Nano-Scale Observation of Fatigue Striations for Aluminum Alloy

알루미늄 합금 피로 스트라이에이션의 나노 스케일 관찰

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was used to study cross sectional profiles and dimensions of fatigue striations in 2017-T351 aluminum alloy. Their widths (SW) and heights $(SH,\;SH_h)$ were measured from the cross sectional Profiles of three-dimension AFM images. The following results that will be helpful to understand the fatigue crack growth mechanism were obtained. (1) Coincidence of the crack growth rate with the striation width was found down to the growth rate of $10^{-5}$ mm/cycle. (2) The relation of $SH={\alpha}(SW)^{1.2}$ was obtained. (3) The ratio of the striation height to its width SH/SW and did not depend on the stress intensity factor range ${\Delta}K$ and the stress ratio R. From these results, the applicability of the AFM to nano-fractography is discussed.