Fatigue-crack propagation in advanced aerospace materials: Aluminum-lithium alloys

Characteristics of fatigue-crack propagation behavior are reviewed for recently developed commercial aluminum-lithium alloys, with emphasis on the underlying micromechanisms associated with crack advance and their implications to damage-tolerant design. Specifically, crack-growth kinetics in Alcoa 2090-T8E41, Alcan 8090 and 8091, and Pechiney 2091 alloys, and in certain powder-metallurgy alloys, are examined as a function of microstructure, plate orientation, temperature, crack size, load ratio and loading sequence. In general, it is found that growth rates for long (> 10 mm) cracks are nearly 2--3 orders of magnitude slower than in traditional 2000 and 7000 series alloys at comparable stress-intensity levels. In additions, Al-Li alloys shown enhanced crack-growth retardations following the application of tensile overloads and retain superior fatigue properties even after prolonged exposure at overaging temperatures; however, they are less impressive in the presence of compression overloads and further show accelerated crack-growth behavior for microstructurally-small (2--1000 {mu}m) cracks (some three orders of magnitude faster than long cracks). These contrasting observations are attributed to a very prominent role of crack-tip shielding during fatigue-crack growth in Al-Li alloys, promoted largely by the tortuous and zig-zag nature of the crack-path morphologies. Such crack paths result in locally reduced crack-tip stress intensities, due to crack deflection and consequent crack wedging from fracture-surface asperities (roughness-induced crack closure); however, such mechanisms are far less potent in the presence of compressive loads, which act to crush the asperities, and for small cracks, where the limited crack wake severely restricts the shielding effect. 50 refs., 21 figs.