Evolution of dislocation patterns inside the plastic zone introduced by fatigue in an aged aluminium alloy AA2024-T3

The formation of dislocations patterns within the plastic zone ahead of a crack tip introduced by fatigue loading in AA2024-T3 sheets is studied by electron channelling contrast imaging (ECCI) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The aim lies in correlating local plastic effects at grain level with digital image correlation (DIC) results obtained at coarser resolution. While dislocation patterns are observed already prior to fatigue loading, the presence of dislocation sources and dislocation entanglements increases towards highly deformed regions near the crack path. Also, deformation veins are revealed by EBSD in grains located along the crack path. Based on ECCI and EBSD the dislocation density was determined and shows a gradient towards the crack tip. The results help linking the process of fatigue deformation at grain-level to the deformation field probed at the meso-scale level.