Fatigue Frucr. Enggng Murw. Srrurt. Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 1443-1451. I997 X756-75XXi97 $6.00 + 0.

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Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved Copyright 8 1997 batigue 8( Fracturc of
Engincering Materials & Structures Ltd

RELAXATION OF RESIDUAL STRESSES AT COLD-WORKED

FASTENER HOLES DUE TO FATIGUE LOADING
AND L. EDWARDS
A. T. OZDEMIR*
Fracture Research Group, Materials Discipline, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

Received in,final,form 23 June 1997

Abstract-Cold-expansion of fastener holes is now commonly used within the aerospace industry to
increase the fatigue endurance of airframes. Although a number of methods of cold expansion are
possible, the split-sleeve cold-expansion process is the most widely accepted and is frequently used in the
repair and manufacture stages of both military and civil aircraft. In the present work, the redistribution
of residual hoop stresses due to the application of constant amplitude fatigue loading at 4% cold-
expanded holes has been studied. A modified Sachs method was adopted to evaluate the residual stress
profiles and a replication technique was used to quantify crack growth. It was found that the decay of
the residual hoop stress profile near the bore of the hole was due to the initiation and growth of small
fatigue cracks. Cracks were found t o initiate both near and below the fatigue limit, but subsequently
arrested so stabilising the overall residual stress profile.
Keywords-Residual stresses; Cold expanded holes; Fatigue crack growth; Stress relaxation

INTRODUCTION

The fabrication of metallic airframes critically relies on the use of fasteners. Typically, solid
rivets are used for thin-walled structures, and high-strength bolted fasteners for thicker structures
and components. The rivet clamping of thin sections ensures load transfer primarily by interfacial
friction and so fastener holes of this kind are not always deleterious to fatigue performance.
However, at high shear load transfer joints, where both thin and thick members may be clamped,
fastener holes can become the main source of fatigue cracking particularly if the fasteners are
installed with a clearance-fit, i.e. if the diameter of the fastener hole is greater than the diameter
of the fastener [ 1,2]. To alleviate this problem, cold expansion has gained particular importance
over the last thirty years and is now widely used in both military and civil aircraft [3]. The
compressive residual stresses produced near the hole by cold expansion result in fatigue life
improvements by a factor of 2 to 10, either by retarding crack initiation or more often by
diminishing crack growth rates [4,5].
The most effective and widely accepted method in the aerospace industry is the split-sleeve
process introduced by Fatigue Technology Incorporated (FTI) of Seattle, USA. This method was
developed by the Boeing Commercial Aeroplane Company in the early 1970s and is now in
common practice both in manufacture and maintenance [ 31. This high interference process involves
pulling an oversize tapered mandrel through an internally lubricated expandable split-sleeve. The
presence of the sleeve has the advantage of preventing direct contact between the hole and the
sliding mandrel, and hence minimises the material flow in the through thickness direction.
Consequently, the compressive residual stresses at the periphery of the hole increase with the
degree of cold expansion which is limited mainly by available tooling. The maximum generally

* Now at Materials Department, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.

1443
1444 and L. EDWARDS
A. T. OZDEMIR

Plate

:,I
Washer

(Split)

RD

LA L T D
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of specimen and the resultant washer when it has been removed from the
plate.

used degree of expansion degree for this technique is 6%, but it has been reported that the optimum
expansion degree is rather less (4%), although this may vary depending on the particular application
and the local geometry of the component [7,8].
The ability to quantify the benefits of cold-expansion on fatigue behaviour at fastener holes
would be highly desirable, since aircraft components and structures are currently designed and
operated on a damage tolerant basis. This requires knowledge both of the original imposed residual
stress distribution and how this stress distribution is affected by subsequent fatigue loading. Thus,
the objective of the present work is to study the relaxation of residual stresses at 4% FTI expanded
fastener holes due to fatigue loading.
Recently, the present authors have developed a modified Sachs method to measure the residual
stress distribution around cold expanded holes [S]. Here, this method has been used to study the
redistribution of residual hoop stresses under cyclic loading at 4% FTI expanded holes sited
centrally in 300 x 40 x 5 mm 7050-T76 aluminium plates. Expansion was achieved by aligning the
split in the expansion sleeve with the long axis of the plates which also coincided with both the
rolling direction (RD) and the load axis (Fig. 1). After cold-expansion, holes were reamed to a
final size of 9.52 mm (3/8’3.

