Effect of long-period stacking ordered structure on very high cycle fatigue properties of Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr alloys

Magnesium alloys with a long-period stacking ordered(LPSO)structure usually possess excellent static strength,but their fatigue behaviors are poorly understood.This work presents the effect of the LPSO structure on the crack behaviors of Mg alloys in a very high cycle fatigue(VHCF)regime.The LPSO lamellas lead to a facet-like cracking process along the basal planes at the crack initiation site and strongly prohibit the early crack propagation by deflecting the growth direction.The stress intensity factor at the periphery of the faceted area is much higher than the conventional LPSO-free Mg alloys,contributing higher fatigue crack propagation threshold of LPSO-containing Mg alloys.Microstructure observation at the facets reveals a layer of ultrafine grains at the fracture surface due to the cyclic contact of the crack surface,which supports the numerous cyclic pressing model describing the VHCF crack initiation behavior.

Effect of main inclusions on crack initiation in bearing steel in the very high cycle fatigue regime

This work aims to investigate the effect of main inclusions on crack initiation in bearing steel in the very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） regime. The size and type of inclusions in the steel were quantitatively analyzed, and VHCF tests were performed. Some fatigue cracks were found to be initiated in the gaps between inclusions（Al2 O3, Mg O-Al2 O3） and the matrix, while other cracks originated from the interior of inclusions（Ti N, Mn S）. To explain the related mechanism, the tessellated stresses between inclusions and the matrix were calculated and compared with the yield stress of the matrix. Results revealed that the inclusions could be classified into two types under VHCF; of these two, only one type could be regarded as holes. Findings in this research provide a better understanding of how inclusions affect the high cycle fatigue properties of bearing steel.

Ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior of high strength steel with carbide-free bainite/martensite complex microstructure

The ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior of a novel high strength steel with carbide-free bainite/martensite （CFB/M） complex microstructure was studied. The ultra-high cycle fatigue properties were measured by ultrasonic fatigue testing equipment at a frequency of 20 kHz. It is found that there is no horizontal part in the S-N curve and fatigue fracture occurs when the life of specimens exceeds 10^7 cycles. In addition, the origination of fatigue cracks tends to transfer from the surface to interior of specimens as the fatigue cycle exceeds 10^7, and the fatigue crack originations of many specimens are not induced by inclusions, but by some kind of ＂soft structure＂. It is shown that the studied high strength steel performs good ultra-high cycle fatigue properties. The ultra-high fatigue mechanism was discussed and it is suggested that specific CFB/M complex microstructure of the studied steel contributes to its superior properties.

A two-parameter model to predict fatigue life of high-strength steels in a very high cycle fatigue regime

In this paper, ultrasonic （20 kHz） fatigue tests were performed on specimens of a high-strength steel in very high cycle fatigue （VHCF） regime. Experimental results showed that for most tested specimens failed in a VHCF regime, a fatigue crack originated from the interior of specimen with a fish-eye pattern, which contained a fine granular area （FGA） centered by an inclusion as the crack origin. Then, a two-parameter model is proposed to predict the fatigue life of high-strength steels with fish-eye mode failure in a VHCF regime, which takes into account the inclusion size and the FGA size. The model was verified by the data of present experiments and those in the literature. Furthermore, an analytic formula was obtained for estimating the equivalent crack growth rate within the FGA. The results also indicated that the stress intensity factor range at the front of the FGA varies within a small range, which is irrespective of stress amplitude and fatigue life.

High Cycle Fatigue Properties of Die-Cast Magnesium Alloy AZ91D with Addition of Different Concentrations of Cerium

The effect of addition of different concentrations of Ce on high-cycle fatigue behavior of die-cast magnesium alloy AZ91D was investigated. Mechanical fatigue tests were conducted at the stress ratio of R = 0.1, and fatigue strength was evaluated using up-and-down loading method. The results show that the grain size of AZ91D alloy is remarkably refined, and the amount of porosity decreases and evenly distributes with the addition of Ce. The fatigue strength of AZ91D alloy at room temperature increases from 96.7 up to 116.3 MPa （ 1% Ce） and 105.5 MPa （2 % Ce）, respectively, at the number of cycles to failure, Nf = 1 × 10^7. The fatigue crack of AZ91D alloy initiates at porosities and inclusions, and propagates along grain boundaries. The fatigue striations on fractured surface appear with Ce addition. The fatigue fracture surface of test specimens shows mixed-fracture characteristics of quasi-cleavage and dimple.

