Fatigue crack growth in a unidirectional SCS-6/Ti-15-3 composite
An investigation was conducted to characterize and model the fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of an SCS-6/Ti-15-3 metal matrix composite. Part of the study was conducted using a fatigue loading stage mounted inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results of the study reveal that the fatigue crack growth behavior of the composite is a function of specimen geometry, fiber orientation, and interaction of local stress fields with the highly anisotropic composite. In the case of (0)8 oriented single edge notch specimens and (90)8 oriented compact tension (CT) specimens, the crack growth was normal to the loading direction. However, for the (0)8 CT specimens, the crack grew mostly parallel to the loading and the fiber direction. The unusual fatigue behavior of the (0)8 CT specimens is attributed to the specimen geometry and the associated high tensile bending stresses perpendicular to the fiber direction.