Cracking evolution behaviors of lightweight materials based on in situ synchrotron X-ray tomography: A review

Abstract

Damage accumulation and failure behaviors are crucial concerns during the design and service of a critical component, leading researchers and engineers to thoroughly identifying the crack evolution. Third-generation synchrotron radiation X-ray computed microtomography can be used to detect the inner damage evolution of a large-density material or component. This paper provides a brief review of studying the crack initiation and propagation inside lightweight materials with advanced synchrotron three-dimensional (3D) X-ray imaging, such as aluminum materials. Various damage modes under both static and dynamic loading are elucidated for pure aluminum, aluminum alloy matrix, aluminum alloy metal matrix composite, and aluminum alloy welded joint. For aluminum alloy matrix, metallurgical defects (porosity, void, inclusion, precipitate, etc.) or artificial defects (notch, scratch, pit, etc.) strongly affect the crack initiation and propagation. For aluminum alloy metal matrix composites, the fracture occurs either from the particle debonding or voids at the particle/matrix interface, and the void evolution is closely related with fatigued cycles. For the hybrid laser welded aluminum alloy, fatigue cracks usually initiate from gas pores located at the surface or sub-surface and gradually propagate to a quarter ellipse or a typical semi-ellipse profile.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

fatigue crack initiation and growth / fatigue damage mechanism / damage tolerance / defect characterization / laser welded aluminum alloys

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11572267), the Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures of Xi’an Jiaotong University (Grant No. SV2016-KF-21), the Science and Technology Project of Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2017JY0216), and the Self-Developed Research Project of the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power of Southwest Jiaotong University (Grant No. 2015TPL_T07).

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