Characterization of fretting fatigue crack initiation processes in CR Ti–6Al–4V

A study was conducted to quantify fretting fatigue damage and to evaluate the residual fatigue strength of specimens subjected to a range of fretting fatigue test conditions. Flat Ti–6Al–4V specimens were tested against flat Ti–6Al–4V fretting pads with blending radii at the edges of contact. Fretting fatigue damage for two combinations of static average clamping stress and applied axial stress was investigated for two percentages of total life. Accumulated damage was characterized using full field surface roughness evaluation and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of fretting fatigue on uniaxial fatigue strength was quantified by interrupting fretting fatigue tests, and conducting uniaxial residual fatigue strength tests at R=0.5 at 300 Hz. Results from the residual fatigue strength tests were correlated with characterization results.While surface roughness measurements, evaluated in terms of asperity height and asperity spacing, reflected changes in the specimen surfaces as a result of fretting fatigue cycling, those changes did not correspond to decreases in residual fatigue strength. Neither means of evaluating surface roughness was able to identify cracks observed during SEM characterization. Residual fatigue strength decreased only in the presence of fretting fatigue cracks with surface lengths of 150 μm or greater, regardless of contact condition or number of applied fretting fatigue cycles. No cracks were observed on specimens tested at the lower stress condition. Threshold stress intensity factors were calculated for cracks identified during SEM characterization. The resulting values were consistent with the threshold identified for naturally initiated cracks that were stress relieved to remove load history effects.     

Progression of fretting fatigue damage in Ti–6Al–4V

An investigation was conducted to explore the nature of fretting fatigue damage in the stages prior to crack formation. In the unique experimental apparatus employed in this study, where total slip never occurs, several locations on each test specimen exist where cracks can develop due to local contact conditions. Under the test conditions used, not all of the sites had cracks upon test completion. This study evaluated the condition of non-cracked sites on several fretted specimens in an effort to identify differences between these and sites where small cracks were observed.A single test condition of 620 MPa average applied static clamping stress and 250 MPa applied axial fatigue stress for R=0.5 was selected, which corresponds to a fretting fatigue life of 10⁷ cycles based on prior work. For specimens tested to 10⁶ cycles, or 10% of life, several destructive and non-destructive characterization methods were chosen: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), residual stress measurement and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Each site at which crack nucleation could be expected was inspected in the SEM and was then characterized using surface X-ray diffraction to quantify the residual stresses field near that location. Then TEM foils were cut from one area on a specimen with tiny cracks and dislocation densities were observed. A novel technique was used which permitted TEM samples to be obtained from regions in close proximity on the original specimen.Comparisons were made between as-received (AR) and stress-relief annealed (SRA) specimens, on which the stress-relief was applied prior to fretting fatigue testing. SEM inspection was useful for qualitative analysis of wear debris and identification of cracks as small as 20 μm, but was unable to provide quantitative data on the level of fretting fatigue damage beyond crack size. Although differences were noted in the residual stresses for the SRA versus the AR specimens, no residual stress peaks were noted in the edge of contact regions where cracks would eventually develop. TEM observations in the vicinity of the crack nucleation region showed that the dislocation structure decayed rapidly into the specimen thickness. The cause of the dislocations was attributed to plastic deformation caused by the clamping stresses.     

Response of Ti–6Al–4V and Ti–24Al–11Nb alloys to dry sliding wear against hardened steel

Titanium alloys have been of great interest in recent years because of their very attractive combination of high strength, low density and corrosion resistance. Application of these alloys in areas where wear resistance is also of importance calls for thorough investigations of their tribological properties. In this work, Ti–6Al–4V and Ti–24Al–11Nb alloys were subjected to dry sliding wear against hardened-steel counter bodies and their tribological response was investigated. A pin-on-disc type apparatus was used with a normal load of 15–45N and sliding speed of 1.88 ms⁻¹. In the steady state, it was demonstrated that Ti–24Al–11Nb had a substantially higher wear resistance (about 48 times) than that of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy tested under a normal load of 45 N. Severe delamination is found to be responsible for the low wear resistance of Ti-6Al-4V. In the case of Ti–24Al–11Nb, two wear mechanisms have been suggested: delamination with a lower degree of severity and oxidative wear. It is thought that the ability of Ti–24Al–11Nb to form a protective oxide layer during wear results in a much lower wear rate in this alloy.     

