doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2006.01050.

Characterisation of equivalent initial aw sizes in 7050 aluminium alloy

L. MOLENT 1 , Q. SUN 2 and A. J. GREEN 2
1 DSTO,

Air Vehicles Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermans Bend, Victoria, 3207, Australia, Technologies. 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermans Bend, Victoria, 3207, Australia

2 AeroStructures

Received in final form 10 April 2006

A B S T R A C T This paper summarises a collation of crack growth related data from a significant number

of fatigue tests on commercial quality 7050-series aluminium alloy tested under various F/A-18 aircraft spectra. The data presented consist of quantitative fractography measurements of the fracture surfaces including effective initiating defect size and type (mechanical, environmental or chemical). Three different surface conditions were considered: chemically etched, glass bead peened and machined. The purpose of providing these data was to facilitate analyses on the parameters governing the propagation of fatigue cracks in the 7050-series aluminium alloy. Here an investigation to determine whether surface finish or applied stress and spectra have any bearing on the initial defect size or the damage type is summarised. Based on this investigation, it appears that the applied stress and spectra have no correlation to the size of the equivalent initiating flaw; however, the surface finish appears to influence the various crack-initiating mechanisms and to govern the formation of the damage type. Keywords aluminium; fatigue crack propagation; fatigue tests; initial flaw size distribution; surface roughness.
NOMENCLATURE

A21-055 = RAAF fleet aircraft A21-103 = RAAF fleet aircraft APO3b = Australian Post-LEX fence spectrum applied to FT46 APOL = Australian Post-LEX fence spectrum representative usage BPA = Back Projection A all QF data BPB = Back Projection B using only QF data >0.1 mm only FT46 = IFOSTP F/A-18 full-scale aft fuselage and empennage test FT245 = IFOSTP F/A-18 full-scale wing fatigue test FT55 = IFOSTP F/A-18 full-scale centre fuselage fatigue test FT93 = Boeing F/A-18 full-scale wing fatigue test IARPO3a = Institute of Aerospace Research Post-LEX fence load spectrum K t = Stress concentration factor SFH = Simulated or Spectrum Flight Hours ST16 = Boeing F/A-18 full-scale centre fuselage fatigue substantiation test

INTRODUCTION

One of the primary factors that limit the life of metallic aircraft structures is fatigue cracking under variable amplitude cyclic loading. Material defects or flaws, commonly in the order of 0.01 mm deep, are the typical iniCorrespondence: L. Molent. E-mail: Lorrie.Molent@defence.gov.au

tiators of such fatigue cracking. During the application of spectrum loads, these fatigue cracks propagate at approximately an exponential rate13 commencing shortly after the introduction into service of an aircraft like the F/A-18. Various types of fatigue initiators have been known to develop into fatigue cracking in commercial grade aluminium alloys.4 These include inter-metallic particles,

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porosity, mechanical defects, etch pits and material laps and folds due to bead shot peening. The fatigue life variation of any given region of metallic structure appears to correlate primarily to the distribution of what is known as the Equivalent Pre-crack Size (EPS) of these fatigue crackinitiating defects512 for a given stress and spectrum. Specific material property variations have been shown to have a secondary influence.13,14 A better understanding of the factors that influence EPS has the potential to facilitate more accurate predictions of fatigue life. EPS is a recent development, and these EPS values are an approximation to a physical measurement of the initiating flaw or discontinuity derived via back projection to time zero from experimental data using an empirical crack growth model and should not be compared to the more traditional USAF Equivalent Initial Flaw Size (EIFS) concept.15,16 Generally EIFS are derived through back-projection to time zero using a mechanistic linearelastic fracture mechanics model, and may bear little resemblance to any physical dimension. Many authors have shown that the EIFS values are model, stress and spectra dependent (see e.g. Fawaz Ref. [17]). Many aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 coupons have been fatigue tested at the Air Vehicles Division (AVD) of DSTO.512 During these tests, various F/A-18 aircraft representative spectra were repeatedly applied to the coupons, at various stress levels, until failure. In addition, much data are available from cracks in various F/A-18 full-scale structural fatigue tests (e.g. Refs. [1822]) for the same material. Quantitative Fractography (QF) was conducted for many of these specimens, producing crack growth data that are considered useful in fatigue analysis. This paper summarises some of the results from this collation of F/A-18 crack growth information, pertaining to each of the 364 fatigue cracks considered, known as the F/A-18 Fatigue Crack Growth Data Compendium.23 Whilst it is impractical to present all the data here, an example set is shown in Fig. 1. Using all the available data, various techniques were used to derive the EPS. The paper presents an assessment of the size of fatigue crack initiating defects and damage types found in these specimens. Further it was determined that the applied stress and spectra appeared to have little bearing on the initial defect size (EPS) or the damage type. However, the surface finish appeared to have decisive influence in governing the type of fatigue damage induced.
One possible reason for this difference is that the EPS values were derived based on QF data which are available down to very small crack sizes (i.e. approximately 10-100 m, see Fig. 1). Therefore the EPS back-projection to time zero involved very little extrapolation. On the other hand the EIFS method relies on the back-projection of relatively large cracks back to time zero (i.e. large extrapolation) and therefore is subject to model sensitivities.

T H E F / A - 1 8 C R A C K G R O W T H D ATA COMPENDIUM

Many significant fatigue tests have been conducted to assist the structural integrity management of the F/A-18 fleet. These fatigue tests comprised of certification tests and fatigue validation tests conducted on various coupons, components and full-scale test articles. For example, the F/A-18 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), (McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, now Boeing), conducted full-scale certification fatigue testing of the wing (referred to as FT93) and centre fuselage (ST16), to meet United States Navy (USN) design requirements.24 Australia and Canada conducted full-scale fatigue tests under a collaborative program known as the International Follow-On Structural Test Project (IFOSTP).25 Canada tested the centre fuselage (FT55) and wings (FT245) and Australia tested the aft fuselage and empennage (FT46).21 The Australian portion of this collaboration also involved coupon and component fatigue tests. The specimens tested at DSTO (particularly the coupons) comprised of various geometries, surface conditions, material batches, loading spectra, etc. As part of the test interpretation effort, many fatigue cracks generated during these tests have undergone QF at DSTO and these are summarised in the compendium.23 The compendium also includes such details as the type of the initiating flaw. One of the aims of collating this information was to provide a database that would facilitate assessment of fatigue initiating flaw sizes and damage types, to assist the development of improved risk-based assessment of aircraft fatigue lives (see e.g. White et al. Refs. [13,14]). Continued development of the compendium will assist in efforts to identify significant potential sources of cracking. The following sections discuss the various fatigue tests conducted, the QF data assessment methodology and a qualitative analysis of the various defect types that initiated fatigue cracking. The compendium currently comprises of 123 QF reports grouped in 23 categories covering 364 fatigue cracks found on 269 test specimens as summarised in Table 1. It should be noted that the compendium itself is a work in progress and many test specimens are yet to undergo QF assessment. As yet, the compendium contains information on many cracks from representative test articles and coupons i.e. are believed to represent mean test and fleet behaviour. It is hoped that as the compendium is developed further, it will contain examples relating to the more rare defects, such as those that might lead to short fatigue lives in an aircraft fleet. The value of such data is that it enables more confident assessment of that risk.

