Damage-failure transition under consecutive dynamic and very high cycle fatigue loads

The Foreign Object Damage problem is considered as the damage tolerance statement for consecutive loading tests, which include the shock-wave loading (by explosive generator) of massive planar targets (aluminum alloy AlMg6) to provide a billet for the specimen machining with controlled damage that is the analogous material of the fan blades subjected to high-speed collision with solid particles. These samples were used to perform high cycle fatigue and very high cycle fatigue tests with the ultrasonic testing machine, which allows fatigue loading for 10⁸–10¹⁰ cycles with an amplitude of up to several tens of micrometers and a frequency of 20 kHz. It is shown that the fatigue strength of AlMg6 alloy specimens pre-loaded by shock in the 10⁹ cycle regime reduces by 24%. The fatigue damage-failure transition and crack initiation were studied by the amplitude–frequency analysis of higher harmonics associated with the influence of defects on the effective elastic properties. The structural study of the fracture surface for the specimens after consecutive loading was conducted using the profilometry data to identify the roughness scale invariants induced by defects for corresponding areas responsible for the staging of fatigue damage-failure transition. The scale invariants and corresponding lengths were used for the formulation of the generalized Paris law for the crack advance in the damaged material.