2. I'm pretty sure my entire above reply was focused on the fatigue life of welded alum members, I don't see that you addressed that point one iota. Typical response, go after the messenger instead of the message.
3. Anyone who doesn't understand alum welded highly loaded structures have a finite life span, should stay away from cars & airplanes.
4. The problem with "professional" testing, they are getting paid to gather a positive/expected result for those signing the check, and they usually do, and if not, the tests aren't released/published. Testing methods can help achieve that goal.
5. "feets" implies I don't google enough, you suggest too much. tough crowd.
#5. Google scholars... love it. Some of us have Engineering degrees from real schools, and even a smidge of design experience with steels, aluminums, Inconel, carbon fiber...
#2. Aluminum fatigue strength and its failure limit is not as nice as steel obviously. Welded will depend on the alloy, the filler, the post heat treat process, and etcetera.
#3. Airplanes have a 15-20 year life, that is quite a few flights. Corvettes and some other modern cars use aluminum suspension components.
#4. If they are testing to a standard... maybe not so much. Definitely not as bad as car magazine articles. Some of them are thinly veiled ads.
Yeah... welded would not be my favorite, but all engineering is an exercise in choosing the best combination of compromises. What tweaks me is that the level XV was shooting for would have Camaro owners lining up in droves to throw money at the MFG. Kind of like the husband/wife team of ex-GM engineers that are making a go of it with Detroit Speed. In the Mopar world they could not make it.
"#2. Aluminum fatigue strength and its failure limit is not as nice as steel obviously....."
I'm confused, is it only obvious to degreed engineers, or is anybody allowed have this opinion?
You suggest some magical alloy welding combination, etc that would make an alum welded K frame be acceptable, yea, maybe for the marketing dept. My bets are it was typical off the shelf generic 6061 T651? stock with 5356 tig filler, and still prone to fatigue cracking in the HAZ with repeated load reversals which if ever driven, it will encounter. Post weld heat treat in the alum? Really? Of course I also countered my position earlier by mentioning not knowing the robustness of the material, it might be so over designed, that it maybe an acceptable compromise, which I really doubt it is, and just by seeing the member in hand, one of knowledge could judge the robustness, and general weld quality to help predict its level of compromise. Fatigue life is difficult to calculate without actual testing on welded members. Let me repeat, its the welding on Alum that is the issue. Airframe useful life is more dependent on use cycles, like take offs/landings, pressurization and depressurization cycles, time only mainly plays a part in corrosion concerns. Vette alum components are forged, zero welding, and the hydro formed alum frame I suspect are roboticly welded judiciously, in areas that are optimum, and greatly tested for the intended purpose, way beyond anything XV could approach in cost or expertise. What does CF, inconel have to do with this topic?
Addendum:
Careful readers will note the next 5? replies do not address one single relevant point/question I made above, but sure are happy to comment OT. Also if you look back carefully, I did not inject "KV" into this magazine article, I mean thread, but responded to the KV design shortcomings as I see when it was brought up.
