Fatigue crack growth property of laser beam welded 6156 aluminium alloy

Abstract

Fatigue crack growth behaviours in different welding zones of laser beam welded specimens were investigated using central crack tension specimens for 6156 aluminium alloy under constant amplitude loading at nominal applied stress ratio R=0.5, 0.06, -1. The experimental results showed that base metal (BM) exhibited superior fatigue crack resistance compared to weld metal (WM) and heat-affected zone (HAZ). Crack growth resistance of WM was the lowest. The exponent m values for BM and HAZ at different stress ratios are close and around 2.6, while m for WM at different stress ratio is around 4.7. The discrepancy between crack growth rates for WM and BM is more evident with increasing stress ratio, while it is a little change for HAZ and BM. Change of the microstructure in WM deteriorates the resistance of fatigue crack growth compared to BM. It was mainly due to grain boundary liquation and dissolving of second-phase particles in the weld region. It was also found that the variety of fatigue crack resistance for different welding zones is in conformity with the change of hardness. BM with the highest hardness exhibited the maximum resistance for fatigue crack, and WM with the lowest hardness exhibited the minimum fatigue crack resistance. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Ltd.