Effects of structure and defect on fatigue limit in high strength ductile irons

In this paper, the influence of several factors such as hardness, internal defect and non-propagating crack on fatigue limits was investigated with three kinds of ductile iron specimens. From the experimental results the fatigue limits were examined in relation with hardness and tensile strength in case of high strength specimens under austempering treatment; in consequence the marked improvement of fatigue limits were not showed. The maximum defect size was an important factor to predict and to evaluate the fatigue limits of ductile irons. And, the quantitative relationship between the fatigue limits (σ _w ) and the maximum defect sizes ( $\sqrt {area} _{\max } $ ) was expressed as $\sigma _w ^n \cdot \sqrt {area} _{\max } = C_2 $ . Also, it was possible to explain the difference for the fatigue limits in three ductile irons by introduction of the non-propagating crack rates.