Dynamic Fracture Behaviors of Selected Aluminum Alloys Under Three-point Bending

The dynamic fracture behaviors of the extruded 2024-T4 and 7075-T6 aluminum alloys are investigated by using an instrumented drop tower machine.The specimens are made from a 25 mm diameter extruded circular rod.The dynamic three-point bending tests of each alloy are carried out at different impact velocities.The initiation fracture toughness and average propagation fracture toughness of 2024-T4 and 7075-T6 are determined at different loading rates.The results show that both the initiation toughness and the propagation toughness increase with the loading rate.Further,the difference between the fracture toughness behaviors of 2024-T4 and 7075-T6 is found to be dependent on the variation of fracture mechanism.The comprehensive fractographic investigations of the fracture surfaces clearly demonstrate that the fracture mode of 2024-T4 is predominantly transgranular fracture with high density small-sized dimples,and the fracture mode of 7075-T6 is mainly intergranular fracture with many intermetallic particles in the bottom of voids located in the fracture surface.