Advanced Materials Research Vols. 891-892

Abstract: A repeat premature gear tooth breakage occurred in a load gearbox of a 40MW steam turbine. Factographic examination indicated that the breakage was a complex fatigue fracture. The oil deposit on the fracture surface has been applied as an auxiliary fractographic method. The root cause of the failure was due to improper heat treatment. The insufficient surface hardness and shallow case resulted in case/core separation through main fatigue crack propagation. The very coarse detrimental tempered low carbon martensites in core resulted in cleavage fracture in final fast fracture. The fractographic morphology of the butterfly has been revealed. Hertzian stress and non-metallic inclusions are not the necessary condition of the butterfly formation. The microcracks within the butterflies did not actively play the role of the fatigue rupture.

Abstract: Fastener holes have a high stress concentration at the edge of the hole and are primary sources of fatigue crack initiation, resulting in widespread fatigue damage leading to fatigue failures in airframe structures. The split-sleeve cold expansion (SsCx) technology is a simple and cost-effective way to improve the fatigue resistance of fastener holes by the introduction of compressive residual stresses around the holes. An investigation was carried out by DSTO to quantify the effectiveness of this technology, in terms of fatigue life improvement factors on a typical airframe aluminium alloy. Open hole (zero load transfer) coupons were tested to failure in non-cold expanded and cold expanded conditions. Coupons were also pre-cracked to specified crack lengths at the open hole, and cold expanded or left non-cold expanded, and tested to failure. This paper will present the results of the initial phases of the experimental program, involving constant amplitude fatigue loading of open hole coupons with and without cracks. The fatigue life improvement achieved by the use of hole cold expansion technology will be presented.

Abstract: From 1998 until 2001 a series of engine failures occurred in a fleet of large marine diesel engines due to the failure of precombustion nozzles. The nozzles are screwed into the head of the engines and are held in place by a tightening torque and a high temperature ceramic adhesive. The preliminary findings of an engineering investigation after one such failure concluded that cracking occurred in the nozzle at the time of the installation, due to poor installation technique, and that this cracking resulted in the loss of tightening torque causing the nozzle to become loose. However, the investigation also recommended that fractography be undertaken to verify the cause of failure since this would influence the engineering solution. The current paper focuses on the fractography that was conducted on the failed nozzle to determine its mode of failure and provides a reminder of the importance of fractography in failure analysis.

Abstract: Components and systems of military aircraft are regularly subjected to severe operating conditions, which lead to the development of a wide range of failure modes. The Defence Science and Technology Organisations (DSTO) Forensic Engineering and Accident Investigation group investigates such failures for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Correct diagnosis of these failures has provided the ADF with immediate advice that has contributed to increased aircraft safety, improved operational availability, and significant cost savings. This paper presents a number of case studies of recent fatigue failures which have occurred in Australian Defence aircraft. The case studies include examples of failures which occurred via differing fatigue initiating and driving mechanisms. Details of the forensic investigations relating to each case study are provided and the ensuing remedial actions discussed.

Abstract: The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) utilised the split sleeve cold expansion process to increase the fatigue life of fastener holes in the wings of the C130 transport fleet. As part of the validation of the fatigue improvements offered by the process the Defence Technology Agency conducted a series of fatigue tests on cold expanded fastener holes in aluminium 7075-T651, including specimens with corrosion induced after the cold expansion process had been performed. This research conducted an analysis of fatigue crack origins and modelled the stress concentration factors generated as a result of the corrosion pits. These results were used to explain the differing fatigue life and s-n curves produced by corroded and non-corroded fatigue specimens and the location of crack initiation sites around corroded cold expanded fastener holes.

