Book excerpt: VARIABLE-AMPLITUDE FATIGUE-CRACK-GROWTH TESTS WERE CONDUCTED ON SIMPLE SHEET SPECIMENS MADE OF 7075-T6 ALUMINUM ALLOY. THE NUMBERS AND THE AMPLITUDES OF THE HIGH-LOAD CYCLES APPLIED IN THESE TESTS WERE SYSTEMATICALLY VARIED TO STUDY THEIR EFFECTS ON SUBSEQUENT LOW-LOAD FATIGUE-CRACK GROWTH. THE HIGH-LOAD CYCLES CONSISTENTLY DELAYED SUBSEQUENT FATIGUE-CRACK GROWTH AT LOWER LOAD LEVELS. FOR A GIVEN LOW-LOAD LEVEL, THE HIGHER THE PRECEDING HIGH-LOAD LEVEL WAS, THE GREATER THE DELAY IN CRACK PROPAGATION. FURTHERMORE, THE DELAY IN CRACK GROWTH INCREASED WITH INCREASING NUMBERS OF HIGH-LOAD CYCLES UP TO A LIMIT. ONE HIGH-LOAD CYCLE CAUSED APPROXIMATELY ONE-FOURTH OF THE MAXIMUM DELAY, AND TEN HIGH-LOAD CYCLES CAUSED APPROXIMATELY ONE-HALF OF THE MAXIMUM DELAY. THESE DELAYS PROBABLY RESULTED FROM RESIDUAL COMPRESSIVE STRESSES GENERATED IN THE MATERIAL IMMEDIATELY AHEAD OF THE CRACK TIP DURING THE APPLICATION OF THE HIGH-LOAD CYCLES. ELECTRON FRACTOGRAPHIC STUDIES SHOWED THAT A GIVEN STRESS LEVEL, FATIGUE CRACKS PROPAGATED MORE SLOWLY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE APPLICATION OF A HIGH-LOAD CYCLE THAN THEY DID IMMEDIATELY BEFORE ITS APPLICATION. THIS LOWER CRACK-GROWTH RATE IS CONSISTENT WITH THE DELAY IN CRACK GROWTH OBSERVED ON THE MACROSCOPIC LEVEL.