Effect of Occasional Shear Loading on Fatigue Crack Growth in 7075 Aluminum Alloy

Effect of occasional mode II loading on subsequent mode I fatigue crack growth behavior was investigated by using a thin-walled tube made of 7075-T6511 aluminum alloy. Careful observation of crack growth behavior revealed that the occasional mode II loading has two contradictory effects for crack growth behavior. The first is a retardation effect that is associated with the plastic deformation near crack tip. However, this effect is negligibly small for the crack growth life as a whole. The second is an acceleration effect caused by mode II fatigue crack growth itself. It was found that under relatively high ΔK level, the mode II crack growth was about an order magnitude faster than mode I crack growth. Therefore, to properly evaluate the effect of occasional shear loading in the 7075 alloy, the mode II crack growth should be taken into account.