Cruciform specimens' experimental analysis in ultrasonic fatigue testing

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, two special aluminium cruciform specimens are designed and tested in an ultrasonic fatigue machine. They were designed based on Single‐Input‐Multiple‐Output (SIMO) modal analysis to induce in‐plane biaxial stress combinations (in‐phase tension‐tension [T‐T] and out‐of‐phase compression‐tension [C‐T]) when at resonance at 20 kHz. The geometries were subjected to both numerical analysis and experimental testing to understand if they can indeed create the intended biaxial state of stresses. Both numerical and experimental results showed an impact of nearby resonant modes of noninterest on the correct functioning of the specimens, especially regarding the T‐T specimen where a large deviation from the mode of interest was measured. This means that future work includes re‐designing T‐T specimens taking into account these mode shapes. Only out‐of‐phase specimens demonstrated to work properly and tests until failure were conducted. The first failure results showed to be consistent with literature when out‐of‐phase biaxial stress is applied cyclically.