Fretting fatigue behaviour of Ti–6Al–4V alloy under plane bending stress and contact stress

Fretting fatigue tests for Ti–6Al–4 V alloy were conducted by use of the plate fatigue specimen with bolt-tightened shoe on both sides of the plate. It was clarified that the repeated bending stress at the contact area where fretting fatigue failure starts linearly decreased as stress over the contact area increased. Fretting fatigue crack starts from the pit where stress concentrate. The pit initiates when fretting debris were removed from the surface striation formed due to the contact slip movement. The fretting fatigue crack initiation mode was transgranular, while the fretting fatigue crack propagation mode was striation.     

Characterization of fretting wear behavior of Cu–Al coating on Ti–6Al–4V substrate

Fretting wear and fretting fatigue are two commonly observed material damages when two contacting bodies with a clamping load are under the oscillatory motion. In this study, fretting wear damage of Cu–Al coating on titanium alloy, Ti–6Al–4V substrate was investigated using the dissipated energy approach. Fretting tests were conducted with either no fatigue load or the maximum fatigue load of 300 MPa and stress ratio of 0.1 on the substrate (specimen). In order to investigate the effect of contact load and contact size, different pad sizes and contact loads were used in the tests. Accumulated dissipated energy versus wear volume data showed a linear relationship regardless of fatigue loading condition on specimen with the smaller pad size. However, two separate linear relationships were observed based on the fatigue loading condition with the larger pad size, such that a relatively more dissipated energy was required for a certain amount of wear with fatigue load on the specimen. The linear relationship between the accumulated dissipated energy and wear volume for both pad sizes extended from partial to gross slip regimes and was not affected by the applied contact load. Further, fretting tests with and without fatigue load resulted in different shapes of fretting loops when the larger pad size was used.     

Dry wear and friction behaviour of plasma nitrided Ti–6AL–4 V alloy after explosive shock treatment

The unlubricated wear behaviour of explosive shock treated and, subsequently plasma nitrided Ti–6Al–4 V alloy was studied using a ball-on-disc wear tester. Plasma nitriding was carried out at three different temperatures (700, 800 and 900 °C) for 3, 6, 9 and 12 h. Plasma nitriding after explosive shock treatment enabled a reduction in the wear rate of two orders of magnitude. Detailed investigations of this improved wear performance dependent on the nitriding temperature and time were carried out. The friction and wear data showed a clear breakthrough transition from the nitrided layer to the core of the Ti–6Al–4 V alloy matrix. The lowest wear volume was obtained for the sample, nitrided at 900 °C for 12 h, especially at loads of 2.5, 5 and 7.5 N. Obviously, the hard nitride layers were intimately associated with low wear rate, providing a smooth low friction surface. The coefficient of friction reduced from 0.46 to 0.2 due to a thick and hard compound layer resulting from a high nitrogen diffusion rate caused by explosive shock treatment that expected to increase point defects in the alloy. Detailed examination of the wear tracks showed that plasma nitriding changes the mechanism of wear from one of adhesion for untreated Ti–6Al–4 V to both delamination and mild abrasive.     

Effect of shot peening on the fretting wear of Ti–6Al–4V

In this paper, we report on the fretting wear behaviour of polished and shot peened Ti–6Al–4V specimens. For fretting experiments, due to micro-displacements at the interface between two contacting surfaces, two types of damage can be observed: crack initiation and debris formation. Shot peening, which is already well known for improving fatigue resistance of titanium alloys, is shown to have a beneficial effect on the crack initiation and propagation under fretting wear loading, as cracks observed on specimens after cylinder-on-flat fretting tests are shorter in shot peened specimens than in polished ones. It is also demonstrated that shot peening decreases the friction coefficient only at the beginning of the test, as long as the asperities induced by shot peening are not worn-off. The effects of displacement amplitude, normal force and test duration on the wear volume have been investigated: in all cases, shot peening has no significant impact on the wear process. The same amount of debris are formed and ejected for both polished and shot peened specimens. Moreover, it is found that, for both types of specimens, the linear relation, developed for steels and hard coatings, between wear volume and cumulated dissipated energy is not valid in the present case as different wear volumes are measured for the same cumulated dissipated energy, depending on the experimental conditions (normal force, displacement amplitude). Using the test duration as the variable parameter, energy wear coefficients are calculated for different experimental conditions.     