RESIDUAL STRESS RELAXATION AT COLD EXPANDED HOLES

The majority of the published work predicting residual stresses produced by cold expansion has
been analytical. The solutions are very dependent on the assumed boundary conditions and are
predominantly two dimensional (2D), [5-71 with 3D analyses only recently being attempted [9].
Similarly, the few experimental determinations of the residual stresses surrounding cold expanded
holes have been essentially 2D, [6,9,10]. Recently, however, the present authors have developed a
modified Sachs boring method that allows the residual stress distribution around split-sleeve cold-
expanded holes to be measured as a function of both position through the plate thickness and
around the hole [8]. This has confirmed suggestions by earlier workers [4,7,8,10] that the imposed
residual stresses produced at the mandrel exit (outlet) face are greater than the stresses produced
at the mandrel entrance (inlet) face.
Fatigue life predictions of airframes containing such expanded holes depend critically on the
determination of residual stresses and their initial distributions surrounding the holes. So the
stability of the initial residual stress distribution is important and it has been stated that high
applied stress levels can degrade the fatigue performance due to “relaxation” of the beneficial
compressive stress so reducing the barrier to initiation and growth of cracks [3].
 Relaxation of residual stresses 1445

However, there have been relatively few studies on the relaxation of residual stresses at cold
expanded holes. Cannon et al. investigated how cyclic loading relaxed the residual stresses at split-
sleeve expanded railway rail bolt holes. Although relaxation was detected near the hole using
X-rays, the subsequent analysis was fairly crude with the residual stress distribution away from
the holes being represented as straight lines [12]. More recently Hermann and Moffatt used the
modified Sachs technique used in the present work to study the effect of cyclic loading on the
decay of residual stresses near holes in thin 2091 aluminium-lithium plates that had been cold-
expanded using a roller-burnishing technique [ 131. Although decay was noticed no attempt was
made to identify the mechanism of stress relaxation. James has considered the likelihood of residual
stress relaxation during fatigue and concluded that any stress relaxation would probably be due
to micro-plasticity [ 141.

RESIDUAL STRESS DETERMINATION USING THE MODIFIED SACHS TECHNIQUE

The material used in this work was aluminium alloy 7050-T76, and was supplied in the form of
5 x 40 x 300 mm blanks. Its mechanical properties were measured to be: yield stress = 543 MPa,
tensile strength = 589 MPa and elongation to failure = 16%. The microstructure of the alloy
consisted of small elongated grains near the mid-thickness and larger grains towards the surfaces.
Typical average grain dimensions (determined by the mean linear intercept method) are given
in Table 1.
The nominally 9.52 mm cold expanded holes were produced using the FTI split sleeve method.
In this method, a 0.2 mm thick self dry molybdenum-disulphide lubricated sleeve is placed around
a mandrel with a maximum diameter of 8.64mm and then both are inserted into the hole. The
initial hole diameter 8.69 mm became 8.95 mm after expansion. Some of the holes were reamed to
a final size of 9.52 mm. As a final treatment, all specimens were deburred with emery paper.
A particularly elegant destructive way of measuring residual stresses in components possessing
cylindrical symmetry was first proposed by Sachs [l5], and the method has since been further
developed by Lambert [ 161 and Weiss [ 171. A complete description of the technique used in the
present work is given in [XI but a summary will be presented here.
To measure the residual stresses, washers of 40 mm diameter were cut concentric with the hole
and prepared for the Sachs boring-out technique, (Fig. 1). Strain gauges of 1 mm gauge length
were then located on the outer rim of the washer in both hoop and transverse directions. The
washer was then fixed to a specimen holder with a mixture of balsa-cement and aluminium powder.
To provide temperature compensation a dummy specimen was also connected to complete the
Wheatstone-Bridge circuit which was linked to a “Vishay” ten channel strain gauge amplifier. The
Sachs boring experiments involved machining away annular rings around the hole by spark
discharge machining using copper electrodes possessing accurately machined radii ranging from
the original hole diameter up to a maximum diameter of 25 mm.
Annular increments of 0.2 mm were used up to a diameter of 14 mm followed by increments of
0.5 mm for diameters between 14 and 25 mm. Both hoop and transverse strains were recorded

