Effect of plastic surface deformation on the kinetics of failure of high-strength steel in low-cycle fatigue

1.	Ultrasonic strain-hardening of high-strength steel 35KhN2MFA increases its low cycle impact fatigue resistance at the stages of fatigue crack nucleation and propagation.
2.	The lower the level of cyclic stresses is, the greater is the degree to which the increase of endurance of steel after USSH in impact bending is determined by the decrease of the fatigue crack growth rate.
3.	Plastic surface deformation of high-strength steel increases considerably the length of the period of slow fatigue crack growth and has practically no effect on the length of the period of accelerated fatigue crack growth.

Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. 3, pp. 25–28, March, 1988.