Tensile and high-cycle fatigue properties of spray formed Al10.8Zn2.9Mg1.9Cu alloys after two-stage aging treatment

Based on the investigation of the tensile properties of spray formed ultra-high strength Al10.8Zn2.9Mg1.9Cu alloys, the high-cycle fatigue properties under different theoretical stress concentration factors were investigated, the fatigue fracture surfaces and microstructures were observed, and the fatigue mechanism was discussed. The results indicate that the ultimate tensile strength of spray formed Al10.8Zn2.9Mg1.9Cu alloys can reach up to 730?740 MPa, and the elongation is about 8%?10% under the condition of two-stage aging treatment. For the stress ratio is 0.1, the maximum stress for 107 cycles is over 400 MPa and 120 MPa, when the theoretical stress concentration factor is 1 and 3, respectively.

Current understanding of ultra-high cycle fatigue

The fatigue life of numerous aerospace,locomotive,automotive and biomedical structures may go beyond 10~8 cycles.Determination of long life fatigue behavior becomes extremely important for better understanding and design of the components and structures.Initially,before the invention of ultrasonic fatigue testing,most of the engineering materials were supposed to exhibit fatigue life up to 10~7 cycles or less.This paper reviews current understanding of some fundamental aspects on the development of accelerated fatigue testing method and its application in ultra-high cycle fatigue,crack initiation and growth mechanisms of internal fracture,S-N diagram,fatigue limit and life prediction, etc.

High-cycle Fatigue Fracture Behavior of Ultrahigh Strength Steels

The fatigue fracture behavior of four ultrahigh strength steels with different melting processes and therefore different inclusion sizes were studied by using a rotating bar two-point bending fatigue machine in the high-cycle regime up to 107 cycles of loading. The fracture surfaces were observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM）. It was found that the size of inclusion has significant effect on the fatigue behavior. For AtSI 4340 steel in which the inclusion size is smaller than 5.5 μm, all the fatigue cracks except one did not initiated from inclusion but from specimen surface and conventional S-N curve exists. For 65Si2MnWE and Aermet 100 steels in which the average inclusion sizes are 12.2 and 14.9 μm, respectively, fatigue cracks initiated from inclusions at lower stress amplitudes and stepwise S-N curves were observed. The S-N curve displays a continuous decline and fatigue failures originated from large oxide inclusion for 60Si2CrVA steel in which the average inclusion size is 44.4 pro. In the case of internal inclusion-induced fractures at cycles beyond about 1×10^6 for 65Si2MnWE and 60Si2CrVA steels, inclusion was always found inside the fish-eye and a granular bright facet （GBF） was observed in the vicinity around the inclusion. The GBF sizes increase with increasing the number of cycles to failure Nf in the long-life regime. The values of stress intensity factor range at crack initiation site for the GBF are almost constant with Nf, and are almost equal to that for the surface inclusion and the internal inclusion at cycles lower than about 1×10^6. Neither fish-eye nor GBF was observed for Aermet 100 steel in the present study.

Effect of inclusion on high cycle fatigue response of a powder metallurgy tool steel

The high cycle fatigue response of a high V-alloyed powder metallurgy tool steel (AISI 11) with different inclusion sizes was studied. Two materials of this grade at a similar hardness of about HRC 60 were subjected to axial loading fatigue tests,tensile tests and fracture toughness measurements to investigate their mechanical properties. Large inclusion above 70 μm is indicated to be responsible for the tensile fracture which happens before yielding. The fatigue strength obtained up to 107 cycles is found to decrease from approximately 1 538 MPa to 1000 MPa with the inclusion size increasing above 30 μm. The internally induced crack initiation is mainly attributed to the surface compressive residual stress of 300?450 MPa. Fractographic evaluation demonstrates that the crack initiation and propagation controlling factors of the two materials are almost the same,indicating that the two factors would be insignificantly affected by the inclusion size level. Paris sizes of the two materials both show a tendency to decrease as the ratio of stress intensity factor of crack origin to factor of fish-eye increases. The investigation into the relationship between stress intensity factors and fatigue life of the two materials further indicates that the high cycle fatigue behavior of AISI 11 is controlled by crack propagation.