Table 1. Average grain sizes in 7050-T76 aluminium alloy

I Direction 1 Rolling I Transverse Short Transverse I
1446 and L. EDWARDS
A. T. OZDEMIR

after each machining stage; due attention being paid to the attainment of a stable strain reading
at each stage. Compensation for any relaxation of residual stresses during the machining of the
washer was achieved using the strain changes detected at 1 mm strain gauges located inside the
expanded holes [S].
All fatigue tests were conducted using constant amplitude loading in laboratory air on an
‘Instron’ servo-hydraulic testing machine with a 100 kN load cell at a frequency of 10 Hz. Hydraulic
grips were used to hold the specimen. To avoid premature failure in the grips 1 x 50 x 50 mm steel
plates were bonded to each end of the specimen with epoxy-resin.

INITIAL RESIDUAL STRESS DISTRIBUTION

Although the modified Sachs method measures the distribution of the full stress tensor [S]
around the hole, only hoop stress distributions on the plane perpendicular to the applied stress
will be presented here as this parameter provides the main interest with regard to fatigue life
improvement. Furthermore, since the majority of cold expanded holes used in the aerospace
industry are reamed to size after expansion this study was carried out predominantly on reamed
specimens.
However, it is pertinent to consider what effect reaming has on the residual stress distribution
around a 4% FTI expanded hole. Figure 2 presents residual stress distributions measured at both
an unreamed hole [S] and a reamed hole. Comparing the two results it can be seen that the
unreamed hoop stress distribution shows stress relaxation at the edge of the hole. However, there
is no evidence of relaxation at the edge of the reamed hole. There are two possible reasons for
this. Firstly, reaming removes a thin layer of material ( ~ 0 . mm)
3 containing the stress relaxed
area. Secondly, the reaming process may, itself, further cold work at the surface of the hole and
hence result in a small increase in the compressive residual stress at the hole edge.

STRESS RELAXATION DUE TO FATIGUE LOADING

Two series of experiments were undertaken to investigate the effect of fatigue loading on the
residual stress distribution in 4% FTI expanded and reamed holes. In the first set of experiments,

- outlet

Distance from Hole (mm)

Fig. 2. Residual hoop stress distribution at (a) an unreamed 4% FTI expanded hole, and (b) at a reamed
4 % FTI expanded hole.
 Relaxation of residual stresses 1447

220 200 I

1
I

O%FTI

A 4%RI (reamed)

3 0

$
UI

160-
.. A
A
0
e
M
-200
p!
ti
5E
.
---o-- 1455MPa

-
140- P
0 1SOMPa
.-x -400
-P-

I" 120-
a
* +
16OMPa

-t- 1655MPa
100
104 lb5 1b e 1o7

Number of Cycles Distance from Hole (mm)

Fig. 3. Fatigue life improvement of reamed 4% FTI Fig. 4. Residual hoop stress distributions at reamed 4%
expanded holes. FTI expanded holes fatigued for 50,000 cycles at different
applied loads.

