Effect of laser peening with different energies on fatigue fracture evolution of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy

•The fatigue fracture morphologies evolution process at various FCG stages of LPed samples was systematically revealed.•A “stop-continue” phenomenon of crack propagation was discovered in LPed samples.•The fatigue striation spacing of LPed samples were analyzed quantitatively.

To deeply understand the effect of laser peening (LP) with different laser pulse energies on 6061-T6 aluminum alloy, the fatigue fracture morphologies evolution process at various fatigue crack growth (FCG) stages and the corresponding strengthen mechanism were investigated. At the initial stage of FCG, more fatigue micro-cliffs were found after LP, while the fatigue striation spacing simultaneously reduced. A “stop-continue” phenomenon of crack propagation was discovered for laser peened samples. The fatigue striation spacing at the middle stage of FCG increased significantly while compared with that at the initial stage, in addition, the fatigue striation spacing decreased with an increase in laser pulse energy. Fracture morphologies in transition region of laser peened samples exhibit a mixing fracture characteristic of striations and dimples. The laser peened sample with laser pulse energy of 7 J presents more circuitous growing paths. Due to the complex stress state induced by LP, dimples with different sizes appeared in the final fracture region.