Short-crack growth behaviour in various aircraft materials

The results of the first phase of an AGARD Cooperative Test Program on the behavior and growth of short fatigue cracks are reviewed. The establishment of a common test method, means of data collection/analysis and crack growth modeling in an aircraft alloy AA 2024-T3 are described. The second phase allowed testing of various materials and loading conditions. The results of this second phase are described. All materials exhibited a short-crack effect to some extent. The effect was much less evident in 4340 steel than in the other materials. For the aluminum, aluminum-lithium, and titanium alloys, short cracks grew at stress-intensity factor ranges lower, in some cases much lower, than the thresholds obtained from long crack tests. Several laboratories used the same crack growth model to analyze the growth of short cracks. Reasonable agreement was found between measured and predicted short-crack growth rates and fatigue lives.