Papers by Keyword: Very High Cycle Fatigue

Abstract: The bimodal, equiaxed and Widmanstatten microstructures of TC4 titanium alloy were obtained through different heat treatment processes. The content of primary α phase in the bimodal and equiaxed microstructures was measured to be about 40% and 90%, and the average size was about 9.4μm and 7.9 μm. Three types of microstructure fatigue S-N curves are obtained, which are successively descending type, single-platform descending type and infinite life type. The order of very high cycle fatigue performance is Widmanstatten>equiaxed>bimodal, but the anti-fretting fatigue performance of Widmanstatten is the worst. The grain refinement makes the fatigue performance of the equiaxed better than that of the bimodal. The second process is determined as the best heat treatment method. There is no significant difference in the life of the crack propagation stage. The very high cycle fatigue life mainly depends on the crack initiation stage. In the bimodal and the equiaxed, the crack initiates in the primary α phase of the subsurface, and the crack in the Widmanstatten initiates in the coarse α 'grain boundary of the subsurface.

Abstract: The studies showed that as a result of radial-shear rolling (RSR) in the temperature range of 850-650°C the formation of a quasi-globular ultrafine grain-subgrain structure with a size of structural elements of about 0.5-0.7 μm is observed in near β titanium alloy Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-1Cr-1Fe. Subsequent annealing (aging) in the temperature range of 450°C for 5 hours leads to the decomposition of the β-phase matrix deformed during the rolling process with the formation of nanosized acicular precipitates of the martensitic α" phase along with finely dispersed inclusions of α phase particles preserved after rolling. The formation of such ultrafine-grained (UFG) structure leads to a significant (more than 25%) increase in the strength properties of the alloy compared to the initial state while maintaining sufficient ductility (~5%). Also obtained by the method UFG titanium alloy exhibits a high fatigue strength under very high cycle loading (fatigue strength based on 10⁸ cycles exceeds 700 MPa).

Abstract: β-titanium alloy has been developed recently because β-titanium alloy has better cold workability, proof stress, and tensile strength. In order to use β-titanium alloy for automobile parts subject to cyclic loading, very high cycle fatigue properties of β-titanium alloy should be investigated. In this study, very high cycle fatigue properties of β-titanium alloy Ti-22V-4Al were evaluated by using an ultrasonic fatigue testing method, which allows us to reduce a fatigue testing period to 1/100 − 1/1000 of that by using conventional testing methods. An S-N diagram and fracture morphology of Ti-22V-4Al in the very high cycle region were investigated. Fatigue failure was observed and subsurface fracture occurred in the very high cycle region.

Abstract: The fatigue life forming fine granular area (FGA) is expected to occupy a large fraction of the total fatigue life. In order to examine the commencing time of the FGA forming and estimate the fatigue limit in the interior inclusion induced fracture mode, rotating bending fatigue tests were carried out by using SUJ2 specimens with and without the hydrogen charge. Especially, the hydrogen charge time was set in the wide variety of the cyclic loadings to confirm the FGA forming process supposing the effect of the hydrogen charge on the fatigue crack propagation behavior. From experimental and analytical results, it is concluded that the FGA formation is already started at early stage as 5 % of the fatigue life. Another finding is that we have a clear correlation between the stress intensity factor range and the FGA growth ratio. Based on this aspect, the critical value of the stress intensity factor range in which the FGA is not formed around the inclusion was given as 2.65 MPa.

Abstract: This paper aims at a deeper understanding of microplastic mechanisms leading to crack initiation in ductile metals in Very High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF). Fatigue tests were conducted using an ultrasonic technique at loading frequency of 20 kHz. The microplastic mechanisms are revealed via observations of slip markings at the specimen surface and self-heating measurements due to intrinsic dissipation. Pure copper and Armco iron (which contains a very low amount of carbon) were investigated. Both are single-phase ductile materials but the crystallographic structure of copper is face-centered cubic while it is body centered cubic for Armco iron. A good correlation was found between slip markings initiation and dissipation for both materials. The dissipation for both materials is of the same order of magnitude but the location, the morphology and the evolution over cycles of slip markings were found different.

