Fatigue crack growth rate analysis in a titanium alloy

Reliable prediction of fatigue crack growth rates in aerospace materials and components underpins the so-called defect-tolerant approach to lifing. In this methodology the presence or appearance of defects and cracks in components is accepted. However, safe operation is guaranteed by regular inspections and health monitoring, and ensuring (by means of reliable modelling) that no crack may grow far enough to reach the critical size in the interval between inspections. Under such circumstances it is clear that particular attention has to be paid to the development and validation of predictive modelling capabilities for fatigue crack propagation. The situation is complicated by the fact that it is often a challenge to represent correctly the in-service loading experienced by a cracked component. In practice, on top of the major cycles associated with each flight (LCF component), cycles of higher frequency and lower amplitude are also present (HCF component). Sensitivity to dwell at maximum load is also often observed. Furthermore, it is well established that complex load sequences involving overloads and underloads result in fluctuations of fatigue crack growth rates (retardation and acceleration) that must be accounted for in crack growth calculations. In the present study we consider the application of an approach due to Noroozi et al. [1] to the analysis of R-ratio effects in Ti-6Al-4V material, on the basis of the experimental crack growth rate data collected under the auspices of AGARD programme [2]. The approach shows promising results, and has the capacity to capture loading sequence effects.