Prediction of fatigue-crack growth in a high-strength aluminum alloy under variable-amplitude loading

The present paper is concerned with the application of an analytical crack-closure model to study crack growth under various load histories. The model was based on a crack-tip plasticity concept like the Dugdale model, but modified to leave plastically deformed material in the wake of the advancing crack tip. The effect of material thickness on plasticity was accounted for by using a constraint factor on tensile yielding at the crack tip. The model was used to correlate crack-growth rates under constant-amplitude loading, and to predict crack growth under variable-amplitude loading on a high-strength aluminum alloy (7475-T7351) sheet material. The experimental data were obtained from Zhang et al. Predicted crack-growth lives agreed well with experimental data. For ten crack-growth tests subjected to various variable-amplitude load histories, the ratio of predicted-to-experimental lives ranged from 0.54 to 1.19. The mean value of the ratio of predicted-to-experimental lives was 0.95 and the standard error was 0.2 using a constraint factor of 1.9 in the model. Crack-opening stresses calculated from the model were significantly different from those determined by Zhang et al. using a striation-based experimental method.