International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Influence of riblet geometry on fatigue life of surface structured AA 2024

thin sheets
S. Stille a,⇑, T. Beck b, L. Singheiser a
a
Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
b
Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (WKK), TU Kaiserslautern, D-67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fatigue testing was performed on riblet structured AA 2024 T351 thin sheets. Main focus was put on the
Received 23 April 2014 influence of different riblet geometries on fatigue life in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regime. Exper-
Received in revised form 13 June 2014 iments on bare as well as on clad sheets were conducted at an ultrasonic frequency of around 20 kHz with
Accepted 16 June 2014
fully reversed axial loading (R = 1). While for bare material the riblet structure reduces lifetime by
Available online 24 June 2014
around one order of magnitude, the clad material is not negatively affected by the surface structure.
The threshold for fatigue failure of clad material is governed by the remaining thickness of the cladding
Keywords:
below the riblet structure. Finite element (FEM) simulations show that an optimal VHCF performance is
Very high cycle fatigue
AA 2024
reached, if the thickness of the clad layer below the riblet valleys is around 25% of the riblet diameter.
Cladding Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Riblet structures
FEM simulations

1. Introduction reduction of 7.5% has been achieved in wind channel experiments

Drag reduction of transport systems, e.g. planes or trains, is ben-
eficial for economical as well as for ecological reasons. It is well
known in this context that the aerodynamic efficiency of any object
is strongly affected by the frictional drag of its surfaces [1]. There-
fore, frictional drag reduction by passive and active methods has
been subject of numerous studies since the 1960s [2]. One promis-
ing approach for passive drag reduction are riblet structured sur-
faces [3,4], which modify the turbulent boundary layer and
reduce the skin friction by up to 10% [4].
The influence of the riblet geometry on drag reduction has been
studied in detail in [4]: the highest efficiency is reached for a blade-
like shape, followed by semi-circular, scalloped and sawtooth
shaped riblets. Furthermore, drag reduction takes place for a riblet
spacing (s) to height (h) ratio between 0.2 and 0.7 with a maximum
effect for h/s  0.5. For each given geometry, drag reduction is most
efficient at a certain, well defined Reynolds number [4]. Conse-
quently, riblet dimensions have to be adapted to the cruising speed
of the transport system.
During the last decade, active drag reduction by a transverse
traveling surface wave has been investigated [5]. In this approach,
the surface oscillation reduces the movement of turbulent cells and
thus stabilizes near-wall streaks [6,7]. As reported in [8], a drag
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sebastian.stille@rwth-aachen.de (S. Stille).
on a flat plate. However, the surface oscillation with amplitudes of
few 1/10 mm at frequencies of some 100 Hz raises the question of
the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) failure as a possible technical
limitation to this approach.
The wrought aluminum alloy AA 2024 is widespreadly used for
the construction of airfoils and fuselages. Its fatigue properties
have been studied in detail since several decades, e.g. in [9,10].
Nevertheless, these studies do not cover the VHCF regime, which
is a necessary condition to evaluate the feasibility of this novel
drag reduction technique in practice. During the last 15 years,
the VHCF behavior of AA 2024 has been subject to several studies
[11–14], where a continuously decreasing S/N-curve up to 1010
cycles and thus no fatigue limit in the VHCF regime was found.
Due to its high copper content, AA 2024 is sensitive to corrosion
and therefore frequently cladded with a layer of commercially pure
(CP) aluminum. A negative consequence of the cladding is a signif-
icant reduction in fatigue performance of this compound material
in the range up to around 2  107 load cycles, as demonstrated
in [9,10]. Hunter and Fricke [15], who performed fatigue tests on
clad AA 2024 up to some 107 load cycles, identified fatigue crack
initiation at the cladding surface, which subsequently leads to
crack growth into the substrate, as failure mechanism in the high
cycle fatigue regime. However, this failure mechanism does not
occur if the applied stress is reduced below a certain, well defined
threshold level [16]: even at low load amplitudes, cracks that are
initiated at the surface grow easily to the substrate, where a certain

