The common approach for joining numerous important components in aerospace applications has been detachable mechanical joints of fastening and riveting. As a result of stress (and strain) concentration during service, fatigue cracks begin to form and spread from the fastener holes leading to failure of load-bearing components in-service. To alleviate the chance of premature failure, several techniques of clamping force application [
1,
2], cold expansion [
3,
4], interference fit [
5,
6], and combination of approaches [
7,
8] have been developed over last few decades. During part assembly, a larger fastener pin or bolt is put into the notch to create an interference fit (IF) around the notch. Interference fit is largely employed in automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing industries. The IF induces residual stresses on the hole-pin interface which can highly improve fatigue and ratcheting resistance of components undergoing stress cycles. The interaction of both notch and loading spectrum highly affects the plastic strain accumulation over the loading cycles in the interference and notch region. Ratcheting phenomenon refers to a progressive plastic strain under loading cycles with non-zero mean stress. Local ratcheting and stress relaxation at notch roots of metallic parts [
9,
10,
11,
12,
13] have been studied lately. However, literature lacks a thorough ratcheting analysis at the hole-pin region. Varvani and coworkers [
9,
10] investigated local ratcheting at the notch root of 1045 steel plates with different-sized circular notches. They argued on how local ratcheting strain and its rate change as stress cycles proceeded. Local ratcheting and stress relaxation of notched samples were studied through use of a hardening framework controlling plastic strain progress over loading cycles [
11]. Shekarian and Varvani [
10,
11,
12,
13] examined the ratcheting and stress relaxation at notch roots of steel plates through coupling the Chaboche [
15] and A-V [
16] kinematic hardening models and the Neuber rule [
14]. They further employed these hardening frameworks along with Neuber rule to assess ratcheting at the roots of various elliptical and circular notches in 316 stainless steel specimens [
13]. Steel specimens subjected to asymmetric loading cycles were studied by Wang and Rose [
17]. To define the plastic shakedown rate while loading cycles continued, they proposed an integral approach. According to Hu et al. [
18], local ratcheting and the rate of stress relaxation were intensified at the notch root as applied strain increased. They provided data on ratcheting and stress relaxation at notch roots that were consistent with predictions made using the Chaboche hardening rule. Ratcheting tests were carried out by Rahman and Hassan [
19] on notched 304L steel plates with different notch geometries/ forms to assess the ratcheting response of notched specimens. They employed various hardening criteria developed by Chaboche [
15], Ohno-Wang [
20], and AbdelKarim-Ohno [
21]. They reported that the simulated ratcheting values by Chaboche’s model closely agreed with experimental data at notch root. Firat [
22] measured local strains at notched 1070 steel specimens through use of strain gauges mounted at the vicinity of notch roots. He used Neuber's rule and the Chaboche model to measure plastic strain values over asymmetric axial-torsional loading cycles. The local ratcheting strain prediction values at the notch root of 1070 steel specimens were found to be comparable to the observed values published in reference [
23]. Liu et al [
24] conducted cyclic tests on austenitic stainless steel elbow pipes. The local strains on the perimeter of pressurized elbows were measured using strain gauges installed around the diameter of elbow pipes closely agreed with those predicted through use of the Chen-Jiao-Kim (CJK) model [
25]. In a recent study, Hatami and Varvani [
26] assessed local ratcheting at notch root of 1045 steel samples subjected to uniaxial asymmetric loading cycles. They employed the A-V hardening framework coupled with the Neuber, Glinka, and Hoffman-Seeger (H-S) rules. They found that the use of Neuber’s rule along with the A-V model predicted local ratcheting more agreeable with those of experimental data as compared with the Glinka and H-S rules.
In this study, the local ratcheting response of Al 7075-T6 specimens at different distances from the notch root was predicted using the A-V and Chaboche hardening rules in conjunction with the Neuber rule. The ratcheting data for the interference fitted samples and at various distances from the notch roots were taken from an earlier work [
27]. Pinned samples possessed DIF of 1% and 2%. The local ratcheting of press-fitted and non-press-fitted notched aluminum specimens was evaluated through use of the A-V and Chaboche kinematic hardening rules coupled with the Neuber rule. Local ratcheting results were analyzed at various DIFs, distances from the notch root, and applied stresses. As DIF increased from 0→ 1% →2%, local ratcheting strain dropped noticeably. An increase in the applied stress, promoted ratcheting at the hole-pine interference. The predicted ratcheting curves through the A-V model were placed above the measured values, while those predicted by the Chaboche hardening rule collapsed below experimental data. The lower ratcheting magnitude at press-fitted samples is attributed to the higher materials resistance against ratcheting developed at the hole-pin interference. The choice of press-fitted samples to control ratcheting at notch root of components are discussed.