Effect of prestress on low-cycle fatigue

An investigation was conducted on HY-80 steel to show how low-cycle fatigue life is influenced by imposition of various stresses prior to fatigue testing. One cycle of static prestress was imposed on each specimen at loads either above or below the yield strength of the material and fatigue testing was done at various levels of stresses. Tests were conducted on notched and tee-fillet welded beam specimens. The magnitude and type of residual stresses at the toe of tee-fillet welds were determined by a hole drilling technique. Experimental data show that residual stresses induced by prestressing can—according to their sign—influence fatigue life. It was observed in the notched beam tests that when stress cycling was performed at stress levels below the yield strength of the material, tensile prestress increased fatigue life and that the higher the prestress, the greater the increase in life. At stress levels above the yield strength, tensile prestress has little or no effect on fatigue life. Compressive prestresses were found to be detrimental to fatigue life regardless of the stress levels at which the fatigue tests were run. The effects of prestress on the tee-weldments were not delinated as clearly. Fatigue life was increased by tensile prestress but no adverse effects were observed for compressive prestress.     

Effect of pre-existing substructures on the fatigue properties of pure aluminium

Pure aluminium was thermomechanically treated (cold rolled to 80% reduction of thickness and annealed at 200° C for various lengths of time) in order to obtain different kinds of substructures. These aluminium specimens were then fatigued with a stress amplitude of 9×10³ psi or 90% of their ultimate tensile strength. The substructures of the specimens before and after fatigue were compared with each other and were then correlated to their fatigue property. The size and shape of substructure introduced by fatigue depend on the pre-existing substructure formed by thermomechanical treatment. The sub-boundaries of the fatigued specimen are not as well-defined as the pre-existing subgrain. The substructure size of the fatigued specimen increases initially with annealing time and then reaches a saturation value (2.32 m) when the annealing time is longer than 2 h. A peak value of fatigue life against the annealing time was found if the stress amplitude of fatigue is 90% of the ultimate tensile strength. The peak value also occurs at an annealing time of 2 h. The reason why the specimen annealed for 2 h possesses the optimum fatigue and property is discussed in terms of the substructures before and after fatigue.     

Grip for fatigue testing pure aluminium

A simple method of clamping pure aluminium for fatigue tests at cryogenic temperatures is described. Easily machined cylindrical specimens are aligned and held firmly by collet grips that counteract sample shrinkage during cooldown. Specimens are quickly mounted and removed after testing without distortion or thermal treatment 99.999% aluminium, aluminium alloys and copper were gripped successfully through tens of thousands of fully reversed tension-compression cycles at 295, 77 and 4.2 K.     

Effect of surface-strain-hardening treatment on the low-cycle fatigue of a magnesium alloy

Strength of Materials -     

Effect of Sc addition on low-cycle fatigue properties of extruded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr alloy

ABSTRACT

The influence of minor Sc addition on the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) properties of hot-extruded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr alloy with T6 state was investigated through performing the LCF tests at room temperature and air environment. The results indicate that two alloys show cyclic stabilisation, cyclic hardening and cyclic softening during fatigue deformation. The addition of Sc can significantly enhance the cyclic stress amplitude of the alloy. Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Sc alloy shows higher fatigue lives at lower strain amplitudes, while has lower fatigue lives at higher strain amplitudes. For the two alloys, the density and movability of dislocations are related to the change of cyclic stress amplitudes. The existence of Al₃(Sc,Zr) phase can inhibit the appearance of cyclic softening phenomenon in the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Sc alloy.     

Effect of α-phase morphology on low-cycle fatigue behavior of TC21 alloy

Low-cycle fatigue behavior of TC21 alloy with equiaxed α phase embedded in the β transformed matrix (EM) and full lamellar α phase (LM) was investigated. The results show that the EM microstructure possesses higher strength, ductility and longer fatigue life than those of the LM one. Dislocation structures are straight dislocation lines in both EM and LM; however, more dislocation tangles and debris were observed in the α than in the β phase. The planar slip predominates cyclic deformation in the α phase, and promotes strain concentration and crack initiation at α phase boundaries.     

A low-cycle fatigue approach to fatigue crack propagation

The damage accumulation hypothesis is used to derive a fatigue crack growth rate equation. The fatigue life of a volume element inside the plastic zone is evaluated by using low-cycle fatigue concepts. Crack growth rate is expressed as a function of cyclic material parameters and plastic zone characteristics. For a given material, crack growth increment, is predicted to be a fraction of the plastic zone size which can be expressed in terms of fracture mechanics parameters,K andJ. Hence, the proposed growth rate equation has a predictive capacity and is not limited to linear elastic conditions.