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Fig. 1 Typical QF-derived crack growth data contained in Ref. [23] (from Ref. [5] and [6]). Note the near linear slopes (increasing with applied stress). Each point represents one block of the SPEC1 spectrum. Each block represents 324.4 simulated flight hours (SFH). SPEC1 consisted of 12 172 turning points and was tested at a frequency of approximately 3 Hz at ambient conditions. Table 1 Contents of the F/A-18 7050 crack growth data compendium23 (the terms and categories introduced here will be discussed later in this paper) Category criteria Etched KS coupon (FT55M5, 270450 MPa) Peened KS coupon (FT55M5, 360450 MPa) Etched KC coupon (FT55 and FT55M5) Etched KW coupon (FT55 with and without 120% spike load) Machined/polished KS and KD coupon (A21-055 phase1) Machined KS coupon (A21-055 phase2) Machined/polished KD/KS coupon (APOL phase 1) Machined KS coupon (APOL phase 2) Machined KS coupon (APOL phase 3) Machined KS coupon (APOL phase 4) Machined KS coupon (APOL phase 5) Machined CF and USN coupon (APOL phase 6) Machined/polished KD and KS coupon (FT55 phase 1) Machined KS coupon (FT55 phase 2) Machined KS coupon (FT55 phase 3) Machined KS coupon (FT55 phase 4) Machined KS coupon (FT55 phase 5, single/multiple overloads) Etched FT488/1 coupons (FT55M5, 300420 MPa) Etched FT488/2 coupons (FT55M5, 300420 MPa) ST16 test article (centre fuselage) FT55 test article (left and right wings and centre fuselage) FT93 test article (left wing) FT46 test article (aft fuselage and empennage) Total Number Category ID 01 02 03 04 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 30 31 40 41 42 43 23 No. of reports 7 4 2 2 3 1 4 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 2 5 5 7 26 20 23 123 No. of specimens 36 20 10 20 7 5 8 6 5 5 3 8 7 5 5 5 6 15 17 7 26 20 23 269 No. of cracks 40 20 15 25 7 5 14 8 7 12 9 10 7 5 5 5 7 20 20 17 50 31 25 364

Full-scale tests Some of the fatigue information that makes up the compendium comes from components (available at AVD) that were found cracked in the following full-scale fatigue test articles:
1 ST16 centre fuselage (Boeing test article); 2 FT93 left wing (Boeing test article);

3 FT55 centre fuselage (IFOSTP test article); 4 FT55 left and right wings (IFOSTP test article); and 5 FT46 after fuselage and empennage (IFOSTP test article).

Data from cracks generated in coupons cut from the large-scale component tests, namely FT488/1 and FT488/2 (see Ref. [26]) were also used. These coupons were cut from regions of low stress such that

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cracking was unlikely to have initiated prior to coupon testing. All these test articles were tested under complex variable amplitude spectra representative of F/A-18 aircraft usage. More information on these spectra is provided in Ref. [23]. Surface conditions Almost all cracks excised from the test articles that underwent QF analyses were found to have propagated from chemically etched surfaces of aluminium alloy. Boeing used this chemical etching treatment of aluminium parts to prepare the surface for Ion Vapour Deposit (IVD) coating. The IVD coating was applied to parts of the aircraft as a corrosion prevention measure, and required that a chemical etching treatment precede its application. The surface pitting that resulted from this etching process has been identified as a widespread source of fatigue crack initiation, adding in this aircraft to a range of initiation sources found in non-IVD aircraft. Coupon tests Numerous coupons were fatigue tested at AVD (test procedure, spectra and QF results reported in Refs. [5

12]). The coupons were made using various geometries and from various material batches; they had various surface conditions and were tested under various complexloading spectra.23 The two commonalities between all these coupons were that all were made of the same material i.e. 7050-T7451 aluminium alloy and all were machined into a dog-bone-shape geometry. All coupons were made using four major geometrical sizes. The general coupon shape and dimensions are illustrated in Fig. 2 and the detailed dimensions for the various coupon categories are listed in Table 2. The materials and the associated coupon batches are shown in Table 3. The material grain orientation was expressed in three directions: the longitudinal direction (L) in which the material was rolled; the transverse direction (T), which is on the same rolling plane but is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction; and the short transverse direction (S), which is perpendicular to both longitudinal and transverse directions. Surface conditions All examined coupons were categorized into three surface finish types: chemically etched, chemically etched and then glass bead peened and machined. Chemical etching was conducted at AVD to produce the etched surface

L mm R mm Radius

W mm

D mm

Fig. 2 General geometry of dog-bone coupons (K t 1.05).

T mm

Table 2 Dimensions of coupons for the various coupon categories (dimensions in mm), see Fig. 2 KSIFa (etched) KS (peened) KC (etched) 230 65 6.35 15 127 1.037 Table 3 according to web material thickness. FT488/1 and FT488/2 (etched and peened) 127 40 4.36.0b 25 100 1.08 KD (machined) KS (machined) CF (machined) USN (machined) 347 96 6.35 28 152.4 1.055

Dimension (mm) L W T D R Kt
a See

KW (etched) 150 40 6.35 25 100 1.08

b Varies

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Table 3 Coupon materials and the associated batches Coupon types KSIF KC KW FT488/1 and FT488/2 KD KS Canadian (CF) USN
a 7050-T7451

Material (plate) 7050-T7451 7050-T7451 7050-T7451 7050-T73651a 7075-T7451 7075-T7451 7050-T7451 7050-T7451

Batch information 5.5 inch plate Ravenswood Aluminium Corp August 1994 0.25 inch plate 6 inch plate OEM material 6 inch plate Kaiser Aluminium January 1989 5.5 inch plate Ravenswood Aluminium Corp August 1994 Unknown Unknown

Load direction L L L T T T L T

Crack orientation L-T and L-S L-T and L-S L-T and L-S T-L and T-S T-L and T-S T-L and T-S L-T and L-S T-L and T-S

in new specifications.