Abstract: The corrections incorporated in fatigue crack growth prediction programs for crack closure are usually tested by their ability to predict retardation following an overload and for the accuracy of their prediction lives for long cracks greater than about 1mm. They should, however, be examined on their ability to predict the life of cracks that grow from small sizes, such as small inherent material discontinuities, to failure, which is more typical of service situations and the growth produced by small cycles as well as the larger cycles. To examine the extent of crack closure in aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 and the prediction of that growth, quantitative fractography measurements of short periods of fatigue crack growth produced with a specially engineered spectrum were conducted and are reported here. The spectrum contained bands of constant amplitude loads with diminishing mean stress designed to examine the extent of closure. The quantitative fractography results are compared to predictions by the common analytical programs FASTRAN and AFGROW and further with a basic effective stress intensity calculation method at a crack depth of about 1mm. The results showed that the analytical programs were able to predict the presence of closure; however, the extent of the closure was not accurately predicted.

Abstract: DSTO conducted a comprehensive series of fatigue coupon tests as part of the fatigue life substantiation of the RAAF F/A-18 Hornet. The study employed five spectra which were applied to flat aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 coupons to determine the effects of manufacturing discontinuities and stress magnitude on the fatigue nucleation and crack growth behavior. Crack growth behavior was established using optical microscopy and scanning electron fractography, measuring crack sizes greater than approximately 0.05 mm. This paper reports the fraction of life to failure as well as the probability of occurrence of a crack with a defined size.

Abstract: This paper presents a brief history of fatigue research at the Fishermans Bend Australia Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) facility from the early days in the 1940s when Mr. H.A. Wills, Head of the then Structures Division, foresaw with remarkable insight the emerging danger of fatigue in aircraft structures. He presented a historic paper at the Second International Aeronautical Conference in 1949 and instituted a comprehensive programme of research on the fatigue of materials and structures which proved to be invaluable within the next decade as fatigue failures began to plague first civil and then military aircraft fleets worldwide. DSTO is still amongst the world leaders on the fatigue of aircraft structures, as many of these research programmes have won international recognition and as fatigue investigations expeditiously undertaken for the RAAF (and at times civil regulators) have supplied valuable information to the aircraft manufacturers, operators and researchers.

Abstract: The Deep Surface Rolling (DSR) technology can substantially increase the fatigue life of metallic materials due to the introduction of deep compressive residual stresses in the material surface. These beneficial compressive residual stresses can be achieved up to a depth of 1 mm. The DSR technology also produces a good surface finish unlike bead peening technology. In this study, the main objectives were: (1) to study the feasibility of DSR for fatigue life improvement of high strength aluminium alloy (7075-T651) repaired with laser cladding technology, and (2) to investigate the effect of thermal stressing on the fatigue life improvement of DSR. Previously published results have shown that post-heat treatment of laser clad high strength Al alloy coupons improved their fatigue life. The experimental results in this paper show that the fatigue life was substantially increased using the DSR technique on laser clad 7075-T6 aluminium alloy compared to laser cladding alone and laser cladding followed by post heat treatment.

Abstract: Due to economic reasons the industry is seeking new lightweight solutions for large steel structures. However, when moving from traditional steel plate thicknesses, i.e. 5 mm or larger, to thinner ones, the fatigue design becomes challenging due to larger initial distortions caused by welding. The fatigue assessment methods used for thicker welded structures are not fully validated for thinner ones. This paper deals with the fatigue assessment of large thin-walled structures starting from the global response analysis of a whole structure to the stiffened panel and finally welded joint. A modern cruise ship is used as an example case, where traditional superstructure deck plate thickness of 5 mm is replaced by 3 mm. The influence of initial distortion at different levels of structural analysis is studied using geometrically nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis. For the lowest level of analysis, i.e. small welded joint, the experiments have been carried out including geometry measurements and fatigue tests. It is shown that for a large thin-walled structure the global response analysis can be carried out with acceptable accuracy using ideally straight plates and geometrically linear FE analysis. For intermediate level of analysis, i.e. stiffened panel, the analysis can also be geometrically linear, but the actual shape of the plates influences the structural stresses near welds significantly. When analyzing small welded specimens to define experimental fatigue strength, both the actual shape and the geometrically nonlinear FE analysis are needed in order to capture the straightening effect and to obtain the correct structural stress.