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2014.06.008
0142-1123/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55
stress intensity at the crack tip has to be overcome for further crack
propagation. For that reason, if the stress is below the threshold,
cracks are stopped at the interface and therefore, a sharp transition
in the S/N-curve can be observed if fatigue tests are extended to the
VHCF regime [16].
Riblet surface structures induce an additional stress concentra-
tions in the material. The influence of U-shaped notches with dif-
ferent dimensions on fatigue life of bare AA 2024 T4 has been
studied by Li et al. [12]: a reduction in VHCF strength of around
60% was found for specimens with a notch depth and radius of
0.5 mm. Nevertheless, as recently shown by the authors of the
present study [16], the notch effect in riblet structured clad mate-
rial is more complicated than just a simple stress increase in the
vicinity of the notch if the cyclic loading leads to plastification of
the cladding. In this case the stress intensity of fatigue cracks
reaching the interface between cladding and substrate can be
reduced and hence the fatigue strength is only slightly reduced
or even increased by the riblet structure.
In this work we focus on the influence of different diameters of
semi-circular riblet structures on the fatigue behavior and damage
mechanisms. This is done for both, clad and bare material. Semi-
circular riblet structures are chosen because they can be produced
on an industrial scale much more easily than sharp, blade-like
structures. For structuring, a rolling process is applied as described
in [17,18]. Since AA 2024 is a well studied material, it provides a
suitable reference for our study. A further aim of this work is to
optimize the riblet dimensions for the potential use in above men-
tioned active drag reduction systems with respect to VHCF loading.
2. Material
Experiments were performed on commercially available AA
2024 thin sheets produced by AMAG rolling GmbH (Randshofen,
Austria). Sheets were received in the T351 temper. Details of the
material properties and the chemical composition of the as-
received material can be found in [16]. Bare as well as clad sheets
were tested. Table 1 gives an overview on the investigated sheet
materials. The clad material differs in sheet thickness as well as
in thickness of the clad layer. In order to study the effect of riblet
size on fatigue behavior, different riblet diameters have been cho-
sen for different types of sheets (see Table 1). Riblet rolling was
performed along the rolling direction of the sheet (L-direction).
Polished cross sections of the studied materials and riblet
geometries are presented in Fig. 1. Clad specimens were structured
in the as-received state (T351). 2 mm thick clad sheets were struc-
tured with a riblet diameter of 80 lm, whereas for 1.6 mm thick
clad sheets a diameter of 300 lm was chosen. Sheets with
300 lm riblets had to be stretched after rolling to remove curva-
ture of the sheets after rolling. In contrast to the well suited rolling
behavior of the clad material, the bare material is much harder
than the CP Al cladding. Consequently, rolling of bare material in
the T351 temper led to poor riblet geometry and high wear of
the rolling equipment. To overcome this problem, sheets were
rolled in the soft-annealed O state. For this, the material was
annealed at 400 °C for 3 h and subsequently cooled down slowly
(30 °C/h) to 250 °C. Afterwards, the furnace was turned off, leading
to a faster cooling rate down to room temperature. In this soft
Table 1
Key parameters of the studied specimens.
Material Temper Sheet thickness
Bare material T351/T4 2 mm
Clad material T351 2 mm
Clad material T351 1.6 mm
49
material state, the riblet rolling was performed. Subsequently,
the material was precipitation hardened to the T4 state by solution
annealing at 500 °C for 80 min, quenching in water and natural
ageing for 8 days, which results in similar mechanical properties
of the AA 2024 sheets as in the T351 state without additional
cold-working after the riblet structuring process. A more detailed
description of the riblet rolling process as well as further details
on the relevant parameters are provided in the study by Pöplau
et al. [19].
The comparability of the T4 and the T351 temper has been
ensured by tensile testing and indentation measurements. Table 2
summarizes the results. In the T4 temper, the material shows with
442 MPa only a slightly higher tensile strength than in the T351
state. Furthermore, the measured hardness of the T4 state is with
137 HV0.5 only slightly higher than in the as-received state. The
two material states have thus been considered to be comparable.
3. Experimental details
Fatigue testing was performed using an ultrasonic fatigue test-
ing machine (UFTE). Details of the setup can be found in [20,21].
The sample preparation is described in detail in [16]. Specimens
were taken from the structured material along (L-direction) and
normal (T-direction) to the riblet orientation. Since in the active
drag reduction system riblets are oriented normal to the load
direction, most fatigue tests were performed at specimens in
T-direction. For comparison some tests were made on samples in
L-direction. The cladding on the backside of structured clad
specimens was removed prior to testing by grinding and polishing.
Measurements were performed at an ultrasonic frequency of
approximately 19.1 kHz with zero mean stress (R = 1) at room
temperature.
To assess the influence of localized cold working due to the roll-
ing process, micro-indentation tests were performed on polished
cross sections of flat and riblet structured material. A Berkovic type
indenter was used with a testing force of 1 mN in order to achieve a
sufficient lateral resolution. Indentations at such a small testing
force suffer from indentation size effects and thus result in
increased hardness values and larger scatter compared to conven-
tional hardness measurements. Nevertheless, measurements at the
same testing force are comparable. Near surface residual stresses
induced by the rolling process were analyzed by X-ray diffraction
(XRD) using the sin2 W method [22]. Sample surfaces and polished
cross sections were studied by optical and electron microscopy
(SEM).
4. Results
The results of the mircoindentation measurements are summa-
rized in Table 3. Measurements in riblet structures were performed
on polished cross sections along paths from the riblet surface to the
interior of the material. The distance between the indentations was
5 lm. As can be seen, riblet rolling of the bare sheets led to a
slightly increased hardness from 194 to 215 HV0.01. Nevertheless,
considering the strong scatter of the data, this change, which is
attributed to the heat treatment after riblet rolling, is not consid-
ered to be significant. For clad specimens also just a slightly
Cladding thickness Riblet diameter
– 100 lm
(59 ± 4) lm 80 lm
(69 ± 3) lm 300 lm
50 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55

