Quantitative analysis of fretting fatigue degradation in 7075-T6 aluminum alloy

Fretting fatigue failures are commonly observed in the aviation industry. The objective of this study was to understand the fretting fatigue mechanism by characterization of fretting fatigue degradation to gain insight into the process of crack formation from pits in 7075-T6 aluminum alloy. This paper focuses on the quantitative analysis of fretting fatigue degradation in terms of pit depths and dominant crack formation. For 60 percent of the specimens, the dominant crack nucleated from a pit other than the maximum-depth pit observed on the fracture surface.