Wear resistance of Ti–6Al–4V alloy treated by means of glow-discharge and furnace treatments

The contemporary glow-discharge oxidising and nitriding treatment has shown to produce modified surface layers with enhanced hardness properties, in comparison with the conventional ion-nitriding process. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the tribological properties of ion-oxinitrided samples and to compare their wear behaviour with the one of furnace oxinitrided and ion-nitrided samples.

At low coupling loads (50 N) the wear volumes of the treated samples result small and comparable for all the tested velocities. On the other hand, when high coupling loads are used (100 N), the wear of the ion-nitrided samples is higher than that of the oxinitrided ones, this effect becoming more remarkable as sliding velocity increases; moreover, the ion-oxinitriding treatment allows to achieve lower wear volumes than the ones obtained by means of the furnace oxinitriding process.     

Effect of dissimilar metals on fretting fatigue behavior of Ti–6Al–4V

An investigation was conducted to explore fretting fatigue behavior of Ti–6Al–4V specimens in contact with pads of varying composition. Four conditions were selected to provide a range of compositions: Ti–6Al–4V (with two surface finishes), aluminum and nickel. Behavior against each pad condition was evaluated for two pad geometries (cylinder-on-flat, blended flat-on-flat) in two separate test fixtures. Experiments were conducted with varying applied fatigue stresses and contact forces. Applied clamping stresses for the flat-on-flat pads were 200 and 650 MPa. For the cylinder-on-flat geometry, forces were selected to provide Hertzian peak pressures of 292 and 441 MPa. The coefficient of friction, μ, was quantified and pad surfaces were characterized through hardness and composition evaluation. Finite element analyses of the test fixtures were conducted to assess variations in the stress fields.     

Influence of intergranular metallic nanoparticles on the fretting wear mechanisms of Fe–Cr–Al2O3 nanocomposites rubbing on Ti–6Al–4V

This paper presents a study concerning the influence of the amount of metallic nanoparticles on the wear behaviour of Fe_0.5–Cr_0.5–alumina nanocomposites rubbing on Ti–6Al–4V in fretting. Due to the elaboration process (metal–oxide nanopowder prepared by selective reduction in hydrogen of oxide solid solution and densified by spark plasma sintering), these materials generally own two sorts of nanoparticles: the intragranulars (size: ) located within the alumina grains and the intergranulars (size: ) located at the grain boundaries. This paper focuses on the role of each sort of nanoparticles with respect to the wear of the nanocomposite. Results show that the presence of intergranular nanoparticles is crucial for improving the wear resistance of nanocomposites whereas the intragranulars rather improve the mechanical properties of matrix grains. The lowest wear rate of the nanocomposite is obtained when the amount of intergranulars is about 3.5 wt%. Finally, the fretting wear mechanism of nanocomposites and the mechanism enabling to prevent it by using nanoparticles are both identified and discussed.     

Application of an energy wear approach to quantify fretting contact durability: Introduction of a wear energy capacity concept

A friction energy formalism is considered and adapted to formalize the fretting wear responses of adhesive wear and non-adhesive wear interfaces. It is shown that for non-adhesive wear tribocouples like hard coatings (TiN, TiC, etc.) the wear kinetics can be formalized using the accumulated friction dissipated energy. By contrast, adhesive wear contacts involving aluminium and titanium alloys display a critical dependance regarding the applied sliding amplitude. The wear kinetics of such systems is captured by considering a sliding reduced energy wear formulation. A combined composite energy wear formulation is then introduced to formalize the fretting wear response whatever the tribocouple behaviour. It is shown that a local approach, focusing on wear depth analysis, is required to predict interface durability. A FEM investigation demonstrates that the wear depth kinetics can be predicted by considering the accumulated energy density. It concludes that interface durability can be related to a single energy density capacity variable (χ) defined as the maximum accumulated energy density which can be dissipated in the interface before contact failure.     