Effects of Aging Temperature on Microstructure and High Cycle Fatigue Performance of 7075 Aluminum Alloy

The hardness, the tensile and the high-cycle fatigue（HCF） performances of 7075 aluminum alloy were investigated under temper T651, solution treated at 380 ℃ for 0.5 h and aged at different temperatures（150, 170, 190 ℃） for 10 hours. The optimal microstructures and the fatigue fracture surfaces were observed. The results show that the hardness and the tensile performances are at their optimum at T651, but the fatigue life is the shortest. The hardness and the elongation are the lowest after solution treatment. With the aging temperature increasing（150-190 ℃）, the HCF is improved. The crack is initiated from the impurity particles on the subsurface. Treated at 170 ℃,the area of the quasi-cleavage plane and the width of parallel serrated sections of the crack propagation are the largest. With increasing aging temperature, the dimple size of finally fracture surfaces becomes larger and the depth deeper.

Very high cycle fatigue behavior of bridge steel welded joint

Very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） behaviors of bridge steel（Q345） welded joints were investigated using an ultrasonic fatigue test system at room temperature with a stress ratio R = -1. The results show that the fatigue strength of welded joints is dropped by an average of 60% comparing to the base metal and the fatigue failure still occurred beyond 10~7 cycles.The fatigue fracture of welded joints in the low cycle regime generally occurred at the solder while at the heat-affected zone（HAZ） in the very high cycle regime.The fatigue fracture surface was analyzed with scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,showing welding defects such as pore,micro-crack and inclusion were the main factors on decreasing the fatigue properties of welded joints.The effect of welding defects on the fatigue behaviors of welded joints was discussed in terms of experimental results and finite element simulations.

Very high cycle fatigue for GCr15 steel with smooth and hole-defect specimens

Very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） properties of a low temperature tempering bearing steel GCr15 with smooth and hole-defect specimens are studied by employing a rotary bending test machine with frequency of 52.5 Hz.Both smooth and hole-defect specimens break in VHCF regime with some difference in fatigue crack initiation.For smooth specimens,a fine granular area（FGA） is observed near the grain boundary in the fracture surface of the specimens broken after 10~7 cycles. But no FGA is observed in the hole-defect specimens broken in VHCF regime,and the VHCF crack does not initiate from the small hole at the surface as it does at low or high cycle fatigue regime. Internal stress is employed to explain the VHCF behavior of these two types of specimens.At last,an advanced dislocation model based on Tanaka and Mura model is proposed to illustrate the internal stress process and to predict fatigue crack initiation life with FGA observed in the fracture region.

Effect of low cycle fatigue pre-damage on very high cycle fatigue

Carbon-manganese steel is often applied in components of pipes in nuclear plant. Ultrasonic fatigue tests following low cycle fatigue （LCF） cycles damaged are used to study the strength of very high cycle fatigure （VHCF）. The comparison of test results of simple VHCF and cumulative fatigue （LCF plus VHCF） shows that LCF load influences the following VHCF strength. Continuum damage mechanics model is extended to VHCF region.

Fatigue life assessment of a high strength steel 300 M in the gigacycle regime

The fatigue behavior of a high strength steel 300 M in the gigacycle regime was investigated. Fully reversed tension - compression fatigue tests at ambient temperature were performed using an ultrasonic fatigue system operating at 20 kHz.The staircase test method was employed to obtain accurate values of the mean fatigue strength corresponding to fixed numbers of cycles up to 10~9.These results were compared to the curve which is estimated by the data tested in the mid-long life regime on conventional servo hydraulic test machine at 20 Hz.Results indicate that the fatigue strength determined from ultrasonic fatigue testing is lightly higher than conventional testing in the range of 10~6-10~7 cycles.It is obvious that nucleations of fractures tend to occur below the surface, if fractures happen after more than 10~7 cycles.All the fractured specimens fails from internal SiO_2 inclusions or smaller carbides and carbide clusters.