Fig. 1. Polished cross sections of the tested material. (a) 2 mm Thick clad sheet [16]. (b) Structured specimen with 80 lm riblet diameter [16]. (c) 1.6 mm Thick clad sheet. (d)
Structured specimen with 300 lm riblet diameter. (e and f) 2 mm Thick bare sheet with riblet structure (100 lm riblet diameter).

Table 2 Table 4
Mechanical properties of the material after heat treatments. Near-surface residual stresses determined by XRD.

Temper Tensile strength (MPa) Hardness (HV0.5) Residual stress (MPa)

T351 431 127 ± 3 2 mm Thick bare sheets
O 198 58 ± 1 Flat material [16] 12 ± 8
T4 442 137 ± 4 Flat material after mechanical polishing [16] 35 ± 7
Riblets (parallel orientation) 1 ± 7
Riblets (normal orientation) –
2 mm Thick clad sheets [16]
Table 3
Flat material 17 ± 10
Vickers hardness (HV0.01). N is the number of indentations.
Riblets (80 lm), parallel orientation 44 ± 7
Hardness (HV0.01) N Riblets (80 lm), normal orientation 13 ± 1

2 mm Thick bare sheets 1.6 mm Thick clad sheets

Flat material 194 ± 17 1143 Flat material 14 ± 9
Riblets 215 ± 21 184 Riblets (300 lm), parallel orientation 52 ± 11
Riblets (300 lm), normal orientation 8 ± 1
2 mm Thick clad sheets [16]
Flat clad layer 68 ± 9 200
Riblets 78 ± 6 47
Substrate before riblet rolling 223 ± 14 381 stresses. Note that measurements normal to the riblets on bare
Substrate after riblet rolling 232 ± 16 22
sheets could not be performed due to a texture, which strongly
1.6 mm Thick clad sheets affected the XRD measurement. As discussed in [16], the sample
Flat clad layer 75 ± 10 171
Riblets 83 ± 11 39
polishing prior to fatigue testing induced stable residual stresses
Substrate before riblet rolling 219 ± 26 174 in the flat bare material, which are considered in the later
Substrate after riblet rolling 246 ± 19 26 discussion.
The S/N-curves of the bare material (Fig. 2) show a relatively
small scatter and a smooth transition from the HCF to the VHCF
increased hardness was found in the riblet structure. This increase regime. The riblet structure normal to the sample orientation
was around 15% for 2 mm thick sheets and around 11% for 1.6 mm reduces fatigue life by around one order of magnitude. The S/N-
thick sheets. The substrate below the cladding was found to be as curve for riblets along sheet orientation lies between the results
well only slightly affected by the rolling process (hardness increase for flat material and riblet structures normal to the load direction.
of around 4% for 2 mm thick sheets and of around 12% for 1.6 mm Note that riblet structured surfaces have not been polished and
thick sheets). Taking again into account the high scatter of the data thus did not exhibit compressive residual stresses, see discussion
and the small changes of the mean values, it can be stated for both, below. In all cases, cracks were initiated in the vicinity of the sur-
clad and bare material, that the structuring process does not result face. Furthermore, only single crack initiation was found. In the
in a significant hardness change in the vicinity of the surface. case of riblet structures in normal orientation, cracks were initi-
While the hardness changes due to the riblet rolling are negligi- ated in the riblet valleys. Crack initiation on specimens with riblets
