A parametric investigation on the fretting fatigue behaviour of heat treated Al 6061-T6 under rotating bending phenomena

ABSTRACT

This research investigated the effect of variable fretting parameters on bending fatigue behaviour of heat-treated Al-Mg-Si alloy (Al 6061-T6). Bulk stress, contact pressure, pad geometry, and locations were chosen as variable parameters to measure its consequence on fatigue life. A developed FEM model justified the experimental observation. It observed that, within the lower bulk stress range, fretting action decreases the fatigue life of Aluminium alloy significantly than the plain one. However, this difference almost vanishes at higher-order loading as well as stress in comparison to plain fatigue. Contact pressure and stress distribution along the contact path and non-filleted-edge suggest about the importance of safety design over the fretting zones. The flat on cylinder contacts was found as detrimental at higher-order contact pressure while cylinder on cylinder one reduces notably at low contact pressure. Fuzzy logic, a soft computing technique was implemented to predict the fretting fatigue as well as the effect of pad location from surface graphs. Nevertheless, catastrophic rupture followed the aspect of fretting loading parameter that showed fretting not only affects in quantity but also the quality of the fatigue behaviour of Al 6061-T6.

KEYWORDS:

• Fretting fatigue
• Contact pressure
• Fatigue life
• Fuzzy logic
• Rapid rupture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quazi Zobaer Shah

Quazi Md. Zobaer Shah is currently working as a maintenance engineer in a pharmaceutical company where his duty encompasses HVAC system control, design, and other related services. Parallelly, he is a researcher at Tribology Lab, Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology (DUET). Some of his research articles have been published in international journals and conference proceedings. Zobaer Shah is a certified and recognized reviewer of international journals. His postgraduate research topic was on fretting fatigue of lightweight materials under the supervision of the co-authors at DUET. His undergraduate thesis was on optimum phenomena of the universal refrigeration system at Islamic University of Technology, IUT (OIC).

M. Arefin Kowser

Dr. Md. Arefin Kowser is the Head of the Materials Science & Engineering dept. and also the Director of transport at DUET. His Ph.D. topic was on Interface Fracture Mechanics at Saitama University, Japan. Dr. Kowser’s research interests are fracture mechanics, Elasticity & plasticity of materials, Shape memory alloy, fatigue failure, etc. He has also published many research and review papers in refereed International Journals and Conference Proceedings. Dr. Kowser is working as a consultant, advisor and expert member of many government and autonomous organizations. His teaching & research experience is about 15 years.

Mohammad Asaduzzzaman Chowdhury

Mohammad Asaduzzzaman Chowdhury is the Head of the Industrial & Production Engineering dept. at DUET. His research interests are Engineering Tribology, Surface Engineering, Coating Technology, Polymer and Composite Materials, Metals and Alloys, Erosive Wear of Different Materials, Material Fabrication, Characterization of Materials, Self-Energy Generating Materials, Atomic Transfer Mechanism, etc. He is working as an editor, Editorial Board Member, reviewer of many ISI and Scopus Indexed International Reputed Journals and books. Dr. Chowdhury has also published many research and review papers in refereed International Journals and Conference Proceedings. He is working as a consultant, advisor and expert member of many government and autonomous organizations. His teaching & research experience is about 20 years. Dr. Chowdhury has involved himself with different cultural and social activities. He has also engaged himself to write articles in different newspapers.