Effect of hardening induced by cold expansion on damage fatigue accumulation and life assessment of Aluminum alloy 6082 T6

Abstract

Hole cold expansion (HCE) is an effective method to extend the fatigue life of mechanical structures. During cold expansion process compressive residual stresses around the expanded hole are generated. The enhancement of fatigue life and the crack initiation and growth behavior of a holed specimen were investigated by using the 6082 Aluminum alloy. The present study suggests a simple technical method for enhancement of fatigue life by a cold expansion hole of pre-cracked specimen. Fatigue damage accumulation of cold expanded hole in aluminum alloy which is widely used in transportation and in aeronautics was analyzed. Experimental tests were carried out using pre-cracked SENT specimens. Tests were performed in two and four block loading under constant amplitude. These tests were performed by using two and four blocks under uniaxial constant amplitude loading. The increasing and decreasing loading were carried. The experimental results were compared to the damage calculated by the Miner's rule and a new simple fatigue damage indicator. This comparison shows that the 'damaged stress model', which takes into account the loading history, yields a good estimation according to the experimental results. Moreover, the error is minimized in comparison to the Miner's model.

Keywords

• aluminum alloys
• cold expansion
• compressive residual stress
• hardening
• block loading
• fatigue damage
• fatigue life enhancement