ble, the induced residual stresses (Table 4) are more considerable. along the load direction took place across the riblet structure. SEM
In all cases, the flat material showed small compressive residual observations on run-out specimens of bare material generally
stresses. Riblet structuring of the clad material significantly showed no surface cracks.
increased the compressive residual stress parallel to the riblets. S/N-curves of the 2.0 mm and 1.6 mm clad material are summa-
This result, which has already been discussed for the 80 lm large rized in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. In both cases the fatigue
riblets in [16], is also found for the 300 lm thick sheets. Neverthe- strength of the clad material is generally lower than for bare mate-
less, due to the cyclic plastification of the clad layer these residual rial. Furthermore, a sharp transition from early failure (up to
stresses are decreased during fatigue loading and do therefore not around 3  106 load cycles for 2 mm thick sheets and 2  107 load
influence the fatigue behavior [16]. For the bare material, the heat cycles for 1.6 mm thick sheets) to run-outs up to >109 cycles
treatment after riblet rolling completely removes the residual occurs. The corresponding fatigue threshold is lower for the
 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55 51

Fig. 2. S/N-curves of bare material and literature data from [11] and [14]. Arrows
indicate run-out specimens. Red horizontal lines are corrected literature data [14]
taking into account the mean stress sensitivity according to [14]. (For interpretation
of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)
Fig. 4. S/N-curves for 1.6 mm thick clad material and literature data from [23].
Arrows indicate run-out specimens. The dashed lines indicate threshold levels
below which only run-outs up to some 109 load cycles were observed.

rolling direction and (iii) compressive residual stresses induced

during sample polishing. A correction of the latter issue according
to a Smith–Watson–Topper approach [24] is presented in Fig. 2
(light blue circles) [16]. Beside this quite general approach for
the mean stress influence, we have taken into account experimen-
tal data for mean stress sensitivity from the study of Mayer et al.
[14], who performed fatigue experiments on AA 2024 specimens
at different load ratios: Linear extrapolation of the values in the
Haigh diagramm (Fig. 9 in [14]) between R = 0.1 and R = 1 to
rm = 35 MPa (residual stress taken from Table 4) resulted in fati-
gue limits for 107, 108, 109, and 1010 load cycles which are indi-
cated in Fig. 2 by horizontal red lines. As can be seen, these
extrapolated values are in good agreement with the results of the
Smith–Watson–Topper approach since they suggest that residual
stresses cause around one half of the deviation between literature
for cylindrical specimens [11,14] and our own results for flat AA
2024 T351 sheet material.
One reason for the significantly reduced fatigue strength of the
riblet structured bare AA 2024 material (independent of riblet ori-
entation) is the fact that riblet structured surfaces have not been
Fig. 3. S/N-curves for 2 mm thick clad material and literature data from [23].
Arrows indicate run-out specimens. The dashed lines indicate threshold levels
below which only run-outs up to some 109 load cycles were observed.