Table 4 Spectra and stress levels applied to the tests for the etched and peened coupons Peak stress 270 MPa 300 MPa 330 MPa 360 MPa 390 MPa 420 MPa 450 MPa IARPO3a coupons FT55M5 coupons 5 KSIF etched 5 KSIF etched 5 KSIF etched 5 KSIF etched 5 KSIF etched 6 KSIF etched 5 KSIF etched

5 KC etched

5 KSIF Peened 5 KSIF Peened 5 KSIF Peened 5 KSIF Peened

3 FT488/1 etched 3 FT488/1 etched 3 FT488/1 etched 3 FT488/1 etched 3 FT488/1 etched

3 FT488/2 etched 4 FT488/2 etched 4 FT488/2 etched 3 FT488/2 etched 3 FT488/2 etched

5 KC etched

20 KW etched

finish for many coupons. The aim was to simulate the surface condition of the aircraft components, which have undergone a similar process employed by the OEM.7,8 Several critical areas of the F/A-18 structure have been bead peened subsequent to etching to improve their fatigue performance. The (etched and then) glass bead peening data are considered in this paper. To simulate the fleet aircrafts glass bead peened surface condition, a similar peening method was applied to some of the coupons tested as described in Ref. [9]. Other coupons were categorized as machined, which consisted of two sub types: polished and as machined. The polished surface refers to hand polishing using 1200 grit paper. The as machined surface refers to no surface treatment subsequent to manufacture. The surface finish specified in the manufacture of these specimens was a Roughness Grade Number of N5 to N6. N5 is equivalent to a Roughness Height Rating of 0.40 m (16 micro-inches) and N6 is equivalent to 0.80 m (32 micro-inches). Here the machining marks ran perpendicularly to the specimen loading direction whilst the polished specimens were ground in the longitudinal axis. No other machine surface finishes were addressed in this work. According to Ref. [10], there was no significant difference between the fatigue life of both polished and as machined coupons. Since the polishing treatment did not affect the type and size of the crack initiation mecha-

nisms i.e. inter-metallic particles (see section Crack Initiation Mechanism), the QF data of these two surface finishes were interpreted as one type, the machined surface condition.

Spectra and stress levels The etched and peened coupons were tested using two related load spectra: IARPO3a and FT55M5. The Canadian IARPO3a load spectrum was derived using a regression analysis of Wing Root Bending Moment (WRBM) and torque to correspond to the response of a gauge installed at the so-called 6-inch radius on the Fuselage Station (FS) 488 bulkhead of the FT55 full-scale fatigue test, as described in Ref. [7,11]. The FT55M5 spectrum consisted of the IARPO3a spectrum with five additional compressive marker loads inserted to aid QF.7 Several peak load levels were selected for the etched coupon tests and the spectra were scaled accordingly. The spectra and stress levels that were applied to the etched and peened coupons are depicted in Table 4. The machined/polished coupons examined here were tested using three WRBM spectra derived from the F/A18 aircrafts wing root strain gauge, namely FT55, APOL and A21-055 (see Ref. [10]). The spectra and stress levels applied to the machined/polished coupons are depicted in Table 5.

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Table 5 Spectra and stress levels applied to the tests for the machined/polished coupons Reference stress (see 11 ) Phase 1 (396.5 MPa) Phase 2 (324.1 MPa) Phase 3 (358.7 MPa) Phase 4 (427.6 MPa) Phase 5 (396.5 MPa) Phase 6 (358.7 MPa)
This

A21-055 coupons 6KD + 1KS 5KS

APOL coupons 6KD + 1KS 6KS 5KS 5KS 3KS 5CF + 3USN

APOL + marker loads coupons 1 KD

FT55 coupons 6KD + 1KS 5KS 5KS 5KS 6KS -

is related to the peak stress defined in Table 4 in Ref. [11].

Q F D ATA A S S E S S M E N T M E T H O D O L O G Y

Resolving the equivalent pre-crack size The variability in the effective size of the initial flaw or initial material discontinuity state from which fatigue cracks propagate is an important factor determining the variability in fatigue lives (for the same spectrum and stress level). A measure of this initial flaw is the EPS, which could also be defined as the equivalent fatigue crack size at the commencement of cyclic loading. The EPS is not necessarily the actual physical size of an initiating flaw but an effective size of the flaw determined from a back projection of the experimental crack growth curve to time zero. QF was used to determine the crack growth data for the specimens considered (see Fig. 1 for example). These data were subsequently used to determine the EPS. The tests produced repeating markings, due to the repeated blocks of spectra, that were found to be consistent with the type and spacing expected for fatigue growth per spectrum under laboratory test conditions. The method of calculating the crack depth during measurement of crack growth was to take an x and y reading measured from a zero position set at the interface between the initiating flaw and the start of the fatigue crack growth, shown schematically in Fig. 3. The x and y positions were fitted to a semicircular crack shape model i.e. the depth of a particular mark is the calculated radius to the position of the mark from the initiation/fatigue interface. The crack growth was not always semi-circular but this method was only used over a small quadrant centred along the line between the measurement point and the deepest part of the crack. This procedure was carried out since it was rarely possible to track the growth along a straight line from the initiation to the deepest point of the crack, and it was often difficult to find the position of the surface to measure the exact depth of the initiating flaw. Since most fatigue cracks are not perfectly semi-circular in shape, the further that the measurements wander from the line between the origin and the deepest reading, the more error may be incorporated into the results. Nevertheless, if care is taken to keep close to the line between the origin and the deepest

point (or reading) of the crack, the resulting crack growth curve will usually provide a good representation of the crack growth rate with very little error. DSTO has found that optical methods are the most useful for QF. To this end a high-powered optical microscope with integrated measuring facilities was used. Since fracture surfaces are generally rough, long working distance lens were used with magnifications up to 150 (total magnification up to 2500). A relatively simple method was used to estimate the EPS. This method was based on the observation that fatigue cracking in 7050 material under consideration, as well as many other materials investigated (see Ref. [2]), tends to grow in an exponential fashion (at least to a first approximation) during the application of variable amplitude cyclic loading (in the absence of rapidly changing residual stresses and load shedding). In addition, the cracking has been shown to commence growing from almost the first application of loading. This behaviour, which was noted some time ago (e.g. Frost and Dugdale Ref. [1], Barter et al Ref. [2], Clark and Goldsmith Ref. [3]) and has been used widely ever since, 514,1823,2631 involves fitting an exponential crack growth model of the form a = a 0 e N , where a is the crack depth (mm), a 0 is the initial apparent crack size, N is the life (number of load blocks) and is a measure of crack growth rate (blocks1 ). Depending on which curve fitting technique is used and the selection of the measured data points fitted, the a 0 values are the EPS of the cracks. The examination of the etched specimen fracture surfaces revealed that the crack-initiating mechanisms were etched pits associated with grain boundaries and surface breaking inclusion sites (see section Crack
Note that when using this model of fatigue crack growth, fast fracture or tearing near the end of life is ignored. Also the critical crack size has to be determined independently either through conventional LEFM or from experiment.

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Y Track to deepest point of the crack along which the crack growth is measured

Deepest point of crack Idealised region from which depth data is collected Fatigue crack surface

Some of the Spectrum progression marks

Initiating Flaw

X Surface

Zero point for measurement

Fig. 3 A schematic of the method and track used to measure the fatigue crack growth by QF (from Ref. [7]).

