Open AccessDevelopment of an ultrasonic fatigue testing system for gigacycle fatigue
Author(s) -
Ilie Paul,
Lesperance Xavier,
Ince Ayhan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
material design & processing communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2577-6576
DOI - 10.1002/mdp2.120
Subject(s) - ultrasonic sensor , aerospace , structural engineering , ultrasonic testing , fatigue testing , engineering , french horn , actuator , automotive industry , mechanical engineering , acoustics , electrical engineering , physics , aerospace engineering
High cycle fatigue (HCF) in the range of 10 6 to 10 8 cycles and very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) in the range of 10 8 to 10 10 cycles are key design criteria for aerospace, automotive, military, transportation, and other industries. However, data gathering in the HCF and VHCF ranges is inefficient with traditional 50‐ to 100‐Hz servo‐hydraulic testing machines. The development of high power piezoceramic actuators makes it possible to reliably conduct HCF and VHCF tests within a very short time frame at high frequency on the basis of the ultrasonic fatigue testing approach. An ultrasonic fatigue test machine operating in an axial mode shape of test specimens at 20 kHz was designed and built to investigate VHCF characterization of lightweight metal alloys. The experimental setup went through several stages of design and validation. Finite element analysis was employed to design three versions of an acoustical horn, a single half wavelength booster, and three types of nonferromagnetic samples. The developed ultrasonic fatigue machine was used to conduct fatigue testing of specimens made from 2024‐T351 and 7075‐T6 aluminum alloys to generate representative HCF and VHCF data. HCF and VHCF data for these alloys were found to be in good agreement with experimental fatigue data from the literature.