Abstract: In order to investigate very high cycle fatigue properties of Zr₅₅Al₁₀Ni₅Cu₃₀ bulk amorphous alloy, rotating bending fatigue tests were conducted at room temperature by using 5 different series of Zr₅₅Al₁₀Ni₅Cu₃₀ alloy. The differences of material processing conditions are manufacturer, product year, material size and minimum diameter of specimen. Although all specimens fractured from surface, duplex S-N characteristics were observed for each series of the material. Time strength distributions at N=10⁴ for short life region and at N=10⁷ for long life region were well approximated by normal distribution. The entire S-N property accepting the normalized stress amplitude by the time strength at N=10⁴ or N=10⁷ has shown more clearly duplex S-N characteristics. In addition, P-S-N properties were also estimated from the standard deviation of time strength distributions at N=10⁴ or N=10⁷. Based on the observation of fracture surface by scanning electron microscope (SEM), it is confirmed that every fracture surface was consisting of typical three regions such as multi-facet region, stable crack growth region and instantaneous fracture region.

Abstract: In order to investigate the interior-induced fatigue crack propagation behavior of high cleanliness valve spring steel (JIS SWOSC-V), rotating bending fatigue tests were performed for various kinds of specimens with different hardness or surface finishings. The harder specimen with higher compressive residual stress showed longer fatigue life. The electrochemical polished specimen pre-treated with shot peening showed almost same fatigue life as the shot-peened specimen in spite of the difference in surface roughness. After fatigue tests, fracture surfaces were observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to evaluate the fatigue fracture mechanism. Most specimens failed in surface-induced fracture mode due to high cleanliness; however, some specimens failed in interior-induced fracture mode in the very high cycle regime. Although non-metallic inclusions were not observed at interior fatigue crack initiation sites, 2 types of significant microstructures (with smooth surface or granular surface) were observed. EBSD analysis, profile analysis and computational simulation using a fracture surface topographic analysis (FRASTA) method were performed to investigate the mechanism of the interior-induced fatigue fracture caused by the microstructure at defect without any inclusion.

Abstract: Fatigue tests were carried out at the stress ratio R = -1 using a 20 kHz ultrasonic testing facility to investigate the effects of low temperature nitriding on the fatigue properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regime in detail. The oscillation and fatigue behavior of the nitrided Ti-alloy were characterized by measuring parameters like the ultrasonic generator power, the displacement of the specimens and dissipated energy under ultrasonic cyclic load. Moreover, the surface microstructure of the nitrided Ti-alloy was characterized using a micro-Vickers hardness tester, an optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction technique (EBSD) to clarify the fatigue fracture mechanism. The Ti-alloy nitrided at the temperature of 873 K showed duplex S-N properties consisting of the respective fracture modes of the surface fracture and the subsurface fracture. The low temperature nitriding reduced the surface fatigue life of Ti-alloy in comparison to the un-nitrided one due to the formation of a brittle titanium nitride (T_i2N), whereas the subsurface fatigue life in the VHCF regime was increased by the low temperature nitriding. In addition, the fatigue fracture mechanisms of the low temperature nitrided Ti-alloy were discussed from viewpoints of fractography and fracture mechanics.

Abstract: As a joint project of Committees on Fatigue and Reliability Engineering in the Society of Materials Science, Japan (JSMS), an electronic database on fatigue strength of metallic materials fabricated in Japan had been constructed and published in 1996. Book style of the same data compilation had been published at the same time by the JSMS and Elsevier. About twenty years have passed since the above publications of database and databook. Thus, a lot of new fatigue test data have been obtained during such a long period including many data on the very high cycle fatigue such as gigacycle regime. Based on such a circumstance, the JSMS has organized a new project to construct an electronic database on very high cycle fatigue. A lot of numerical data obtained by fatigue tests would be compiled together with many photographs of fracture surfaces. In this paper, fundamental view and compilation concept of the database are briefly introduced by showing a typical example of proto-type database constructed from domestic data in Japan.

Abstract: In the fabrication process of medicine tablets, working speed of the tablet compressing is an important factor to realize the high fabricating efficiency together with the low cost. Thus, a number of loadings would be applied with very high frequency to tips of a couple of compressing punches. Sometimes, the tablet compressing speed exceeds 150 tablets per second. Due to such a circumstance, the very high cycle loadings are applied to the tips of the compressing punches making medicine tablets. The high strength steel of KNS-ES was specially designed and fabricated for the particular use as the compressing punches. In this study, very high cycle fatigue tests were performed in the loading type of rotating bending in order to obtain the fundamental S-N property of this steel. Based on experimental results, the S-N property in giga-cycle regime was discussed including the effect of the residual stress on the S-N properties. Consequently, the duplex S-N curves were clearly found, but the surface-induced fractures were often found in the fatigue data belonging to the second S-N curve in the longer life region.