Abstract
Age-strengthened aluminum alloys, as important lightweight structural materials, have significantly lower fatigue properties compared to non-age-strengthened aluminum alloys. In this study, the polycrystalline models containing precipitation-free zones (PFZ) were constructed by secondary development of the traditional polycrystalline model by modifying the mesh file. Polycrystalline finite element simulations of peak age-treated Al-7.02Mg-1.98Zn alloys were carried out with this model. The results demonstrate that the PFZ's presence markedly reduces the alloy's yield strength and a substantial stress concentration occurs adjacent to the PFZ, generating significant compressive stresses at the PFZ. Under cyclic loading, the maximum strain energy dissipation in the model containing the PFZ far exceeds that observed in the conventional polycrystalline model, and the strain energy dissipation observed in the PFZ is significantly higher than that at other locations. This indicates that the PFZ is the main region for fatigue crack initiation. In addition, the introduction of a rotation factor to simulate the inhomogeneous rotation within the grain reveals that the additional stress concentration in the PFZ introduced by the aluminum alloy-forming process further increases the fatigue crack initiation driving force.