Abstract:A new method of quantitative pre-corrosion damage of aviation aluminium (Al-Cu-Mg) alloy was proposed, which regarded corrosion pits as equivalent semi-elliptical surface cracks. An analytical model was formulated to describe the entire region of fatigue crack propagation (FCP). The relationship between the model parameters and the fatigue testing data obtained in the pre-corroded experiments, crack propagation experiments and S-N fatigue experiments was discussed. The equivalent crack sizes and the FCP equation were used to calculate the fatigue life through numerical integration based on MATLAB/GUI. The results confirm that the sigmoidal curve fitted by the FCP model expresses the whole change from Region I to Region III. In addition, the predicted curves indicate the actual trend of fatigue life and the conservative result of fatigue limit. Thus, the new analytical method can estimate the residual life of pre-corroded Al-Cu-Mg alloy, especially smooth specimens.

Key words: pre-corroded aluminium alloy; corrosion pit; crack propagation; life prediction; fatigue limit