Papers by Keyword: VHCF

Abstract: Structural aircraft components are often subjected to more than 108 loading cycles during their service life. Therefore the increasing use of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) as primary lightweight structural materials leads to the demand of a precise knowledge of the fatigue behavior and the corresponding failure mechanisms in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) range. To realise fatigue investigations for more than 108 loading cycles in an economic reasonable time a novel ultrasonic fatigue testing facility (UTF) for cyclic three-point bending was developed and patented. To avoid critical internal heating due to viscoelastic damping and internal friction, the fatigue testing at 20 kHz is performed in resonance as well as in pulse-pause control resulting in an effective testing frequency of ~1 kHz and the capability of performing 109 loading cycles in less than twelve days. The fatigue behavior of carbon fiber twill 2/2 fabric reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (CF-PPS) and carbon fiber 4-H satin fabric reinforced epoxy resin (CF-EP) was investigated. To study the induced fatigue damage of CF-PPS and CF-EP in the VHCF regime in detail, the fatigue mechanisms and damage development were characterized by light optical and SEM investigations during interruptions of constant amplitude tests (CAT). Lifetime-oriented investigations showed a significant decrease of the bearable stress amplitudes of CF-PPS and CFEP in the range between 106 to 109 loading cycles. The ultrasonically fatigued thermoset matrix composite showed a significantly different VHCF behavior in comparison to the investigated thermoplastic matrix composite: No fiber-matrix debonding or transversal cracks were present on the specimen edges, but a sudden specimen failure along with carbon fiber breakage have been observed. The fatigue shear strength at 109 cycles for CF-PPS could be determined to τa, 13 = 4.2 MPa and to τa, 13 = 15.8 MPa for the thermoset material CF-EP.

Abstract: The continuous enhancement of reliability and durability requirements for many machinery components is significantly pushing the experimental research on the Very-High-Cycle Fatigue (VHCF) response of metallic materials. In order to significantly reduce testing time, ultrasonic testing machines are widely adopted when carrying out VHCF tests. Several fundamental material properties can be estimated from the fracture surfaces of specimens failed during ultrasonic VHCF tests. In the VHCF literature the critical Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) is generally estimated by applying analytical SIF formulations to the typical semi-circular surface crack geometry revealed by fracture surfaces at final failure. However, when subjected to ultrasonic VHCF tests, analytical SIF formulations valid for static loading conditions could eventually lead to significant estimation errors. The present paper aims at comparing the critical SIF at failure estimated from conventional analytical formulations and from Finite Element Models (FEMs). The fracture surfaces of two specimens with different shapes (Hourglass and Gaussian) are taken into account for modeling crack geometry at final failure. Through an implicit solving procedure, the critical SIF in resonance condition at 20 kHz is computed from the 3D geometry of the cracked specimens and compared with the corresponding analytical prediction.

Abstract: The top 10 most influential articles in Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) have been indentified from web of science data. The attributes of the top 10 papers have been discussed. It was found that specialty area of fatigue called as “VHCF” is an emerging field. The most cited papers discussed the two the fatigue crack mechanism in fatigue. It was found that crack initiation shifts from surface to subsurface if the material beyond 10⁷ cycles. There are some models which can predict the fatigue life of the material however the exact estimation is still challenging. Hence, it was found that still further efforts are required in the field to accurately understand the VHCF behavior.

Abstract: The most influential articles in Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) during last 20 years have been identified from web of science data. It has been found that VHCF is an important category of fatigue damage and has produced the highest impact in the field. The number of articles and their citations is continuously increasing in the overall published papers in the field of fatigue. In VHCF field, it was found that the participants of VHCF conferences from VHCF 1 to 5 are the main contributors in all the VHCF papers and in its top 100 influential papers. Majority of the articles were experimental studies. The fatigue crack initiation in the VHCF domain is considered the most important area in the field. In VHCF, the most influential papers till date have been identified. This may prove helpful to trainees mastering the most influential literature of the field as well as more established professionals searching for starting points for new investigations

Abstract: Very high cycle fatigue is often implemented with high test frequency to save time. The thermal dissipation accompanied with the high frequency appears and induces the temperature increment in the speicmen’s surface. The dissipation power is important and closely related with VHCF performance. The infrared camera is used to acquire the temperature distribution and evolution with a lot noisy which bring difficulties for the calculation. In the article, a thermal dissipation power calculation with time and space filtering method is proposed to give out the thermal dissipation. The two stages dissipation phenomenon with large difference is found out in the process of VHCF test.

