law can successfully describe the experimental data for long
cracks under small-scale yielding and constant-amplitude loading. Two major factors influence the
crack growth: R-ratio (the ratio of the minimum load over the maximum load in a loading cycle)
and overloading. The R-ratio can have a significant influence on crack growth rate and threshold.
With the same stress intensity factor range, a higher R-ratio results in a higher crack growth rate.
Modifications on the Paris law are needed with additional material constants in order to consider the
R-ratio effect, threshold limits, variable amplitude loading, overload effect, and short crack growth
[2]. Afterward, in many papers, it is showed that the R-ratio can have a significant influence to
many kinds of metal on crack growth rate. The papers [3-6] studied the fatigue crack growth rate of
the 3.8mm specimen. It was shown that the fatigue crack growth rates 16MnR steel was insensitive
on the R-ratios; but for the 304 stainless steel, 7075-T651 aluminum alloy, AL6XN stainless steel,
1070 steel, that fatigue crack growth rate increased as the R-ratios increased. The fatigue crack
growth rates 1070 steel was influence on the R-ratios. Kumar [7] conducted the fatigue crack
growth experiments with the thickness of 2.6mm mid-carbon steel one side notch specimen, found
that retain the maximum loading is constant, fatigue crack growth rate increased as the R-ratios
reduced. Extensive experiments were conducted to investigate the fatigue crack initiation and crack
growth under constant amplitude loading for metallic materials [8]. The fatigue crack growth curve

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1478 Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

of the crack growth rate da dN versus the stress intensity factor range ∆K in the log-log scale
often exhibits a sigmoidal shape with three distinct regimes: the early crack growth, the stable crack
growth, and the rapid crack growth till final fracture. The Paris law is often used to describe the
linear relationship between log (da dN ) and log (∆K ) . The early crack growth from a notch
generally displays a different tendency from that extrapolated from the stable crack growth. The
early crack growth from a notch is often attributed to the notch plasticity, crack tip plasticity, or
crack closure [9, 10]. After a detailed consideration of the material cyclic plasticity near the notch,
Ding et al. [11] argued that the combined effect of notch plasticity and possible contact of the
cracked surfaces were responsible for the early crack growth.
In this paper, crack growth experiments under variable amplitude loading were conducted to
study the effects of R-ratio on the crack growth behavior of 2024-T4 aluminum alloy. It was shown
that the fatigue crack growth rate 2024-T4 aluminum alloy was influence on the R-ratios obviously.
Significant R-ratio effect was identified. When R=0.75, the fatigue crack growth rate is higher;
when R=0.05 the fatigue crack growth rate is slowest. The results indicated that fatigue crack
growth rate increased as the R-ratios increased.

Fatigue Crack Growth Experiments

2024-T4 aluminum alloy is widely used in the modern industry because of the high ratio of
strength to mass density. Fatigue due to cyclic loading is the most common failure form in the
load-bearing structural components made of 2024-T4 aluminum alloy.

.0
R 1
13.85

.5
R 0
13.85

56
. 7
.1
R 0

10.5 14
42

(Thickness=3.8mm)
Fig.1 Compact tension specimen

There is no standardized specification for the testing specimen used for mixed mode crack
growth experiments. The current investigation utilized a round (disk-shaped) compact specimen
(Fig. 1). The specimen was machined from the round bars of 2024-T4 aluminium without heat
treatment. Before final machining, the thickness of the specimens was 3.8 mm, a notch with a
length of 15 mm and a width of 1.0 mm was machined. Before fatigue testing, a sharp notch was
formed by using a diamond saw. The width of the sharp notch was 0.2 mm and the length was
approximately 1.0 mm. Circular notches with three different notch root radii at the tip of the slot
(refer to the right-side illustration in Fig. 1) were used in the experimental investigation. The radii
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 66-68 1479

of the notches were 0.1 mm, 0.5mm, and 1.0 mm, respectively. The slots and the circular notches
were formed by using the wire EDM (electrodischarging machining). EDM results in a minimal
residual stress near the notch due to the very low material removal rate.
The chemical composition of 2024-T4 aluminium alloy steel is shown in Table 1. The material
has an elasticity modulus of 73.1GPa , Poisson’s ratio of 0.33.

