Analysis of residual stress relaxation of aluminum alloys EN AW 6061/-82 T6 under cyclic loading

Stress relaxation describes the reduction of stress under static or cyclic loading at a constant strain level. Several processes induce intentionally residual stresses, for example, autofrettage of thick-walled pressurized tubes to improve their fatigue life. This well-known process induces residual compressive stresses at the critical inner surface by using a single static but controlled overloading internal pressure. Relaxation of residual stresses due to cyclic loading in service would endanger the effectiveness of autofrettage and could finally lead to unexpected fatigue failure. In this study, strain-controlled experiments up to 500,000 load cycles and amending nonlinear finite element simulations were done for the aluminum alloys EN AW 6061 T6 and EN AW 6082 T6 to study potential cyclic stress relaxation in four-point bending tests after controlled single static plasticization for residual stress generation. This analysis identifies almost stable residual stresses for both materials under different cyclic strain-controlled load levels.