thinner sheets which have a thicker cladding. Nevertheless, in both

cases the riblet structure raised the fatigue threshold compared to
the flat material. Moreover, in case of the 2 mm thick sheets this
increase of the fatigue threshold is higher if the riblets are oriented
normal than if they are parallel to the load direction. This effect of
riblet orientation has not been observed for the 1.6 mm thick
sheets. Microscopy on polished cross sections proved that all clad
specimens showed the same failure mechanism, as described in
[16]: cracks are initiated at the cladding surface and subsequently
grow to the substrate. Only if the applied stress is above the fatigue
threshold (horizontal line in the S/N-curve), cracks propagate into
the substrate and lead to failure.

5. Discussion

Possible reasons for the deviation of the S/N-data of flat sheet

material from cylindrical specimens tested in [14,11] are discussed Fig. 5. Kitagawa–Takahashi diagram for the observed threshold levels for failure of
in detail in [16]; main factors are (i) a significantly smaller sheet clad specimens. Filled symbols indicate experimental results. Open symbols
thickness, (ii) a different sample orientation with respect to the indicate corrections from FEM calculations.
52 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55

polished prior to testing and thus are not affected by induced
residual stresses. This is in good agreement with both, the
Smith–Watson–Topper approach and the mean stress sensitivity
correction mentioned above: fatigue testing results for specimens
with riblets along sample orientation are in good agreement
with residual stress corrected values of the flat material. The
further reduction in fatigue strength in case of riblet structures
perpendicular to the load direction is attributed to the notch
effect which rises the surface stress in the riblet valley by around
67%, as has been found in an elastic FEM calculation (not shown
here). This value is – in case of identical riblet height to width
ratio – independent from the riblet diameter.
The failure mechanism of the clad material has been discussed
in detail in [16] by using a Kitagawa–Takahashi diagram, which is
used to assess whether cracks in the cladding can propagate into
the substrate. For microstructurally short cracks, i.e. cracks with
lengths below the intersection point of the two straight lines in
Fig. 5, the threshold for failure is the fatigue limit of bare sheets
(comparable to the substrate), extracted from Fig. 2 (corrected val-
ues), whereas for microstructurally long cracks, the threshold is
pffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi
determined by rth ¼ K max;th =1:122 pa. (K max;th ¼ 2:1 MPa m for
AA 2024 [11], a is the crack length). For further details on the con-
struction of the Kitagawa–Takahashi diagram, refer to [16]. This
interpretation of VHCF strength also holds for material with differ-
ent sheet thickness and riblet geometries tested in the present
study (cf. Fig. 5): the threshold levels for fatigue failure are deter-
mined by the cladding thickness at the crack location. For both rib-
let geometries, the rolling process locally reduces the cladding
thickness, leading to an increased fatigue threshold value.
The influence of riblet orientation can be explained in the fol-
lowing way: in perpendicular riblet orientation, cracks are always
initiated in the riblet valleys. Contrary, for riblets along the

Fig. 6. Finite element analysis of stress redistribution in the clad layer during cyclic loading. (a) FEM model for parameter study and geometry optimization. (b–e) Stress
distribution at maximum load during the 500th load cycle: (b) clad layer for 80 lm large riblets [16]. (c) Clad layer for 300 lm large riblets. (d) Upper part of the substrate
below the 80 lm large riblets [16]. (e) Upper part of the substrate below the 300 lm large riblets. Nominal stress amplitudes were generally adapted to the threshold values
for failure in the corresponding S/N-curves.
 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55 53

samples direction, cracks occur across the riblets at many locations
in the gauge length. Therefore, one cannot calculate the stress
intensity of through-cladding cracks using the remaining cladding
thickness below the riblet valleys. Instead of this, an effective
cladding thickness has to be used, which will be higher than the
local thickness in the valleys, resulting in a higher stress intensity.
Furthermore, for riblets along the load direction, similarly to
flat specimens [16], no notch effect and therefore no stress
redistribution (see discussion below) occurs. If one assumes that
for structured and flat specimens the same stress intensity thresh-
old (Kmax,th) has to be exceeded for crack propagation into the
substrate, the effective cladding thickness calculates as
 
