Fatigue properties of particle reinforced aluminium alloys

In this work the particle reinforced Al-alloys 359 T6 + 20 % SiC and 2124 + 17 % SiC which differ significantly in their production and microstructure are investigated. Standard and in-situ tensile tests show, that in the powder metallurgically produced alloy 2124 reinforcement leads to a higher Young's modulus, yield and ultimate tensile stress where the cast alloy 359 + 20 % SiC exhibit increased stiffness, but low ductility due to cast porosity of some 100 μm. The failure mechanism governed by microstructural parameters is found to play an important role for ductility. The fatigue properties are investigated with specific regard to the influence of the in-service condition (load ratio, temperature, variable amplitude loading) in the foreseen applications in the automobile- and aerospace industry. Standard fatigue tests point out that the endurance limit is improved by reinforcement, but is strongly dependent on the size of given initial defects. The fatigue crack properties are characterised by standard crack growth curves and r(esistance)-curves for the threshold of stress intensity factor range. Both composites exhibit a higher effective threshold than their unreinforced alloys. Furthermore the fatigue resistance described by the R-curve as well as the long crack threshold are improved in the alloy 2124 + 17 % SiC. While in crack growth tests under constant amplitude loading the alloy 2124 + 17 % SiC shows lower crack growth rates than its unreinforced alloy, the opposite case is in the alloy 359 + 20 % SiC at high DK. Periodic overloads lead in the 359 + 20 % SiC to particle fracture at the crack tip and to a steeper increase in the crack growth rate. In the 2124 + 17% SiC the fatigue crack grows predominately in the matrix and a retardation effect due to overloads is observed. In order to describe the fatigue limit of components as a function of initial defect size an analytical concept is developed assuming that the fatigue limit is controlled by the condition of propagation/non-propagation of given small defects. The dependence of the threshold on the crack length is taken into account by the experimentally determined R-curves. The R-curve concept is applied on both composites to describe the influence of microstructure and load ratio on the fatigue limit. The model is assessed and successfully validated by fatigue tests on standard specimens and component testing. (author)