High cycle fatigue damage mechanisms in cast aluminium subject to complex loads

This article is dedicated to the high cycle fatigue behaviour of cast hypo-eutectic Al-Si alloys. In particular, the AlSi7Cu05Mg03 alloy is investigated. It presents the results of a vast experimental campaign undertaken to investigate the fatigue behaviour, and more specifically the fatigue damage mechanisms observed under complex loading conditions: plane bending with different load ratios, fully reversed torsion and equibiaxial bending with a load ratio of R = 0.1. A specific test set-up has been designed to create an equibiaxial stress state using disk shaped specimens. A tomographic analysis is also presented with the aim of characterising the micro-shrinkage pore population of the material. It is shown that two distinct and coexisting fatigue damage mechanisms occur in this material, depending on the presence of different microstructural heterogeneities (i.e. micro-shrinkage pores, Silicon particles in the eutectic zones, Fe-rich intermetallic phases, etc.). Furthermore, it is concluded that the effect of an equibiaxial tensile stress state is not detrimental in terms of high cycle fatigue. It is also shown that the Dang Van criterion is not able to simultaneously predict the multiaxial effect (i.e. torsion and equibiaxial tension) and the mean stress effect for this material.