Probabilistic Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth Rate for Longitudinal Tungsten Inert Gas Welded Al 6013-T4 Under Various PostWeld Heat Treatment Conditions

In this study, a Monte Carlo method (MCM) was applied on the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) curves to evaluate a probabilistic assessment for the welded longitudinal Al 6013-T4 aluminum alloy under various post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) conditions. The welded CT specimens were manufactured by a tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, and the fatigue crack growth (FCG) tests were conducted by following ASTM E647. Before conducting the FCG test, the PWHT conditions were applied to the welded CT specimens under three different aging times of 6 h, 18 h, and 24 h at 175 C. The FCGR curves were generated from the FCG data and plotted on the da/dN versus Δk curves. The constants C and m were determined by drawing the fitting line on the FCGR curves. A sizeable random number was generated from the obtained constants by MCM. By plotting these constants, the probabilistic assessment of FCGR was determined on the da/dN versus Δk curves. The results showed that the confidence interval was appeared on the FCGR curves and limited by the upper and lower probabilistic lines. It was found that the lower and upper probabilistic lines were formed at 1 % and 90 %, respectively.