SEDL / STP / STP610-EB / STP28676S

Evaluating Stress-Corrosion Crack-Propagation Rates in High-Strength Aluminum Alloys with Bolt Loaded Precracked Double-Cantilever-Beam Specimens

Sprowls, DO
Section head, Stress Corrosion Section, research engineer, and technician, Alcoa Laboratories, Aluminum Company of America, Alcoa Center, Pa.

Coursen, JW
Section head, Stress Corrosion Section, research engineer, and technician, Alcoa Laboratories, Aluminum Company of America, Alcoa Center, Pa.

Walsh, JD
Section head, Stress Corrosion Section, research engineer, and technician, Alcoa Laboratories, Aluminum Company of America, Alcoa Center, Pa.

Pages: 14    Published: Jan 1976

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Abstract

Propagation rates for stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) of high-strength aluminum alloys determined with mechanically precracked double-cantilever-beam (DCB) specimens provide a quantitative means of comparing the resistance to SCC of alloys and tempers. For relatively resistant materials however, the rates can be markedly influenced by test conditions and interpretation of the crack-growth data. This paper describes a relatively simple, accelerated testing method for determining SCC velocities that rank the SCC behavior of aluminum alloys in the same order as SCC propagation rates in a seacoast or industrial atmosphere. Practical difficulties associated with this test method, however, warrant further evaluation to justify this as a primary method of testing.