Influence of Loading Frequency on Fatigue Behavior of High Strength Steel

In order to investigate the influence of loading frequency on the fatigue behaviors of the high strength steel, ultrasonic fatigue tests were carried out for a high-carbon-chromium steel and the results were compared with those of fatigue tests using conventional rotary bending fatigue test machine with a frequency of 52.5Hz. The different of fatigue strength at ultrasonic frequency level and conventional frequency level is very small and the S-N curve obtained from 20 kHz or 52.5 Hz shows the step-wise shape. The fatigue crack occurred from inclusions on the subsurface site in the long life regime and the typical surface fracture occurred in the short life one though the loading frequency level is different. It is indicated that ultrasonic fatigue method is an effective method to investigate the fatigue properties in super-long life region.