the effect of the applied stress amplitude was studied. Specimens were fatigued for a constant
number of fatigue cycles, (50 x lo3), at R = 0.1 with maximum applied stresses of 145.5, 150, 160
and 165.5 MPa. These stress levels were chosen to bracket the fatigue limit which, as can be seen
from the SIN curves presented in Fig. 3, was measured to be 150 MPa.
The effect of this fatigue loading on the hoop stress residual stress distribution is presented in
Fig. 4. It can be seen that the residual hoop stress relaxation is sensitive to applied stress level and
that the degree of stress relaxation at the edge of the hole is larger at higher stress amplitudes.
There is no discernible relaxation below the fatigue limit, (145.5 MPa), but a clear effect can be
seen at higher loads where the degree of relaxation increases with applied stress. Based on these
results a second series of experiments were performed to investigate how the residual hoop stress
distribution relaxed with applied cycling at a maximum stress of 150 MPa i.e. at the fatigue limit.
So the residual hoop stress distribution was measured in specimens fatigued with a maximum
stress of 150 MPa for 10, 50, 100, 400 and 700 thousand and 1.5, 2.0 and 6.5 million cycles.
The resulting data are shown as superimposed hoop stress profiles in Fig. 5. It can be seen that

0
0 Stress at hole edge 0

.2001
-100 Max compressive stress 0

I
-300 0
0
O- I
e -400
0
. . 0.

6500000
-500 .
0 .

-600 , I . , . , .600 . , ...... , , , ..... , , ...... . , I

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 103 tb4 1b5 lbe 107

Distance from Hole (mm) Number of Cycles

Fig. 5. Residual hoop stress distributions at reamed 4 % Fig. 6 . Change in residual stress at the hole edge and
FTI expanded holes cycled at the fatigue limit. maximum compressive stress near the hole with applied
cycles at the fatigue limit.
1448 A. T. OZDEMIR
and L. EDWARDS

the greatest stress relaxation occurs in the vicinity of the hole edge. There is a steady reduction of
the compressive residual stress at the bore of the hole from the unrelaxed value of z -520 MPa
to -40 MPa after 6.5 x lo6 cycles. As a result of this relaxation, the position of the maximum
compressive hoop stress value progressively moves in from the edge of the hole until it reaches a
depth of ~ 0 . mm6 whilst reducing in value from % - 500 MPa to x -400 MPa. The residual
hoop stress decay at the hole edge is shown in Fig. 6 together with the maximum compressive
stress present after a given number of applied load cycles. No significant stress decay occurs before
10 x lo3 cycles, and after this point the rate of stress relaxation at the hole edge is relatively
constant. As the residual stress decay is significantly higher at the edge of the hole than deeper
into the specimen the maximum compressive residual stress decays at a rather slower rate and has
saturated by z lo6 cycles. This is not unexpected as 150 MPa is the fatigue limit and it reasonable
to expect that the residual stress distribution in a fatigue limit sample should eventually stabilise.

CRACK GROWTH MEASUREMENTS

To investigate crack initiation and growth, cracks at the bore of the hole and on the plate
surfaces were monitored using a replication technique in 4% FTI expanded and reamed specimens.
A specimen was cycled at the fatigue limit (150 MPa) and the test was interrupted after periods
of 5 x lo3 cycles to take the replicas. As may be seen from Fig. 7 which presents crack growth
data along the hole bore, a crack first appeared at the inlet side of the hole at z 100 x lo3 cycles.
This crack initially grew rapidly, but at ~2230x lo3 cycles having attained a length of % 2 mm, it
decelerated. At 2.5 mm ( ~ 4 5 x0 lo3 cycles), its growth rate again increased and it then crossed
the whole length of the bore at an almost constant rate. The second crack to initiate appeared at
the outlet side of the hole at ~ 2 5 x0 lo3 cycles, but compared to the crack at the inlet side, this
crack grew comparatively slowly. Of course, since this applied stress level is the fatigue limit,
(150 MPa), there is no failure of the specimen so both cracks eventually arrested.
The crack growth behaviour of a non-expanded (0% FTI) specimen tested at 150 MPa is also
presented in Fig. 7. In this non-expanded specimen, a single crack initiated along the hole bore
relatively late in the life of the specimen. The crack initiated at ~ 4 x5lo3 cycles and grew rapidly,
causing failure of the specimen after only ~ 5 x 5lo3 cycles. This shows that, once initiated, crack