Initiation Mechanism). The examination of the peened specimens revealed that the flaws initiating fatigue cracking are the laps and folds of the material at the surface of the specimen resulting from the peening process (see section Crack Initiation Mechanism). The size and shape of the lap and fold flaws may differ somewhat to that of the etched pit flaws but the growth patterns of the cracks associated with both these flaws might have been expected to be the same i.e. flaw depth increases exponentially with time. However, the crack growth curves (see Ref. [9]) show a significant reduction in the crack growth rate until the crack reaches a depth of 0.20.3 mm. This retardation is caused9,2831 by compressive residual stresses acting in the crack line. Eventually, the crack growth rate returns to the rate expected without residual stress (in other words piece-wise log-linear growth rate). As a result, the growth appeared to be two phases of exponential growth connected by a transition phase at about 0.20.3 mm deep, after which the retarding effect of the peening dissipated. Therefore the EPS for the peened specimens were estimated by fitting crack growth data within the retarded regions using the same exponential model. Fractographic examination of the machined surface coupons revealed a great majority of fatigue cracks initiating from the broken inter-metallic particles at or near the surface of the specimens (see section Crack Initiation Mechanism). These inter-metallic particles appeared to have broken off from the surrounding materials in the coupons at a time no later than the end of the first loading block. Given that these cracks started at, or very soon after, the commencement of cyclic loading, the same exponential model was used to determine the EPS for these coupons. The examined QF data for the full-scale test articles indicated that the majority of the cracks did not grow con-

sistently exponential over the entire crack depth. In most cases, the crack growth rates appeared to retard from the exponential growth trend soon after the crack tips extended beyond some millimetres from the vicinity of the initiation sites. These retardations could be caused by various local effects, such as stress gradients induced by local bending, the residual compression stress layers around holes caused by unexpected cold work or perhaps the load sharing of the surrounding structures. This phenomenon was seen in many of the crack growth curves for the test articles contained in Ref. [23]. As a result, when the exponential model was applied, the initial exponential growth portion of the crack growth curve was used to back project to obtain EPS estimates.

Types of EPS As described previously, the EPS (a 0 ) value can be calculated by fitting the exponential crack growth model using the measured data points and then back projecting this fitted curve to time zero. However, the calculated EPS may vary depending on two factors: the curve fitting technique adopted and the selection of the measured QF data points used. The issues regarding curve-fitting techniques are further discussed in section Curve Fitting Optimisation. This section discusses the issues regarding the selection of the measured data points. The values of the measured data points, which represent an effective crack growth curve, are equal to the raw QF data plus an initial flaw size. This is because QF measurement commenced from zero time at the interface between the initiating flaw and the start of the fatigue crack growth. Without the initial flaw size, the crack growth curve would distort near its origin.

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For the machined specimens, the initial flaw size a 0 used was the estimated initial flaw depth measured during the QF analysis. For the etched and then peened specimens, two types of initial flaw were used9 i.e. anticipated a 0 and measured a 0 . The former a 0 could be any value visually judged by the fractographer to correct the crack growth distortion, thus it is also called eyeball a 0 . The latter a 0 is the initial flaw depth measured during QF process. In many cases, both values for the etched and peened coupon specimens are available and are included in the compendium.23 A comparison of these two initial flaw size estimates for the etched and peened specimens revealed that their sizes were in the same order of magnitude.9 Given that the major impact of both initial flaw values was to correct the initial distortion of the crack growth curve, the EPS projected from the curve built on either type of initial flaw did not differ significantly as shown in Refs. [9] and [23]. It appears that both types of initial flaws can be used to determine reasonable EPS for the etched and peened specimens. In this study, the measured initial flaw sizes were used wherever possible but for instances where the measured flaw sizes were not obtained, the anticipated (back-projection) initial flaw sizes were used. As identified in previous reports (e.g. Refs. [79]), all distortions of the crack growth curves appeared within a crack growth range less than 0.1 mm deep when no initial flaw size was added. Given the initial flaw sizes were used to align the early part of the crack growth curve with the rest of the crack growth curve, it was interesting to know if the resulting EPS would differ significantly when only data points greater than 0.1 mm were used to fit the crack growth curve. To investigate this, the measured data points of two selections were considered for the back-projection to define EPS: the first comprised of all data points within the applicable (approximately) exponential crack growth region and the other comprised of only data points greater than 0.1 mm within the same applicable crack growth region. For each of these two criteria, exponential crack growth curves were fitted to the respective data sets. The EPS resulting from the former selection of all the measured data points were designated EPS BPA (BPABack Projection A); the EPS resulting from the latter selection of the measured data points greater than 0.1 mm were designated EPS BPB (BPBBack Projection B). Curve fitting optimisation As mentioned previously, the EPS results may vary depending on the different curve-fitting techniques applied. Thus, a consistent curve-fitting technique that produced a satisfactory result was required. Therefore, DSTO developed a curve-fitting program,7,8 which determines the EPS through direct fitting of the crack growth curve using

a least-squares technique. To achieve an optimised fitted exponential curve, the program uses an optimisation routine that fine tunes the direct-fit EPS result, adds it to the measured data points, checks how well the curve fits using the R2 value, and continues to refine the EPS until the maximum R2 value is reached. This optimisation routine is generally able to produce a curve that best fits the data, and gives a zero life intercept value (EPS). The optimisation routine is a useful tool for fitting QF data that approximates exponential growth over the entire life of the crack. However, occasionally, for data that are not continuously exponential in nature, the optimised crack growth curve resulted in a grossly inaccurate curve fit. A sample of this type of result is illustrated in Fig. 4 for KCW14. To cater for these possible erroneous cases, the software provided both direct-fit EPS and optimised EPS. Thus for the erroneous cases, the direct-fit EPS could be selected, since these provided reasonably good fits in most cases. To decide which EPS (optimised or direct fit) should be used for any given crack, the fitting quality of both crack growth curves on two differently scaled diagrams were assessed visually. As an example, the plots for coupons of KC11 and KCW14 are illustrated in Fig. 4. As demonstrated, the optimised crack growth curve of the KC11 coupon fits the QF data points well. Thus the optimised EPS for the KC11 coupon was used. In contrast, the optimised crack growth curve for the KWC14 coupon has departed from the QF data points. In this case, the directfit EPS produced a superior result. In a number of cases, the optimisation process returned non-converged EPS when the optimisation routine could not solve the maximum R2 values. The exact cause of this will not be discussed here, as it is not within the scope of this study. However, despite these nonconverged EPS, the corresponding optimised R2 values were still higher than those of the direct-fit, which indicated that the non-converged EPS have fitted the data better than the direct-fit. Therefore, the non-converged EPS were used in preference when optimised crack growth curves were not erroneous. Crack initiation mechanism Both coupon specimens and full-scale test articles were examined to investigate the various crack initiating mechanisms. Only the primary crack leading to failure was generally considered. However in some instance the primary crack could not be identified and thus all the significant cracks in the coupon or component were analysed. The initiation mechanisms of the cracks excised from the full-scale test fatigue articles are summarised in Table 6. Only two crack initiating mechanisms i.e. etch pitting and mechanical damage were identified for the full-scale