Table 1 Fatigue crack growth under constant amplitude loading

r0 t a0 Pmax Nf af f
specimen R-ratio
(mm) (mm) (mm) (kN) (cycle) (mm) (Hz)
2024-1-1 0.05 0.5 3.8 4.91 2.0 89026 12.283 0.8
2024-1-2 0.05 0.5 3.8 4.87 2.5 110461 12.507 0.8
2024-1-3 0.1 0.5 3.8 4.967 3.5 31801 12.803 0.5
2024-1-4 0.1 0.5 3.8 4.783 3.0 50198 11.618 0.75
2024-1-5 0.1 0.5 3.8 5.000 2.5 78675 13.157 1.5
2024-1-6 0.5 0.5 3.8 4.730 3.0 295010 11.463 1.5
2024-1-7 0.5 0.5 3.8 5.160 3.6 128030 10.99 1.5
2024-1-8 0.5 0.5 3.8 5.080 4.0 69832 12.015 1.2
2024-1-9 0.75 0.5 3.8 5.12 6.0 294391 9.829 2.0
2024-1-10 0.75 0.5 3.8 4.73 5.5 238450 9.853 3.0
2024-1-11 0.75 0.5 3.8 5.09 5.0 562330 10.493 3.5

R-ratio=ratio of the minimum load over the maximum load in a loading cycle, Pmax = maximum
loading, r0=radius of the circular notch, f=loading frequency, a0=distance between the notch root and
the line of action of the applied load, aNIZ=notch influencing zone size measured from the notch root,
Nf=number of loading cycles when the test was terminated, af=final crack length measured from the
line of action of the applied load.

The experiments were conducted using an EHF-ED250kN-40L load frame with computer
control and data acquisition. The testing system can generate and control the axial loads
independently. The mode I crack growth experiments were conducted on 11 specimen: constant
amplitude loading with different R-ratios, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, respectively. The loading conditions
and primary results are summarized in Table 1 for the constant amplitude loading experiment. An
optical reading micrometer with a magnification of 40 was used to measure the crack length. Prior
to the experiments, one side of the specimen was finely polished to facilitate the crack length
measurement. All the fatigue crack growth experiments were carried out in ambient air without a
pre-crack, and the experiments were terminated before final fracture.

Experimental Results and Discussions

With the experiments data calculate the stress intensity factor, and protract the stress intensity
factor ∆K curve. The stress intensity factor versus crack growth rate was adopted to present the
experimental results, considering the familiarity of the quantity to most of the researchers in the
field. The stress intensity factor for the round compact specimen was calculated using the following
formula (1)
K I = σ W F (q ) (1)
1480 Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

where
(2 + q )(0.76 + 4.8q − 11.58q 2 + 11.43q 3 − 4.08q 4 )
F (q ) = (2)
(1 − q )3 2

a P
q= and σ= (3)
W WB
The symbol B in Eq. (3) denotes the thickness of the compact specimen and W is the distance
between the applied force P and the round edge of the specimen (refer to Fig. 1). The error
introduced by using Eq. (1) is within 0.3 percent when q is larger than 0.2. The accuracy is lower
when the ratio q is less than 0.2. It should be pointed out that the discussions in this paper do not
depend on the accuracy of the stress intensity factor.

-3
10 -2
Crack growth rate da/dN(mm/cycle)

10

Crack growth rate da/dN(mm/cycle)

8
6

4 -3
10
2

-8 3.09 -4
10 -8 3.17
-4 da/dN=5.75×10 (∆Κ) da/dN=6.18×10 (∆Κ)
10
8
6 R=0.05 -5
R=0.1
Pmax=2.0kN 10 Pmax=2.0kN
4
Pmax=2.5kN Pmax=3.0kN
-6
Pmax=2.8kN
2
9 2 3
10 7 8 9 2 3
10 10
1/2 1/2
Stress intensity factor range ∆K/(MPa·m ) Stress intensity factor range ∆K/(MPa·m )
(a) R=0.05 (b) R=0.1
-3 -3
10 10 8
Crack growth rate da/dN(mm/cycle)

Crack growth rate da/dN(mm/cycle)

6
6
4
4
2
-4 2
10
6 -4
-8 3.29
4
da/dN=5.29×10 (∆Κ) 10 8 -9 4.90
6
da/dN=3.28×10 (∆Κ)
2
4
10
-5 R=0.5 R=0.75
6 Pmax=3.0kN
4
2 Pmax=5.5kN
Pmax=3.6kN
-5 Pmax=5.8kN
2 Pmax=4.0kN 10
-6
8 Pmax=6.0kN
10 6
6 7 8 9 2 5 6 7 8 9 2
10 10
1/2 1/2
Stress intensity factor range ∆K/(MPa·m ) Stress intensity factor range ∆K/(MPa·m )