Effect of dissimilar mating materials and contact force on fretting fatigue behavior of Ti–6Al–4V

Fretting fatigue behavior of a titanium alloy, Ti–6Al–4V, in contact with two pad materials having quite differing values of hardness and elastic modulus (aluminum alloy 2024 and Inconel 718) using “cylinder-on-flat” configuration was investigated at different applied stress levels and contact forces. Applied contact forces for both pad materials were selected to provide two Hertzian peak pressures of 292 and 441 MPa. Finite element analyses of all tests were also conducted which showed that an increase in contact force resulted in a smaller relative slip amplitude and a larger width of stick zone. These two factors, along with the lower coefficient of friction during fretting, resulted in less fretting damage on the contact surface of specimen subjected to higher contact force relative to that at lower contact force regardless of the hardness difference of mating materials. Also, an increase in hardness resulted in greater fretting damage on the contact surface of specimens only at higher contact force. Further, the fretting fatigue life decreased with an increase of applied contact force at higher applied effective stress, while it increased at lower applied effective stress with both pad materials. These observations suggest that there is complex interaction among hardness difference between mating surfaces, relative slip amplitude, and stress state in the contact region during fretting fatigue of dissimilar materials.     

A fracture mechanics life prediction methodology applied to dovetail fretting

This work evaluates a fracture mechanics based crack growth life prediction methodology for dovetail fretting fatigue laboratory experiments. The Ti–6Al–4V specimens were configured with angles of 35°, 45° and 55°. Experiments were conducted with constant amplitude loading at R of 0.1 and 0.5 with lives ranging from 100,000 to 10 million cycles. The approach included the contact loads and bulk stress calculated from the finite element method as inputs to the stress and life analysis. Contact stresses were calculated using the contact stress analysis software CAPRI. These stresses were input into a stress intensity factor calculation at the edge of contact. Crack propagation life was calculated from an assumed initial crack size. Analysis showed that propagation consumes a majority of the total life and is insensitive to a large range of initial crack sizes.     

Behavior of alloy Ti–6Al–4V under pre-fretting and subsequent fatigue conditions

The mechanical behavior and microstructural changes in Ti–6Al–4V were determined in fretting tests, followed by axial fatigue tests. Prior to fatigue testing, specimens were subjected to fretting conditions over a range of contact stresses and fretting displacements. Fretting frequency was 100 Hz. High cycle fatigue (HCF) tests were run at 1000 Hz. The fretting test involved a flat-on-flat, bare Ti–6Al–4V/bare Ti–6Al–4V fretting system. The fretting process typically generated very shallow surface cracks at the ends of the wear scar. Subsequently, these shallow cracks were observed to propagate in axial fatigue tests, reducing the fatigue life significantly. Evidence of frictional heating during fretting was observed in the formation of scale-like oxide in the wear scar. Formation of oxides appeared to increase with increasing contact stress. Increased oxygen content was detected in the near surface regions of specimens. Large near surface deformation was typically observed within the wear scar. The contact geometry and slight tilting of the stationary fretting pad influenced the character of the fretting scar and the fretting-induced cracking. Fracture surfaces exhibited featureless, battered surfaces at the crack origins followed by (a) cleavage-type crack propagation, (b) formation of fatigue striations, and (c) final ductile tearing.     

Unlubricated gross slip fretting wear of metallic plasma-sprayed coatings for Ti6Al4V surfaces

Plasma-sprayed Al–bronze or CuNiIn coatings are often applied to protect against fretting wear and extend the operational life of Ti-alloy compressor blades in turbine engines. In order to develop a fundamental understanding of how these coating systems perform under gross slip fretting conditions, bench level fretting wear tests were conducted at room temperature to simulate cold engine startup. Alternative coatings such as plasma-sprayed molybdenum and nickel were also evaluated because of their potential for reducing fretting wear under certain simulated engine conditions. The combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface profilometry, surface chemistry (EDS), and friction analysis were used to study coating performance and evaluate the interfacial wear mechanisms. In this study, it was determined that all coatings caused significant damage to the mating Ti6Al4V surfaces and that the wear mechanisms were all similar to those of the uncoated baseline case.     