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Fig. 4 Crack growth curves for KC11 and KWC14 coupons tested using SPEC1 (grey curve is fitted using the optimisation technique; black curve is fitted directly using the least-squares technique). Table 6 Crack initiation mechanism of the full-scale test articles Etch pitting ST16 FT55 FT93 FT46 Total
a It

All types of mechanical damagea 5 4 2 11 (10%)

Unknown 5 1 6 (5%)

Total 13 48 33 23 117(100%)

13 43 24 20 100 (85%)

was found that all mechanical damages were associated with the holes.

fatigue test articles, where the etch pitting was the most common type. Results from tests on a stand-alone F/A-18 bulkhead19,20 (as yet not in the compendium) showed that whilst cracking from etch pits was the most common, other sources [e.g. porosity, inclusions, mechanical damage (including peening of corners) and machining tears] are possible. These will be considered in future analyses. The crack initiation mechanisms of the primary cracks of the examined coupon specimens were identified during QF23 and a summary of this information for all coupons is shown in Table 7. For etched specimens, only 1 primary crack (of 110 in total) was found to have initiated from subsurface porosity, all others had initiated from etch pitting. All 20 cracks from the peened specimens were found to have initiated from lap and folds on the coupon surface induced by the peening. Apart from eight primary cracks that were not identified, all primary cracks from the ma-

chined coupon specimens (71) had initiated from intermetallic particles around the surface of the specimens. Damage types Both coupon specimens and test articles were examined to investigate the various damage types. Test article specimens The damage types of the primary cracks excised from the full-scale test articles are presented in Table 8. Of the 67 specimens examined, 117 major damages, including multiple primary cracks, were identified through the QF analysis. The various damage types used to categorise the specimens are described in Table 9.

Standardised description of crack features and surrounding geometry.

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Table 7 Crack initiation mechanisms of the coupon specimens No. of specimen 36 10 20 16 17 20 19 48 5 3 194 No. of primary cracks 39 12 20 19 20 20 20 51 5 3 209 Etch pitting 39 12 20 18 20 109 (52%) Surface lap and folds 20 20 (9.5%) Inter-metallic particles 20 43 5 3 71 (34%)

Test specimen KSIF (etched) KC (etched) KW (etched) FT488/1 (etched and peened) FT488/2(etched and peened) KSIF (peened) KD (machined) KS (machined) CF (machined) USN (machined) Total

Porosity 1 1 (0.5%)

Unidentified 8 8 (4%)

Table 8 Damage types of test article specimens RSC ST16 FT55 FT93 FT46 Total 11 25 10 2 48 (41%) RQC 2 2 (2%) RTC 2 2 (2%) HTC 1 15 10 26 (22%) HQC 1 17 6 2 26 (22%) HQC & PTCN 3 3 (2.5%) HWC & PTCN 3 3 (2.5%) HEC 2 2 (2%) PTC 5 5 (4%) Total 13 48 33 23 117 (100%)

Coupon specimens The primary crack damage types were identified from the coupon fracture surface photographs taken during QF. Among the 194 coupon specimens examined, several coupons were found to have multiple primary cracks. This increased the total number of primary cracks to 209, 15 more than the total number of coupons that were assessed. Since there were only 15 additional primary cracks, these were not expected to hinder the representativeness of the overall assessment of coupon damage types. A summary of the damage types for all coupon specimens is shown in Table 10.

Twenty etched KW specimens containing 20 primary cracks were QF examined, 11 were assumed RQC; 7 were assumed RTC and 2 were assumed RSC. Ten etched KC coupon specimens were tested under two similar load spectra: one with 5 marker loads to aid QF (5 coupons tested) and the other without (5 coupons tested). When examined, four of the ten KC coupon specimens were all damaged by RQC. Therefore, the remaining KC specimens were also assumed damaged by RQC. Peened specimens Twenty KSIF coupon specimens with the peened surface condition were tested at four stress levels. QF examinations were conducted for all these specimens. A typical fracture surface is pictured in Fig. 6. It shows that the KSIF 149 specimens primary crack initiated from a corner RQC. According to Ref. [9], most cracks from the peened specimens initiated from laps and folds produced by peening. The dominant region of crack initiation appeared to occur close to the corners of the specimens, as observed with most cracks. In general, only a few significant cracks intersected the fracture surface, and in many cases, only one single significant crack appeared on the fracture surface.

Etched specimens Thirty-six etched KSIF coupon specimens were tested at seven stress levels for one load spectrum. From the examination of the QF photographs, 39 primary cracks were found on 36 coupon specimens. Of these 39 primary cracks, 20 were Radius Quarter Cracks (RQC); 15 were Radius Through Cracks (RTC); 3 were Radius Surface Cracks (RSC) and 1 was a Plate Surface Crack (PSC). A typical fracture surface of the etched specimens is illustrated in Fig. 5.

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Table 9 Codification for standard fatigue damage types Standard damage type (crack types) Hole wall crack Code HWC Diagram (Input Fields)

Hole quadrant crack

HQC

Hole through thickness crack

HTC

Eyebrow crack

HEC

Corner (quadrant) crack in radius

RQC

Plate through thickness crack

PTC

Through thickness crack in radius

RTC

Plate surface crack

PSC

Surface crack in radius

RSC

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Table 10 Summary of coupon specimen damage types Test specimen KSIF (etched) KC (etched) KW (etched) KSIF (peened) FT488/1 (etched and peened) FT488/2(etched and peened) KD (machined) KS (machined) CF (machined) USN (machined) Total No. of specimen 36 10 20 20 16 17 19 48 5 3 194 No. of primary cracks 39 12 20 20 19 20 20 51 5 3 209 RQC 20 12 11 20 16 29 3 2 113 (54%) RTC 15 7 13 2 37 (18%) RSC 3 2 1 3 9 (4%) PSC 1 19 20 3 6 1 50 (24%)

Machined specimens From the examination of the QF photographs, 79 primary cracks in total were found on 75 examined coupons with the machined surface finish. Of these 79 primary cracks, 49 were RQC; 15 were RTC; 4 were RSC and 10 were PSC. A typical fracture surface of the machined specimen cracks is illustrated in Fig. 7. Comparison
Fig. 5 Typical cracking of etched KSIF coupons (KSIF126). Note the large number of fatigue cracks (dark grey areas) that have grown around the entire circumference of the fracture surface.

