Issue 35

V. Shlyannikov et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 35 (2016) 114-124; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.35.14 115 are approximately considered as semi-elliptical cracks. Biaxial loading conditions including tension/compression and bending are typical for the metallic components of engineering structures (turbine disk, aeroplane fuselage skin, pressure vessels and so on). The problem of residual fatigue life prediction of such type of structural elements is complex and the closed solution is often not available because surface flaws are three-dimensional in nature. The fatigue failure of structural elements subjected to biaxial stress system maybe develops from surface flaws, and only several analyses have been carried out to determine the stress intensity factors along the front of an edge defects and crack growth rate study on this base [1-4]. An actual surface crack may usually be replaced by an equivalent circular arc or elliptical-arc edge flaw. The elastic stress intensity factors have been published for part-circular, part-elliptical, or straight fronted through-thickness cracks in a cruciform and bending specimens. In this paper, firstly experimental results of fatigue crack growth for a crack starting from a semi-elliptical notch in an cruciform specimens under biaxial loading and bending plate are given. The influence of different loading conditions on fatigue life of cruciform specimens and bending plate is discussed. The relations of crack opening displacement and crack length on the free surface of specimens are obtained and it is shown that the growth of the crack fronts is dependent on the initial notch form. Using the aforementioned relations, the crack front shape and crack growth rate in the depth direction can be predicted. The simulations for the crack path assessment are based on the constraint parameters behaviour. The computational 3D fracture analyses deliver a governing parameter of elastic-plastic stress field distributions along the crack front. On this base crack growth interpretation is performed using the traditional elastic and new plastic stress intensity factors [5-7]. Different crack growth rate is observed in the direction of the deepest point of the crack front with respect to the free surface of the bending specimen. S PECIMENS AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES he test material is aluminum alloy D16T which main mechanical properties are listed in Tab. 1 where E is the Young’s modulus,  b is the nominal ultimate tensile strength,  0 is the monotonic tensile yield strength,  u is the true ultimate tensile strength,  is the elongation,  is the reduction of area, n is the strain hardening exponent and α is the strain hardening coefficient. Aluminum alloy  0.2 MPa  b MPa  %  %  u MPa E GPa n α D16T 439 590 9 9 645 75.922 5.88 1.50 438 598 12 13 686 77.191 5.85 1.58 Table 1 : Main mechanical properties of aluminum alloys. The cruciform specimen (CS) geometry and bending plate (BP) configuration are shown in Fig. 1. The thickness of both specimens is equal to 10 mm. Using linear cutting machine surface edge cracks were cut with initial flaw depths b 0 3.0 mm for both a circular arc and elliptical-arc initial edge notch. The geometric parameters of the specimens and initial notch are shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, the crack front approximated by an elliptical curve with major axis 2c and minor axis 2a. The crack length on the free surface of specimen c is obtained by measuring the distance between the advancing crack break through point and the notch break through point. The crack opening displacement is measured on the free specimen flat surface, in the central plane of symmetry as shown in Fig. 2. The CS fatigue crack growth tests have been performed with servohydraulic biaxial test equipment at a frequency of 5 Hz at a stress ratio R =0.1. The equipment has four independent loading arms with load actuators, which exert up to 50 kN on the both axes. Tensile or compressive loads are applied to each pair of arms of the cruciform specimens (Fig. 1), developing a biaxial stress field in the working section. The loads are controlled such that the specified forces are produced on opposing arms of the CS according to the given load biaxiality. For pure mode I at crack angle equal  = 90  , four biaxial load ratios for CS,  equal to +1.0, +0.5, 0.0 (uniaxial), and -1.0. Bending tests were carried out on servo- hydraulic test system BISS-nano with maximal capacity 25 kN at a frequency of 7 Hz at a stress ratio R =0.1. The crack length on the specimen lateral surface were monitored using the optical instrumental zoom microscope whereas, to fix the T