rfat;flat 2
aeff ¼ a ;
rfat;riblets flat
with: rfat,flat and rfat,riblets: fatigue threshold for flat material and
riblets along the sample direction, respectively and aflat: cladding
thickness of the flat material. The resulting effective cladding thick-
ness is 51.4 lm for 80 lm riblets and 58.8 lm for 300 lm riblets,
respectively. As expected, these values and therefore also the fati-
gue thresholds lie between the ones for riblets normal to sample
direction and flat material. This explanation holds nicely for the
80 lm riblets. For the 300 lm riblets, one has to take into account
the notch effect for perpendicular oriented riblets, which signifi-
cantly raises the stress in the riblet valleys and thus compensates
the higher fatigue threshold to some extent.
Beside these findings, an interesting point to address are the
clearly different fatigue thresholds for both riblet geometries in
normal orientation (125 MPa for 80 lm riblets and 100 MPa for
300 lm riblets). As shown by FEM calculations in [16], before crack
initiation at the surface (at a few 104 load cycles) the plastification
of the cladding during cyclic loading leads to a stress redistribution
in the near surface region of the specimen. Therefore, a similar cal-
culation has been performed for the 300 lm large riblets. The sim-
ulation was performed again by modeling one riblet in 2D with
plane strain conditions, similar to the geometry presented in
Fig. 6a. The specimen was exposed to an oscillating displacement
on one side, assuming symmetric boundary conditions on the other
side. Whereas the substrate was considered fully elastic, for the
clad layer isotropic hardening was assumed. (For further details
on the FEM model, refer to [16]). The resulting stabilized stress dis-
tribution in the clad layer after 500 load cycles for both, 80 and
300 lm large riblets are summarized and compared with each
other in Fig. 6b and c. (The nominal substrate stress amplitudes
in both cases were adapted to the threshold values for fatigue in
the corresponding S/N-curves). In both cases, a region of peak
stress below the riblet valley occurs. Since under the valleys of
the smaller riblets a significantly thicker clad layer remains, the
effective stress at the interface is smaller than in case of the
300 lm riblets (cf. Fig. 6d). In contrast, the bigger riblets
(300 lm) result in a significantly thinner clad layer below the rib-
let structure which shifts the peak stress region into the interface.
Consequently, the local effective interface stress is risen from 100
to 121.6 MPa (cf. Fig. 6e). These modified stress levels are indicated
in the Kitagawa diagram (Fig. 5) by open symbols.
The very different stress distribution in case of 80 lm and
300 lm big riblets and its effect on fatigue threshold raises the
question of an optimum riblet geometry with respect to fatigue
life. Since the thickness of the clad layer is supposed to govern
the fatigue threshold level, this parameter has been studied in
detail in an extended version of the previously used FEM model