Abstract: Low-pressure steam turbine blades undergo VHCF-loadings induced by inhomogenous flow behind the vanes resulting in excitation frequencies of ≈ 2 kHz for rotational speeds of 50 Hz and a typical number of stator vanes of ≈ 60. The VHCF loading is superimposed by considerable mean stresses caused by centrifugal forces. In the present study, the VHCF-behavior of the ferritic-martensitic turbine blade steel X10CrNiMoV12-2-2 is investigated using an ultrasonic fatigue testing system up to cycle numbers of 5∙10⁹ at stress ratios from R = -1 up to 0.7, i.e. up to very high mean stresses. Generally, crack initiation changes from the surface to internal inclusions at fatigue lives around 4∙10⁷. The transition between fatigue failure and run-outs is shifted to higher lifetime with increasing R, and fine grained areas (FGAs) at the crack initiation sites only occur at R < -0.1. However, the fracture mechanics approach proposed by Murakami consistently describes the lifetime behavior for all load ratios over 4 decades of lifetime. At R up from 0.5 considerable cyclic creep occurs, even for lifetimes above 10⁸ cycles, resulting in cyclic hardening which was proved by microhardness measurements at longitudinal sections. This effect at least partially explains the high maximum stresses close to the tensile strength of the material occurring in the VHCF regime at load ratios ≥ 0.5.

Abstract: The experimental observation of the microstructural deformation behavior of a metastable austenitic stainless steel tested at the real VHCF limit indicates that plastic deformation is localized and accumulated in shear bands and martensite formation occurs at grain boundaries and intersecting shear bands. Based on these observations a microstructure-sensitive model is proposed that accounts for the accumulation of plastic deformation in shear bands (allowing irreversible plastic sliding deformation) and considers nucleation and growth of deformation-induced martensite at intersecting shear bands. The model is numerically solved using the two-dimensional (2-D) boundary element method. By using this method, real simulated 2-D microstructures can be reproduced and the microstructural deformation behavior can be investigated within the microstructural morphology. Results show that simulation of shear band evolution is in good agreement with experimental observations and that prediction of sites of deformation-induced martensite formation is possible in many cases. The analysis of simulated shear stresses in most critical slip systems under the influence of plastic deformation due to microstructural changes contributes to a better understanding of the interaction of plastic deformation in shear bands with deformation-induced martensitic phase transformation in the VHCF regime.

Abstract: High frequency fatigue tests were carried out with a 20 kHz ultrasonic testing facility to investigate the cyclic deformation behavior of Ti6Al4V in the Very High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF) regime in detail. The S,N_f -curve at the stress ratio R = -1 shows a significant decrease of the stress amplitude and a change from surface to subsurface failures in the VHCF regime for more than 10⁷ cycles. Microscopic investigations of the distribution of the α-and β-phase of Ti6Al4V indicate that inhomogeneities in the phase distribution are reasons for the internal crack initiation. Scanning electron microscopy as well as light microscopy were used to investigate the internal crack initiation phenomenon in the VHCF-regime. Beside the primary fatigue crack additional defects like micro cracks and crack clusters were observed in the fatigued specimens. SEM-investigations of specimens which were loaded up to 10¹⁰ cycles without failure show irreversible microstructural changes inside the specimens. Two step tests were performed to evaluate the influence of internal fatigue induced defects observed in specimens which did not fail within 10¹⁰ cycles.

Abstract: High frequency push-pull fatigue experiments on the austenitic-ferritic duplex stainless steel X2CrNiMoN22-5-3 (318LN) revealed that crack nucleation and crack propagation through the first grain determine significantly the lifetime of the material. Only in very few cases it was observed that fatigue samples which endured one billion load cycles without failure (run-out samples) contain microcracks which reached or overcame the first microstructural barrier (phase or grain boundary). This leads to the conclusion that in most cases the highest macroscopic stress or strain amplitude which does not lead to fatigue crack propagation through the entire first grain can be considered as the fatigue limit of the material. The present study documents that the experimentally identified fatigue mechanisms can be represented in mesoscopic finite element simulations by taking into account the effects of anisotropic elasticity, crystal plasticity, macro and micro residual stresses, plastic strain concentration in form of slip bands, crack nucleation and short crack propagation through the first grain. The current investigation shows that such simulations enable the determination of the fatigue limit of both real and synthetic microstructures. By means of real microstructures, containing slip traces and microcracks, the calculations can be verified and the required microstructural parameters can be determined.

Abstract: The cyclic load number of aero-engine blade during its service life is very likely beyond 107, which is regarded as the conventional fatigue limit. Moreover, surface strengthening is very often used in the manufacturing process of blade. The conventional testing method in the VHCF regime cannot exactly reflect the stress state of the blade, including the mechanism of crack initiation. To study the fatigue behavior and effects of laser shock peening, a kind of bending fatigue subcomponent specimen was designed and the laser shock peening model was established. Experiment about TC17 was accomplished by the Ulra-High Cycle bending fatigue system. It is found that the fatigue damage occurs beneath the surface and the S-N curve is continuously rather than multi-step declining in the VHCF regime. Process of surface strengthening has a significant effect on fatigue performance of TC17 titanium alloy.