Influence of grain orientations on the initiation of fatigue damage in an Al-Li alloy

The variation in microstructure and texture in a rectangular bar extruded from a billet of spray-cast 8090 Al-Li alloy has been examined. The fine grain size of the as sprayed billet and the moderate extrusion ratio ( approximately 25 : 1) were seen to cause geometric dynamic recrystallization (GDR) in regions of higher strain towards the edge of the bar. The grain morphology varied from the expected elongated grains at the centre of the bar to equiaxed grains where GDR occurred at the bar edges. A <111> + <100> double fibre texture, significantly distorted towards rolling components and varying through the bar thickness, was found using electron backscatter diffraction. Fatigue resulted in a high density of short secondary cracks, many of which had arrested at grain boundaries. The cracks preferentially nucleated in grains from the <100> fibre texture corresponding to high Schmid factors.