Fig. 7. Parameter study of interface stress and stress intensity vs. cladding thickness (considered equal to crack length in the cladding). Red arrows indicate the cladding
thickness of the investigated fatigue specimens. (a) Effective interface stress (rx) for 80 lm large riblets. (b) Effective interface stress (rx) for 300 lm large riblets. (c) Resulting
stress intensity of cracks in the 80 lm large riblet structure. (d) Resulting stress intensity of cracks in the 300 lm large riblet structure. (For interpretation of the references to
color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
54 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55
as shown in Fig. 6a. The nominal substrate stress as well as the
effective interface stress have been considered at maximum load
in the stabilized state after 500 load cycles in a small region of
5 lm size, as indicated in Fig. 6a. In a parameter study for both rib-
let diameters, the thickness of the clad layer below the riblet valley
was varied. The nominal substrate stress amplitude was set to the
threshold level for failure, taken from the S/N-graphs. The results
for both geometries are summarized in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7a and b shows the resulting stress (rx) in the substrate
near the interface below the riblet valleys. For very thin clad layers,
the interface stress is dominated by the notch effect of the riblets,
i.e. significantly higher interface stresses occur compared to the
nominal substrate stress. If the cladding thickness below the riblets
reaches around 1/4 of the riblet diameter, the interface stress
equals the nominal substrate stress. For 80 lm big riblets, there
is a plateau region up to 60 lm cladding thickness under the riblet
valley where the interface stress is lowered by around 8.4% com-
pared to the nominal substrate stress. For thicker clad layers, the
interface stress rises again, even above the nominal level. The
300 lm big riblet structure has a slightly different influence on
the effective interface stress. Again, for very small cladding
Fig. 8. S/N-curves for flat material. Arrows indicate run-out specimens.
Fig. 9. S/N-curves for riblet structured material. Arrows indicate run-out
specimens.
thicknesses, the notch effect dominates and strongly raises the
interface stress, and – as for the smaller riblets – the interface
stress reaches the nominal substrate stress at a remaining cladding
thickness of 1/4 of the riblet diameter. The minimum interface
stress level, which is 2.3% below the nominal substrate stress, is
reached at a cladding thickness below the riblet valley of
d = 120 lm. For higher cladding thicknesses the interface stress
asymptotically approaches to the nominal stress level. The
difference in the shape of both curves (and thus the strength of
the effect of stress distribution) might be caused by the different
nominal stress amplitude that leads to a different level of cladding
plastification, which induces a different stress level in the clad
layer and results in a different degree of stress modification at
the interface.
The resulting stress intensity at the crack tip, calculated as
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
K I ¼ 1:122rx pa (rx: applied stress normal to the sample direc-
tion, a: crack length), is plotted for both riblet sizes in Fig. 7c and
d. a was assumed to be equal to the thickness of the clad layer
below the riblet valleys. For rx, the effective interface stress from
the FEM calculation was chosen. As presented in the graph, the
influence of the effective stress modifies the shape of the KI–a
curves. In both cases, the stress intensity has a plateau value for
a = 1/4 of the riblet diameter (d). If the clad thickness is further
increased, the higher stress intensity leads to an easier fatigue
crack propagation into the substrate. Nevertheless, thinner
remaining cladding thicknesses than 1=4 d are not recommended
due to the previously discussed notch effect and therefore, the
optimum cladding thickness below the riblet structure is a = 1=4 d.
6. Conclusion
The present study investigates the influence of semi-circular
riblet structures with different diameter on the VHCF performance
of bare and clad AA 2024 thin sheets. Whereas for bare material a
significant decrease in fatigue strength due to the riblet structure is
observed, the behavior of clad material involves plastification of
the CP Al clad layer and thus stress redistribution. Based on the
recently published [16] general failure mechanism for clad mate-
rial, the present study focuses on the influence of riblet size and
orientation.
Additional experiments on sheet material with different clad-
ding thickness as well as with different riblet structures prove that
the fatigue limit of clad material is governed by crack propagation
thresholds. While for bare material no influence of riblet diameter
in the local stress concentration is found if the ratio between riblet
height and riblet diameter is kept constant, clad sheets are extre-
mely sensitive to the ratio of cladding thickness below the surface
structure (a) and riblet diameter (d). For both geometries, an opti-
mum has been found for a = 0.25d.
Both tested riblet structures slightly increased fatigue strength
of the sheets. Whereas for the smaller riblets an influence of riblet
orientation was found, this effect was not observed for the bigger
riblets. If one compares the S/N-curves for non-structured materi-
als (cf. Fig. 8), it is obvious that bare sheets are superior to clad
sheets with respect to fatigue performance. Nevertheless, if riblets
are produced in an optimized way, this issue might change, as indi-
cated in Fig. 9 which summarizes the S/N-curves of riblet struc-
tured material. It can be stated, that the 300 lm big riblets are
far from their optimum, since the remaining cladding thickness
below the riblet valleys is too small. The 80 lm big riblets are
much closer to the optimum and thus outperform the bare mate-
rial in the VHCF regime. If the issue of cladding thickness is
accounted for in the rolling process, the findings of this study will
help to produce optimized riblet structures with respect to VHCF
life.
 S. Stille et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 68 (2014) 48–55
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungs-
gemeinschaft (FOR 1779, Active drag reduction). Furthermore, we
thank J. Pöplau (IBF, RWTH Aachen University) for structuring of
the sheets.
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