This led to some very jagged fracture surfaces (such as Fig. 6) due to rapid fracture propagation along the grain boundaries rather than linking together with other significant cracks during failure. Based on these observations, the peened KSIF specimens would most likely fail due to a single crack initiating from one corner. Thus the damage type is most likely to be either RQC or RTC (grown from RQC). The significance of corner-peening is supported by observations on the stand-alone bulkhead test.19,20 To allow a RQC fully growing to a RTC before the complete failure of a specimen, the stress level applied must be low. Given that the KSIF 149 specimen (Fig. 6) was tested under the lowest stress level and failed before the crack had grown into a RTC, it can be expected that the cracks from corners would not fully grow to a through thickness crack (RTC) on the other peened specimens, which were tested at the same or higher stress levels. Therefore the damage type of RQC was assumed for all peened coupon specimens.

A comparison suggested that for the vast majority of uniform surface finish specimens (etched, machined or peened), the damage type was related to the stress concentration features. The main stress concentration features for the full-scale test articles were radii and holes. In the coupon specimens, the stress concentration feature was the radius that constituted the dog-bone profile. The full-scale test article specimens exhibited a greater variety of damage types than the coupons precisely because many of the damage types were associated with holes. Of course, the coupon specimens had no opportunity to suffer such defects. The most common damage type related to radii for the coupons was RQC and for the full-scale test articles, was RSC. This difference was likely due to the different geometry and loading associated with the two specimen types. Most of the etched and machined specimens suffered a broader range of damage types than the same specimen group with the peened surface condition. The likely reason for this was that the crack initiation and growth mechanisms were different for specimens with different surface finishes. For the etched specimens, as shown in Fig. 5, numerous cracks can initiate from etch pitting around the circumference of the fracture plane. According to Ref. [7], many of these cracks are not far behind the growth of the cracks that caused failure. When an etched

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Fig. 6 Peened specimen typical damage type. Note that since the cracking was across the rolling direction, the fracture was heavily distorted along the rolling direction as shown.

Fig. 7 Typical fracture surface of coupons with machined surface finish (specimen KDIP22).

specimen failed due to the sudden linking of major cracks, the damage types would be other than the RQC. For the machined specimens, the initiation process involved the breaking up of the inter-metallic particles from the remaining materials. Given the breaking up usually took place at the weak points, the corners where the constraint was minimum were the most likely initiation sites; however, the breaking up can happen at other places where the bond between the inter-metallic particles and other materials is weak. As shown in Fig. 7, multiple cracks can initiate from the inter-metallic particles around the surface of the specimen. These cracks grow separately and compete for dominance until failure occurs. Depending on the sizes and whereabouts of the dominant crack at the time of failure, the damage type of the coupon can be defined differently. On the other hand, for the peened specimens, according to Ref. [9], the cracks initiated predominantly from corners due to a number of interacting effects:

dominant. Thus a peened specimen was most likely to fail due to a single RQC. It is evident from these comparisons that the surface treatment, especially peening, plays a critical role in damage-type formation of the test specimens. This is consistent with many other studies on 7050 aluminium alloy (see for example Sharp et al. Ref. [30] and [31]).
E Q U I VA L E N T P R E - C R A C K S I Z E S TAT I S T I C A L S T U DY

r The corners have less constraint than the flat surfaces; r The probability of folding at the corner is higher since the r
peening is bound to be angled to the surface at some time during the peening process; and Over peening can occur due to the overlap of flat surface peening and corner radii peening.

Although many cracks can initiate from corners, usually only one crack becomes dominant. This was because the growth rate is slow when cracks are affected by the residual compressive stress layer; once a crack is well past this layer, it will return to non-retarded growth and may become

The EPS is considered critical for modelling crack growth and determining the fatigue performance of structures. A desire to better understand the EPS under various surface and load conditions warranted a statistical study. The EPS used in the statistical study includes both EPS BPA and EPS BPB data, which consisted of both optimised-fit EPS and direct-fit EPS, respectively, from the curve-fitting exercise (see section QF Data Assessment Methodology). As previously mentioned, the direct-fit EPS were used when the optimised EPS of the crack growth curves were considered not representative. The relationship between the combined sets of EPS BPA and EPS BPB values for all surface finishes is plotted in Fig. 8. The diagram illustrates that the EPS of the peened and machined specimens are generally evenly spread towards the one-to-one ratio line, whilst the points of the etched specimens are concentrated at the lower side of the line. This implies that the log-average EPS BPA and EPS BPB values are not significantly different for the machined and peened specimens but the log-average EPS BPA values are significantly greater than the EPS BPB values for the etched specimens. Of the 12 smallest EPS BPB (less

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1.00E-01

1.00E-02

1.00E-03

EPS BPB(mm)

1.00E-04 Etched Peened Machined 1.00E-05

1.00E-06

Fig. 8 EPS BPA (using all QF data) versus EPS BPB (using only QF data greater than 0.1 mm). The graph line indicates the one-to-one ratio.

1.00E-07 1.00E-07 1.00E-06 1.00E-05 1.00E-04 1.00E-03 1.00E-02 1.00E-01

EPSBPA(mm)

than 0.001 mm) of the etched specimens that all deviated significantly from the line, eight were from KC coupons; two were from KW coupons, two were from FT488/1 coupons and none were from KSIF coupons. Given that the total number of KC, KW and FT488/1 coupons is less than the number of KSIF coupons, the results indicate that the coupon specimen type has an influence on the EPS BPB value. However, as the EPS BPA values of these coupons appear reasonable, the statistical study was not conducted separately for the etched coupons according to specimen type. Further statistical analysis here will focus on the EPS BPA results. As also shown in Fig. 8, the EPS BPA values of the peened specimens appear to be larger on-average (thus more conservative) than those of the etched and machined specimens, while the EPS BPA values of the etched and machined coupons are distributed within approximately the same range. The distribution of EPS at various stress levels In section Crack Initiation Mechanism, the fatigue crack initiating mechanisms were identified as etch pits (etched specimens), laps and folds (peened specimens) and intermetallic particles (machined specimens), each of which resulted from the various surface conditions. In order to verify that EPS are independent of the applied stress and spectra, the coupons EPS BPA were plotted against the peak stress levels of the load spectra applied for the surface finishes considered.

Etched coupon specimens The etched EPS BPA versus peak stress levels are presented in Fig. 9. The figure indicates no influence of applied stress level on the etched coupon EPS. Peened coupon specimens The peened EPS BPA versus peak stress levels are presented in Fig. 10. As illustrated in this figure, the log-average EPS was almost constant at all stress levels. Given there is only a minor change in log-average EPS over a significant range of peak stresses (90 MPa), this provides substantial evidence that no correlation exists between the EPS and applied stress level. Machined coupon specimens The machined EPS BPA versus peak stress levels are presented in Fig. 11. The log-average EPS in this figure appears to increase slightly with stress. Perhaps this is due to a greater stress level being more likely to break-up larger inter-metallic particles and produce a larger projected EPS. However, the log-average data points indicate a diverse scatter between the various stress levels and thus, no correlation between the coupons EPS and the stress level applied or the three spectra can be drawn confidently from this analysis. Test article specimens The fatigue load spectra applied to the test articles were ST16, FT93, FT55 and FT46. The EPS BPA values for

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1 EPS Log average Linear (Log average) 0.1 EPSBPA (mm) 0.01 0.001 250

300

350

400

450

500

Peak Stress Level (MPa)

Fig. 9 EPS BPA values at various stress levels for all etched specimens120 points.

