Fatigue Strength of Age-Hardened Al-Zn Alloys under Repeated Tensile Loading

Effect of the soft surface layer that was formed on low temperature aging of Al-Zn alloy on fatigue strength was studied under repeated tensile loading. Vickers microhardness test revealed that there existed less hardened region in the vicinity of grain boundary and surface, and that the region extends 50 to 100μm from the surface inward. From the plot of the stress amplitude against the number of cycles to failure, it is concluded that the presence of less hardened surface layer strengthens fatigue resistance of the age hardened Al-Zn alloys containing 8 to 16mass % Zn under the repeated tensile loading.