Abstract
The growth of fatigue crack in aluminum alloy, 6061-T6, under the application of pulsed electric current was studied. To examine the effect of pulsed electric current, different electric current densities were used at different fatigue cycles, where the electric current densities were subjected as 90 A/mm2 and 150 A/mm2. With the electric current density of 90 A/mm2, the fatigue life was increased. However, when the current density levels became higher, that is, 150 A/mm2, the fatigue life was decreased. From the fracture surface observations, the local melting was found on crack surface. It is concluded that the increase of fatigue life is attributed to the crack shielding effect resulted from the local melting induced by the pulsed electric current. In addition, the effect of pulsed electric current was more remarkable in small crack region.
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