Project Abstract
Aluminum Alloy 7075-T6 is a peak aged alloy primarily used in aging aerospace vehicles. Improved prediction of fatigue lives due to microstructural variations will reduce expenses associated with conservative life estimations. Fatigue crack formation in this alloy has been shown to be dominated by the presence of clusters of large ($\mu$m) Iron-bearing particles.
Our project aims to create a meta-model representation of the Structure-Property relationship of particle clusters to the Fatigue Indicator Paramters used to asses crack nucleation (extension into the matrix). This project will use an elastic-plastic matrix with linear-elastic particles supporting cracking via isotropic stiffness reduction during tension in the crack normal direction.