The use of nickel graphite composite coatings for the mitigation of gross slip fretting wear on Ti6Al4V interfaces

In metallic contacts, surface oxides, adhesion, and material transfer play a primary role in the initial stages of fretting wear degradation. Given this behavior, the focus of this study was to mitigate fretting wear within Ti6Al4V contacts at room temperature and 450 °C with the use of thermally sprayed nickel graphite composite coatings with 5–20% graphite. The results show that the embedded graphite particles reduced the friction of the nickel thermal sprayed coatings during both low and high temperature fretting wear experiments. Friction and wear mechanisms are discussed with correlations of contact chemistry, morphology, and mechanical performance. Wear on the mated Ti6Al4V surfaces was reduced by the formation of uniform transfer films that were identified as graphitic based at room temperature and NiO based at 450 °C.     

Fretting behavior of shot peened Ti-6Al-4V under slip controlled mode

Fretting tests of shot peened Ti-6Al-4V were conducted under slip controlled mode using a dual actuator test setup which could apply an independent pad displacement at a given applied bulk stress. Fretting regime was identified based on the hysteresis loop of tangential force versus relative slip range and the evolution of tangential force. Fretting regime changed from partial slip to mixed slip and then to gross slip with increasing relative slip range, and the transition from mixed to gross slip occurred at a relative slip range of ∼50 μm regardless of the applied bulk stress magnitude for both shot peened and unpeened specimens. Fretting fatigue life initially decreased as the relative slip range increased and reached to a minimum value, and then increased with an increase of the relative slip range due to the transition in fretting regime from mixed slip to gross slip. Shot peened specimens had longer fatigue life than unpeened specimens at a given relative slip range, but the minimum fatigue life was at the same value of the relative slip range for both shot peened and unpeened specimens. The relationship between relative slip and fatigue life was also found to be independent of the applied bulk stress level. Further, tangential force was directly related to relative slip and this relationship was independent of other fretting variables.     

脂肪醇对Ti6Al4V/钢摩擦副摩擦磨损性能的影响

采用SRV型摩擦磨损试验机分别考察了Ti6Al4V/钢摩擦副在多种脂肪醇润滑下的摩擦磨损性能。结果表明,与液体石蜡相比,碳链长度小于碳8的脂肪醇作为Ti6Al4V/钢摩擦副的润滑剂表现出良好的润滑性能,其润滑机制是在Ti6Al4V磨损表面形成吸附膜。载荷和频率明显影响Ti6Al4V/钢摩擦副在脂肪醇润滑下的摩擦磨损行为和摩擦磨损机制:当载荷较小时,Ti6Al4V磨损表面主要发生轻微的擦伤;随着载荷增加,Ti6Al4V磨损表面擦伤严重并在更高载荷下发生较为严重犁沟和塑性变形。     

The effect of temperature on gross slip fretting wear of cold-sprayed nickel coatings on Ti6Al4V interfaces

Fretting wear is an accumulation of damage that occurs at component interfaces that are subjected to high contact stresses coupled with low-amplitude oscillation. In metallic contacts, surface oxides, adhesion, and material transfer play a primary role in the initial stages of fretting wear degradation. Given these behaviors, the focus of this study was to determine the effect of temperature on inter-metallic fretting wear between Ti6Al4V (titanium, 6% aluminum, 4% vanadium) and cold-sprayed, commercially pure nickel coatings. The results presented herein show that increased temperature decreases friction through the formation of a uniform NiO layer, and by a reduction of Ni₂O₃ in contacts. In addition, it was found that a localized minimum friction coefficient is achieved at approximately 300 °C, above which friction increases slightly due to annealing of the cold-sprayed coatings.