1 EPS Log Average Linear (Log Average) 0.1

EPSBPA (mm)

0.01

0.001 340 360 380 400 Peak Stress Level (MPa) 420 440 460

Fig. 10 EPS BPA values at various stress levels for all peened specimens20 points.

these spectra are presented in Fig. 12. The log-average EPS in this figure appears to decrease slightly with increasing severity. Note the following:

r The overall decrement amount is small (0.0028 mm); r The EPS of almost all test articles are distributed within a r The
relatively narrow band (0.0010.1 mm); and log-average EPS values did not increase with load severity.

probability of failure from fatigue. In this section, a lognormal distribution approximation was used to conduct a preliminary assessment of the population of EPS. The lognormal distribution was chosen here as it had been used in previous investigations (see Ref. [13] and [14]). However additional analyses are required in order to determine the most appropriate distribution. Here the frequency distributions of the EPS BPA for each surface finish considered were compared against a hypothesised log-normal distribution. Etched coupon specimens For all coupon specimens with the etched surface condition, the frequency and the hypothesised log-normal distribution of the EPS are illustrated in Fig. 13. This figure appears to support the appropriateness of the log-normal

Based on this information, it appears there is no clear correlation between the test articles EPS and the fatigue test load severities or spectra. This result is consistent with the result for the etched coupons. The examined test articles have the same surface finish as the etched coupons, thus the etched specimen result verifies that the stress and spectra had no bearing on the EPS. EPS probability distributions The distribution of the likely EPS population in a structure is an important consideration for the calculation of

Other studies of distributions were not considered relevant here as either

EIFS was used or total life and/or growth from a machined slot (many mm long) had been considered.15,16,32

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1 EPS Log Average Linear (Log Average) 0.1

EPSBPA (mm)

0.01

0.001

0.0001

Fig. 11 Machined specimens: EPS BPA values at various stress levels for various material batches (KS, KD, CF, USN)101 points.

0.00001 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 Peak Stress Level (MPa)

1 EPS values Log Average

0.1 EPS BPA (mm) 0.01

Fig. 12 Values at various fatigue tests for various test articles (centre fuselage, wings and aft fuselage and empennage)97 points.

0.001 ST16

FT93

FT55 Wing

FT55 Fuselage

FT46

distribution to model the frequency distribution of the EPS for the etched coupons. Peened coupon specimens For specimens with the peened surface condition, the frequency and the hypothesised log-normal distribution of the EPS are illustrated in Fig. 14. Note that the limited number of peened specimen samples is considered inadequate to produce a reliable log-normal curve. However, from the data gathered, this figure demonstrates at least the potential of log-normal distribution. Machined coupon specimens For all coupon specimens with the machined surface condition, the frequency and the hypothesised log-normal distribution of the EPS are illustrated in Fig. 15. Note that several lower bound outliers were removed (see Ref. [23]) (this action renders a conservative result). This

figure indicates that the frequency distribution of the EPS for the machined coupons is broadly consistent with a lognormal distribution. Test article specimens For all test articles with the etched surface condition, the frequency and the hypothesised log-normal distribution of the EPS (from etch pits, mechanical damage and unknown sources) are illustrated in Fig. 16. This figure demonstrates that the log-normal distribution is appropriate to model the frequency distribution of the EPS for the test articles. Discussion Sections Etched coupon specimens through Test article specimens suggested that a log-normal probability distribution is a reasonable model for the EPS data. The quantile quantile plots shown in Fig. 17 suggest that EPS may be

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Etched Coupon
40 35 30
Frequency

25 20 15 10 5 0
0.0003 0.0006 0.0010 0.0017 0.0030 0.0053 0.0093 0.0162 0.0284 0.0498 0.0872 0.1526 0.2671

EPS (mm)

Fig. 13 Log-normal distribution of the EPS BPA of the etched coupon specimens120 points.

Peened Coupon
9 8 7
Frequency

6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0.0003 0.0006 0.0010 0.0017 0.0030 0.0053 0.0093 0.0162 0.0284 0.0498 0.0872 0.1526 0.2671

EPS (mm)

Fig. 14 Log-normal distribution of the EPS BPA of the peened coupon specimens20 points.

Machined Coupon
30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Frequency

EPS (mm)

Fig. 15 Log-normal distribution of the EPS BPA of the machined coupon specimens96 data points (several outliers were removed, each less than 0.001 mm, which renders a conservative log-average value).

0.0003

0.0006

0.0010

0.0017

0.0030

0.0053

0.0093

0.0162

0.0284

0.0498

0.0872

0.1526

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Test Article
30 25 20 Frequency 15 10 5 0 0.0003 0.0006 0.0010 0.0017 0.0030 0.0053 0.0093 0.0162 0.0284 0.0498 0.0872 0.1526
99.9 99.99 1 99.9 99.99

Fig. 16 Log-normal distribution of the EPS BPA of the test articles97 data points.

EPS (mm)
.01 1 .1 1 5 10 20 30 50 70 80 90 95 99

0.1

0.1

EPS Value (mm)

0.01

0.01

0.001

Etched Peened Machined (95%) Test Article

0.001

0.0001

0.0001 .01 .1 1 5 10 20 30 50 70 80 Percent 90 95 99

Fig. 17 Quantilequantile plots for each data set.

adequately modelled by a log-normal distribution over the range of data available. Over a broader range of sizes, other extreme value statistical distributions require assessment before the relative appropriateness of each (including the log-normal) can be determined. Knowing the probability distribution of the EPS values, the degree of conservatism of a life assessment can be calculated when a given EPS values is to be used as the initial crack size. This is illustrated here by considering the log-normal distribution of the EPS values. Table 11

presents the log-average, log-standard deviations and the estimated 99.9 percentile EPS values for the three surface finishes. Figure 16 presents the estimated log-normal distributions for each surface condition (these curves were taken directly from Fig. 13 through Fig. 16). This figure also presents the estimated 99.9 percentile values for each surface condition. The estimated frequency distributions presented in Fig. 18 were derived from the respective EPS data samples. Figure 19 presents the same curves except with each

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Table 11 Average, standard deviation and 99.9 percentile EPS predicted for each surface finish Number of specimens 120 20 96 97 Log-average (mm) 0.010 0.027 0.011 0.012 Log-standard deviation 0.337 0.245 0.419 0.416 99.9 percentile EPS value (mm) 0.108 0.157 0.227 0.230

Specimen types Etched coupon Peened coupona Machined coupon Test article

a Ideally the assessment of the extreme values of the log-normal distribution should be conducted based on a sample of greater than 30. Thus the peened coupon values are presented for demonstration only.

