Papers by Keyword: Crack Initiation

Abstract: The short fatigue crack initiation of LZ50 axle steel for railway vehicles was investigated by numerical simulation in this paper. The microstructure of LZ50 steel was constructed with the application of 2D Voronoi tessellation. The stress and strain distributions in the microstructure were obtained by FEM under the boundary condition shifted from loading level applied in fatigue specimen of this steel. Finally, the probability of short fatigue crack initiation was given with different loading cycles to illustrate the process of crack initiation of LZ50 steel under the given loading cycles based on the S-N curve of the material. The further work on the research of crack growth and collective evolution of short fatigue cracks can be conducted with the simulated results of crack initiation in the microstructure of LZ50 steel.

Abstract: Atomistic simulations using molecular dynamics (MD) method are conducted to check the conditions of the onset of fracture at the interface edges with a variety of angles. The simulations are facilitated with model bi-material systems interacting with Morse pair potentials. Three simulation models are considered, i.e. the interface edges with angles 45°, 90° and 135°, respectively. The simulation results show that, at the instant of crack initiation, the maximum stresses along the interfaces reach the ideal strength of the interface; also, the interface energies just decrease to below the value of the intrinsic cohesive energy of the interface. And the onset of fracture at the interface edges with different geometries is controlled by the maximum stresses or the cohesive interfacial energy.

Abstract: In the present study, fatigue experiments were conducted using two kinds of extruded magnesium alloys with different extrusion ratios. Effect of the extrusion ratio on fatigue lives and crack propagation behavior was studied in detail. There was no dramatic effect of the extrusion ratio on fatigue life, fatigue limit and crack propagation behavior.

Abstract: Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) properties of high-pressure die cast Magnesium alloy AZ91HP have been investigated. Ultrasonic fatigue tests up to 109 cycles were conducted at the loading frequency of 20 kHz, under R=-1 condition and in ambient air. The experimental results show that specimens fail even after 107 cycles although the scatter seems to be large probably due to the presence of materials defects. However, there seems to be a fatigue limit at about 109 cycles. The fractures contain typical brittle features, with the fatigue cracks seen to initiate from the porosity in the material, either from the surface or beneath.

Abstract: This study is developed to investigate the effect of monotonic plastic deformation on the torsional fatigue properties of a structural steel. Five different kinds of tensile pre-strain, 2%, 5%, 8%, 12% and 22%, were applied to the specimens, respectively. And the maximum pre-strain value is near to the necking strain of the test material. The effects of tensile pre-strain on surface hardness, fatigue crack initiation and propagation behaviors, and the behavior of non-propagating cracks. The main results obtained are: The fatigue limits are 145, 160,175, 200 and 215MPa for specimens with tensile pre-strain of 2% 5%, 8%, 12% and 22%, which are improved to 104%, 114%, 125%, 143% and 153% of the fatigue limit for non-pre-strained specimens, respectively. The torsional fatigue limit increases with the tensile pre-strain increasing, until the pre-strain value being near to the necking strain ratio. However, the fatigue limit increase becomes more slowly for high tensile pre-strained specimens than the lower ones. The fatigue cracks of the tensile pre-strained specimens initiated earlier than that of the non-pre-strained specimens, and the propagation is also accelerated, but there is no effect on the fatigue crack initiation point and the branch point. Non-propagating crack length becomes shorter with increasing of tensile pre-strain until the value near the necking strain, and the quantity of non-propagating crack increases at the same time.

Abstract: Recent observations relevant to the early stages of the fatigue damage of crystalline materials are reviewed. Experimental evidence on the localization of the cyclic plastic strain and on the surface relief formation in cyclic loading of 316L austenitic stainless steel is presented. The focused ion beam is used for exposing three-dimensional evidence of persistent slip markings (PSMs). PSMs consist of extrusions and parallel or alternating intrusions which develop during cyclic loading. Monte Carlo simulations of vacancy generation within persistent slip band (PSB) and their migration to the matrix where they annihilate on the edge dislocations are used to simulate the growth of extrusions and intrusions. The results of the simulations are compared with experimental data and discussed in terms vacancy models of fatigue crack initiation.

Abstract: Under fatigue loading, the number of cycles to failure and its associated scatter increase when the loading level decreases. The High-Cycle Fatigue (HCF) regime is thus characterized by a large scatter in the number of cycles to failure [1]. Cracks initiation represents an important part of the lifetime of the structures. A stochastic method is used to study the fatigue crack initiation prediction in the 316L austenitic stainless steel. The present work proposes to show that this scatter can be attributed to the random orientation of individual grains, which influences the crack initiation localization. The stresses in grains are determined by finite element computations (FEM [2]), using a configuration representative of a polycrystalline aggregate. This approach takes into account the crystallographic orientations of the grains in the aggregate as well as the deformation incompatibilities between neighbouring grains due to crystalline anisotropic elasticity and elasticplasticity [3]. Then, the scatter of the number of cycles to crack initiation is derived from the FEM stress fields using two fatigue crack initiation criteria: an usual one, Mura’s criterion [4] and a more recent one [5], based on Discrete Dislocation Dynamics (DDD) simulations and taking into account plastic slips, cross slip and stress tensor components.

Abstract: In this work, the formation of fatigue cracks is considered as a nucleation process due to the development of a characteristic microstructure formed just beneath the specimen surface. Strain controlled cyclic tests were carried out at room temperature at total strain ranges εt = 0.8 and 1.2% in flat specimens of SAF 2507 Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS). The results show that for this DSS, at εt = 0.8%, the correlation between phases (Kurdjumov-Sacks crystallographic relation) plays an important role in the formation of microcracks. On the other hand, at εt = 1.2%, microcracks initiate in the ferritic phase and the K-S relation does not seem to affect the formation of the cracks.

Abstract: The fatigue behaviour of newly developed Mg2Si-dispersed magnesium (Mg) alloys produced by solid-state synthesis was studied. Rotary bending fatigue tests have been performed using smooth specimens of materials produced with fine and coarse AZ31 alloy powders. Both Mg2Si-dispersed Mg alloys exhibited lower fatigue strength than a conventional extruded AZ31 alloy and the powder size dependence of fatigue strength was clearly recognized, where the material produced with fine alloy powder showed considerably higher fatigue strength than the counterpart. Fatigue cracks invariably initiated at large Mg2Si particles immediately after cyclic loading was applied and subsequent small crack growth was faster than the extruded AZ31 alloy. It was concluded that the lower fatigue strength of Mg2Si-dispersed Mg alloys was attributed to premature crack initiation at Mg2Si particles and faster small crack growth, and the observed powder size dependence of fatigue strength was due to difference in the size of the particle from which the crack initiated.

Abstract: This paper describes the fatigue behaviour at elevated temperatures in a ferritic stainless steel, type 444. Test temperatures evaluated were ambient temperature, 673K and 773K in laboratory air. Fatigue strength decreased at elevated temperatures compared with at ambient temperature. At all temperatures, cracks were generated at the specimen surface due to cyclic slip deformation, but fractographic analysis revealed a brittle features in fracture surface near the crack initiation site at elevated temperatures. Cracks initiated earlier at elevated temperatures than at ambient temperature and subsequent small cracks grew faster at elevated temperatures even though the difference in elastic modulus was taken into account, indicating the decrease in crack initiation resistance and crack growth resistance. The observed decrease in both resistances was discussed in relation to the 748K(475
C) embrittlement in ferritic stainless steels.