(c) R=0.5 (d) R=0.75

Fig. 2 Fatigue crack propagation rate curves at different stress ratio

The crack growth rate, da dN , was determined from the experimentally obtained crack length,
a, versus the corresponding number of loading cycles, N. A parabolic curve was adopted to best fit
the a-N curve by a set of seven consecutive experiment data points (a, N). The derivative of the
fourth point in the seven consecutive points was taken to be the crack growth rate at the fourth
point.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 66-68 1481

Fig. 2 summarizes the experimental crack growth results under constant amplitude loading in
the traditional form of crack growth rate versus the stress intensity factor range. Since all the
experiments were terminated before the final fracture, unstable crack growth was not observed in
the experiments. It should be noted that the early crack growth region reflects the influence of the
notch because no pre-cracks were used in the fatigue crack growth experiments. For a given R-ratio,
the fatigue rate curves with different loading amplitudes were practically coincided. When the
R=0.5, the fatigue crack growth rate curve of alloy presents three stages. In Fig.2, when the ∆K
below 8 MPa ⋅ m1 2 , da dN is less than 10 −4 mm cycle , stay microcosmic crack growth stage,
which is the crack growth first stage; when ∆K between 8 MPa ⋅ m1 2 and 11 MPa ⋅ m1 2 , is
basically a linear relationship, stay microcosmic crack growth stage, which is the crack growth
second stage; when ∆K is 11.5MPa ⋅ m1 2 , crack reaches critical of the third stage, at this time,
da dN is about 2.7 ×10 −3 mm cycle .
By compared to the R-ratio, we can find that the fatigue crack growth of the stabilization stage
was influence on the R-ratios obviously. The material displays a significant R-ratio effect. With an
identical stress intensity factor range, a higher R-ratio results in a higher crack growth rate.
Although the threshold was not experimentally measured, the tendency indicates that the threshold
value of the stress intensity factor range increases as the R-ratio decreases. See Fig. 3, when R=0.75,
the fatigue crack growth rate curve is above the R=0.5, R=0.1, R=0.05 and R=0.01, it shows that the
fatigue crack growth rate of R=0.75 is higher. Simultaneously, we can found that the first and the
third stage of fatigue crack growth were influence on the R-ratios more obviously. It was shown that
the fatigue crack growth rates 2024-T4 aluminum alloy was influence on the R-ratios obviously
(Fig. 3).
-2
10
Crack growth rate da/dN(mm/cycle)

-3
10

-4
10

R=0.05
-5 R=0.1
10
R=0.5
R=0.75
-6
10 6 7 8 9 2
10
1/2
Stress intensity factor range ∆K/(MPa·m )
Fig. 3 Fitted Paris law for different R-ratios

The stable crack growth can be characterized by the standard form of the Paris law, i.e.,
n
da dN = C (∆K ) (4)
where ∆K is the stress intensity factor range and c and n are material constants to be determined
by fitting the experimental data. For the 2024-T4 aluminum alloy, the two material constants are
different under different R-ratio.
Table 2 Material constants of the 2024-T4 fitted by the Paris formula
R-ratio 0.05 0.1 0.5 0.75
c 5.75E-08 6.18E-08 5.29E-08 3.28E-09
n 3.09 3.17 3.29 4.90
1482 Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

Summary
The fatigue crack growth tests of compact tension (CT) specimens of 2024-T4 aluminum alloy
were conducted on constant amplitude loading with different R-ratios, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75,
respectively. The stable crack growth has been characterized by the standard form of the Paris law,
and the material constants of the law was also fitted, and the material constant n growth rate
increased as the R-ratios increased, while the constants c by contraries. From the Fig. 3, we can see
that the fatigue crack growth rate 2024-T4 aluminum alloy was influenced on the R-ratios obviously.
When ∆K ≤ 6MPa ⋅ m , since the size of the notch together with the R-ratio and loading amplitude
has a great influence on the early crack growth from the notch, the fatigue crack growth is disrupt.
When ∆K ≥ 6MPa ⋅ m1 2 , the fatigue crack growth was stable beyond the notch influenced zone,
and the fatigue crack growth rate increased as the R-ratios increased. The results indicated that
fatigue crack growth rate increased as the R-ratios increased for a given stress intensity factor.

Acknowledgment
The research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(50975260, 51005208) and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China
(Z1091027, Y6090081).

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Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.66-68

An Experiment of Fatigue Crack Growth under Different R-Ratio for 2024-T4 Aluminum Alloy
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