Fatigue life and crack growth behavior of Al18B4O33 whisker reinfored composite

The high cycle fatigue behavior and fatigue crack growth behavior of squeeze cast Al18B4O33 whisker-reinforced composite has been studied. Al18B4O33 composite, which contain 20 vol.% ceramic whiskers, have been examined for their high cycle fatigue strength under load control with a stress ratio of 0.1 at 20Hz to determine the mean fatigue strength at 107 cycles. The results showed that the fatigue strength of composite was increased by about 70% compared to unreinforced matrix alloy. The fatigue crack growth rate of Al18B4O33 composite, carried out under constant amplitude load at stress ratios of 0.05 and 0.1, was faster than that of unreinforced matrix alloy.