The effect of erosion on the fatigue limit of metallic materials for aerospace applications

This work deals with the study of the fatigue behavior of metallic materials for aerospace applications which have undergone erosion. Particularly, an innovative non-destructive methodology based on infrared lock-in thermography was applied on aluminum samples for the rapid determination of their fatigue limit. The effect of erosion on the structural integrity of materials can lead to a catastrophic failure and therefore an efficient assessment of the fatigue behavior is of high importance. Infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-destructive, non-contact, real time and full field method can be employed in order the fatigue limit to be rapidly determined. The basic principle of this method is the detection and monitoring of the intrinsically dissipated energy due to the cyclic fatigue loading. This methodology was successfully applied on both eroded and non-eroded aluminum specimens in order the severity of erosion to be evaluated.