12

-1
A O%FTI A Inlet sutface

4%FTl(inlet) A c*
I 4%Fll (outlet)
t

..
0

A A

A . A

Number of Cycles Number of Cycles

Fig. 7. Crack growth along the bore of both 4% FTI Fig. 8. Crack growth along the specimen surfaces from
expanded and non-expanded holes. the 4% FTI expanded hole.
 Relaxation of residual stresses 1449

Fig. 9. Crack arrest profile at a 4 % FTI expanded

hole tested at the fatigue limit.

growth at non-expanded holes is relatively fast. In contrast, crack growth at expanded holes is
severely retarded resulting in a significant improvement in fatigue life.
Of course, the fatigue cracks that initiate from each edge of the hole propagate along the surface
of the specimen as well as along the bore. Figure 8 presents crack growth data obtained by
replicating the inlet and outlet plate surfaces close to the hole edge. That is, the inlet and outlet
cracks monitored from the bore of the hole and presented in Fig. 7 were also recorded on the inlet
and outlet plate surfaces. As may be seen from Fig. 8, the inlet crack grows to a depth x 1 mm (at
850 x lo3 cycles) and then arrests-indeed further cycling to 2.2 x lo6 cycles did not result in any
detectable increase in crack length. The outlet crack could only be detected from the plate surface
at ~ 6 0 x0 lo3 cycles and its growth was relatively slow; hence, at the end of the experiment,
(2.2 x lo6 cycles), it had achieved a depth of only ~ 0 . 4 mm.
5
The specimen was then fractured by overloading and the fatigue fracture surface examined in
the scanning electron microscope. As can be seen from Fig. 9, at the inlet side the crack has a
slight semi-elliptical shape and has a maximum penetration of z 1 mm, whereas elsewhere the
crack front is reasonably straight throughout the thickness of the specimen and the crack has a
more shallow depth (x0.5mm).
This experiment provides good evidence that crack growth at cold expanded holes can occur
below the fatigue limit and suggests that any observable fatigue limit must be due to crack arrest
rather than the suppression of crack nucleation. To confirm this observation, replicas taken from
the reamed 4% FTI specimens that were used for the stress relaxation experiment at 150 MPa
were examined. The cracks observed at both inlet and outlet surfaces are listed in Table 2. Thus
it is clear that at the fatigue limit, a typical specimen contains both inlet and outlet cracks. The
largest cracks occur in the inlet side of the hole as the compressive residual stress field is slightly
lower there than on the outlet side. The cracks arrest at a length of z 1 mm, presumably because
they are growing into an increasingly compressive stress field and are experiencing a reduced
driving force for continued growth.

CONCLUSIONS

Relaxation of the compressive residual stress field around a cold expanded hole occurs under
constant amplitude loading even below the fatigue limit. Furthermore, the onset of stress relaxation
occurs after approximately the same number of applied stress cycles as it takes to cause detectable
crack growth. Stress relaxation at the bore of a cold-expanded hole occurs at all stresses above
1450 and L. EDWARDS
A. T. OZDEMIR

the fatigue limit, but in contrast to previous suggestions accrediting the mechanism of relaxation
to “free surface effects” or microplasticity due to the easy escape of dislocations to the open free
(hole) surface, it has been unambiguously shown in the present work that the main mechanism of
stress relaxation is due to the growth of short fatigue cracks.
Since there is clear evidence that fatigue cracking occurs preferentially on the inlet side of the
hole where it is known that compressive residual stress levels are relatively low, any fatigue life
predictions must take into account both the local nature of the residual stress distribution and
resultant crack nucleation and their interaction to cause residual stress relaxation if adequate
predictive fracture mechanics based models of fatigue life for cold expanded holes are to be
developed.

Acknowledgements-The authors would like to thank the Open University and the Defence Evaluation Research Agency
(DERA), Farnborough for supporting this work. They would also like to acknowledge the considerable help and support
of Robin Cook and Dr. Peter Poole at DERA.

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 Relaxation of residual stresses 1451

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