Subsurface fatigue crack tip strains in 7475‐T7351 aluminium alloy measured using stroboscopic neutron diffraction

Abstract Fatigue crack growth in thick‐section metals is typically controlled by an internal plane strain region where strong triaxial constraint of the crack tip occurs. However, the crack tip stress state in this region is challenging to measure. We have used neutron diffraction to study the plane strain section of fatigue crack tips in situ. A stroboscopic form of neutron diffraction using a moving frame‐of‐reference was developed to measure crack tip strains as a function of phase in the fatigue loading cycle without interrupting the cyclic load. Using point measurements of near‐tip strain in 7475‐T7351 aluminium alloy in conjunction with finite element analysis, we can estimate the extent of the crack tip plastic zone, verifying that it is small for this material and set of loading conditions.