Identification and Validation of a Low Cycle Fatigue Damage Model for Al 7075 T6 Alloy

Abstract

In this paper, the behavior of 7075T6 aluminum alloy under low cycle fatigue (LCF) loading is experimentally and numerically investigated using continuum damage mechanics (CDM). An experimental procedure is established to identify the damage parameters for Al 7075T6. A damagecoupled explicit finite element code is developed using the experimentally extracted damage parameters to study the material behavior under LCF loading. Moreover, fractographic examinations are conducted to identify the fatigue crack initiation locations and propagation mechanisms. The model is employed for lifetime assessment of stringerskin connection of a fuselage and the results are compared with the data available in the literature.