35 Etched Coupons 30 Peened Coupons Machined Coupons Test Article 25 99.9 percentile values

Frequency

20
Test Article (0.230mm) Etched (0.108mm) Peened Machined

15

10

0 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1

EPS (mm)

Fig. 18 Etched, peened, machined coupons and test article specimen log-normal distribution fitted curves. The curves illustrate the log averages and the 99.9 percentile of the respective data populations.

curve normalised to an area of 1 in order to better grasp the estimated standard deviations. Log-normal curves are characterised by three parameters: the log-average, the log-standard deviation and the sample size. Figure 18 illustrates the effect of each of these parameters. Figure 19 ignores the respective sample sizes and answers the question: What would this chart look like if the data were projected to a given population? These two charts indicate various levels of scatter for each respective surface condition. In particular, the peened surface specimens have the smallest scatter in EPS; this may be partly due to the small number of samples available. Further, the log-average EPS of the peened coupons, 0.027 mm, is significantly larger than the log-average EPS of other specimens that are all approximately 0.01 mm. However, the etched and machined results have similar EPS distributions, highlighting that they could be considered of the same data population, and this with minimal conser-

vatism penalty in predicting crack growth (due to their similarity). The log-average EPS of the test articles (etched) further attested to this hypothesis, since they were similar to those of both etched and machined coupons (note that in Fig. 19 the scatter of test article EPS is almost identical to the machined coupons). These figures show clearly that the peened specimens belong to a different population (or category) to that of the etched or machined specimens. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the limited available sample of peened specimens (20 coupons).
CONCLUSION

This paper summarised the currently available results from an investigation into fatigue crack defect types and Equivalent Pre-crack Sizes (EPS) or initial defect or discontinuity states. Over 360 cracks in commercial

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0.8

0.7

Etched Coupons Peened Coupons Machined Coupons Test Article

0.6

Normailised Frequency
Fig. 19 Log-normal curves projected for a given population. Note the relative differences in scatter for each surface condition.

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1

EPS (mm)

7050-series aluminum alloy subjected to various F/A-18 aircraft spectra loading were considered. The defect descriptions and EPS results, derived from measured quantitative fractography (QF) data, were obtained from full-scale structural components and coupon fatigue test specimens. These EPS were calculated by several methods including a curve-fitting of the QF crack growth data through an optimization program and then back-projected to time zero using a simple exponential model of crack growth. Coupon specimen EPS were compared to test article specimen EPS with the same chemically etched surface condition. On this basis, coupon EPS were considered representative of typical flaw sizes for each surface finish considered. The log-average EPS that reflected the laps and folds of the peened surface condition were significantly larger than those that reflected pitting of the etched specimens or inter-metallic particles of the machined specimens. The log-average EPS of the etched and machined coupons appeared similar. As expected, all primary cracks from specimens with uniform surface condition had initiated from locations of stress concentration. Due to differences in geometry, the test articles comprised of more damage types than the dog-bone-type coupons. The surface treatment was shown to have a large influence on the formation of the coupon damage type. This was particularly obvious for the coupon specimens that

had areas of etched and then peened surface finish. Although the damage types of the etched and the machined specimens were not significantly different, the number of small cracks that intersected the fracture surface was much greater in the etched coupons than in the machined coupons. The applied stress and spectra appeared to have no clear correlation to the size of the EPS for coupons with all three surface finishes. This trend has been validated by the EPS results from the full-scale test articles. Thus the EPS can be considered as a material surface characteristic (in contrast to the more traditional EIFS method) for the surfaces considered. The log-normal distribution appeared to approximate the EPS population well. The extreme EPS calculated based on the log-average and standard deviations of the data distributions appeared strongly influenced by the data scatter, which in turn were influenced by the surface conditions. The result was a range of EPS values for both the machined, etched and glass-bead-peened surface conditions. These ranges or measures of scatter revealed only small differences between the machined and etched coupons, while the differences in scatter between both etched and machined coupons and the peened coupons were more pronounced, with the peened data representing a separate population. The results of this work are considered significant for the through life management of structures fabricated from

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7050 aluminium alloy, including some components of the RAAF F/A-18. Firstly, several defects types that affect the lives of test coupons and some test articles have been identified. Secondly, an estimation of typical initial flaw size (or EPS) for use with related crack growth models have been derived. Further work will be undertaken to identify the defect types that may lead to short service lives, as opposed to test lives.

13

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Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the useful discussions with P. White, R. Pell, S. Barter and K. Watters of DSTO, and P. Livingstone of Aerostructures Australia.
REFERENCES
1 Frost, N. E. and Dugdale, D. S. (1958) The propagation of fatigue cracks in test specimens. J Mech. Phys. Solids 6, 92110. 2 Barter, S., Molent, L., Goldsmith, N. and Jones, R. (2005) An experimental evaluation of fatigue crack growth. Eng. Failure Anal. 12/1, 99128. 3 Goldsmith, N. T. and Clark, G. (1990) Analysis and interpretation of aircraft component defects using quantitative fractography, Quantitative Methods in Fractography, ASTM STP 1085, 5268. 4 Suresh, S. (1998) Fatigue of Materials. Cambridge University Press, UK. 5 Pell, R. A., Molent, L. and Green, A. J. (2004) The fractographical comparison of F/A-18 aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 bulkhead representative coupons tested under two fatigue load spectra at several stress levels. DSTO-TR-1547, Melbourne, Australia. 6 Pell, R. A., Mazeika, P. J. and Molent, L. (2005) The comparison of complex load sequences tested at several stress levels by fractographic examination. J Eng. Failure Anal. 12/4, 586603. 7 Barter, S. A. (2003) Fatigue crack growth in several 7050T7451 aluminium alloy thick section plate with aircraft manufacturers and laboratory surface finishes simulating some regions of F/A-18 structure. DSTO-TR-1439. Melbourne, Australia. 8 Barter, S. A. (2003) Fatigue crack growth in 7050T7451 aluminium alloy thick section plate with a surface condition simulating some regions of F/A-18 structure. DSTO-TR-1458, Melbourne, Australia. 9 Barter, S. A. (2003) Fatigue crack growth in 7050T7451 aluminium alloy thick section plate with a glass bead peened surface simulating some regions of the F/A-18 structure. DSTO-TR-1477, Melbourne, Australia. 10 Molent, L., Pell, R. and Mills, A. (2003) F/A-18 FS488 bulkhead fatigue coupon test programPart 2. DSTO-TR-1464, Melbourne, Australia. 11 Molent, L., Barter, S. A. and Green, A. J. (2004) Comparison of two F/A-18 aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 bulkhead coupon fatigue tests. DSTO-TR-1646, Melbourne, Australia. 12 Pell, R. A., Molent, L. and Green, A. J. (2004) The fractographical comparison of F/A-18 aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 bulkhead representative coupons tested under two

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