Fracture behavior of the forged aluminum 7075-T6 alloy under mixed-mode loading conditions

•The influence of the hot forging process on fracture behavior of Al 7075-T6 alloy was investigated.•Fracture tests were carried out for different forging percentages in three loading modes (I, II, and mixed-mode I/II).•Higher resistance against the crack growth under the pure tensile mode compared to the shear mode was shown.•By application of forging-induced deformation, the resistance of a material against crack growth was declined. This study addressed the formability of Al 7057T6 alloy. The hot forging process was utilized for plastic deformation. Simple tensile tests and fracture tests then tested forged pieces. The fracture tests were carried out for different forging percentages in three loading modes (I, II, and mixed-mode I/II). The specimen and the crack tip were modeled by the finite element method. The studied alloy showed higher resistance against the crack growth under the pure tensile mode than in the shear mode. Higher forging declined the material resistance against crack growth. This declining trend was negligible in mode-I. However, it intensified by an increase in the loading angle; up to a 52% decrease was detected in mode-II. Therefore, extra care should be considered in applying forged Al 7075-T6 alloy under a dominant shear load. Almost similar conditions can be observed on the fracture surface of the samples using SEM images.