Examining the effects of ultrasonic impact treatment as a severe plastic deformation process on the fatigue behaviour of 2024-T3 and T150-T651 aluminium alloys

Aluminium alloys are widely used in aerospace vehicles which are under cyclic loads through their operation. The loads may cause detrimental changes in material structure being more prone to crack initiation, starting a potential process of failure for the structure. In this research the effects of fatigue damage are assessed for two aluminium alloys, 2024-T3 and 7150-T561, after using a surface engineering method which uses the plastic deformation on the surface, like many others, to extend (or reduce) the fatigue life of materials.