The effect of gust alleviation on fatigue in 2024-T3 Alclad

Fatigue tests under flight simulation loading were done on simple notched 2024-T3 Alclad sheet specimens. Reduction of the gust load amplitudes resulted in an increase of crack initiation life but hardly influenced crack propagation. Reduction of the overall stress level increased both initiation and crack propagation life. The observed...

Environmental effects on crack grwoth in flight-simulation tests on 2024-T3 and 7075-T6 material Supplement: Compilation of test data from an investigation on the effect of environment on crack growth under flight-simulation loading

Flight-simulation tests based on a standardized gust load spectrum were carried out in normal air, very dry air and salt water. Specimen thicknesses were t = 2 mm and t = 10 mm, mean stress in flight was 70 or 55 MN/m². In all cases a significant effect of the environment was found. Fatigue lives for t = 10 ram were much shorter than for t = 2...