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Abstract

The fatigue life of ductile metals is controlled mainly by the propagation life of a short surface crack; to clarify the growth behavior of short cracks is crucial factor to the safe design of smooth surface members. However, little has been reported on the growth behavior of short surface cracks in thermal-chemical treated duralumin. In the present study, stress-controlled fatigue tests (under rotating bending load) for 70 hours artificial aged duralumin 7075-T6 without chemical treatment case (1) and with chemical treatment case (2). The growth behavior of short cracks was monitored by a plastic replication technique and the surface damage (short crack propagation) during cyclic stressing was observed by optical microscopy. The physical background of fatigue damage for case (1) and case (2) was discussed from the viewpoints of the initiation and growth behavior of short cracks.

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