Influence of gust spectrum variations on fatigue crack growth behaviour of damage tolerant aluminium-lithium sheet materials

Flight simulation fatigue growth tests were done on 1.6 mm thick sheets of the damage tolerant aluminium-lithium (Al-Li) alloys 2091-T84 and 8090-T81 in comparison with the industry standard conventional damage tolerant alloy 2024-T3. The flight simulation load spectrum, the gust spectrum MINITWIST, was used in four versions: untruncated,...

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...