EFFECT OF MICROSTRUCTURE OF ALUMINIDE COATING ON HIGH-CYCLE FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF COATING-SUPERALLOY SYSTEM

The high-cycle fatigue performance of different microstructures of aluminide coating- superalloy system has been studied at 900℃.The single phase coating of coarse equiaxial grain NiAI(β)has unfavorable eJfect onJatigue life of the coating-superalloy.The fatigue life may shorten if the coating of NiAl(β)was an enrichment of coarse refractory metal grains. While an improvement can be made by dispersing numerous secondary phase particles such as extreme.fine γ′,quasi-σ-phase and others.

EFFECT OF FABRICATION ON HIGH CYCLE FATIGUE PROPERTIES OF COPPER THIN FILMS

The influence of fabrication on the tensile and fatigue behavior of copper films manufactured by 3 kinds of fabrication methods was investigated. The tensile and high cycle fatigue tests were performed using the test machine developed by authors. Young＇s moduli （72, 71 and 69 GPa, respectively） are lower than the literature values （108-145 GPa）, while the yield strengths were as high as 358, 350 and 346 MPa, respectively and the ultimate strengths as 462, 456 and 446 MPa, respectively. There is not much difference in the tensile properties of the 3 kinds of films. There is little difference in the fatigue properties of the 3 kinds of films but one of them has shorter fatigue life than others in high cycle region and longer fatigue life than others in low cycle region.

High cycle fatigue life prediction method for tail gearbox casing of a helicopter transmission system

A method and procedure of high cycle fatigue life prediction for helicopter transmission system tail gearbox casing is presented, including fatigue test load, three parameters S-N curve, reduction factor and cumulative damage law. According to the fatigue test results, the design load spectrum and the three parameters S-N curve, a fatigue life prediction of the tail gearbox casing of a helicopter is performed as an example.

High cycle fatigue behavior of the forged Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy

This paper investigated the high cycle fatigue behavior of a forged Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy with different stress concentration factor(Kt),under different stress ratio(R),and along different loading direction.The smooth specimen(Kt=1),under R=0.1 and along longitude direction,shows a high fatigue strength of 162 MPa at 107 cycles.The fatigue behavior of the forged Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy exhibits a high sensitive to the notch.Moreover,change of stress ratio from 0.1 to−1 may also result in a bad fatigue property.The flux inclusions were elongated along longitude direction and/or transverse direction during the forging process of the Mg-7Gd-5Y-1Nd-0.5Zr alloy.The interface between the flux inclusion and the matrix may debond and serve as the crack initiation site during the fatigue loading process,leading to the deterioration of the fatigue property along thickness direction and a high anisotropic fatigue behavior between longitude direction and thickness direction.

Low cycle fatigue behavior of high strength gun steels

The low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of two high strength steels, withnominal chemical compositions (mass fraction, %) of 0.40C-1.5Cr-3Ni-0.4Mo-0.2V (PCrNi3MoV) and0.25C-3Cr-3Mo-0.8Ni-0.1Nb (25Cr3Mo3NiNb), was investigated by using the smooth bar specimenssubjected to strained-controlled push-pull loading. It is found that both steels show cyclicsoftening, but 25Cr3Mo3NiNb steel has a lower tendency to cyclic softening. 25Cr3Mo3NiNb steel hashigher fatigue ductility, and its transition fatigue life is almost three times that of PCrNi3MoV.25Cr3Mo3NiNb steel also shows higher LCF life either at a given total strain amplitude above 0.5% orat any given plastic strain amplitude, despite its lower monotonic tensile strength than that ofPCrNi3MoV. It also means that 25Cr3Mo3NiNb steel can endure higher total strain amplitude andplastic strain amplitude at a given number of reversals to failure within 10~4. 25Cr3Mo3NiNb steelis expected to be a good gun steel with high LCF properties because only several thousand firingsare required for gun barrel in most cases.