J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.25 No.

5, 2009

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Eect of Varying Carbon Content and Shot Peening upon Fatigue Performance of Prealloyed Sintered Steels
R. Bidulsk1) , M. Actis-Grande1) , M. Kabtov2) and J. Bidulsk3) y a a a
1) Politecnico Torino, Alessandria Campus, V. T. Michel, 5, Alessandria 15000, Italy 2) Institute of Materials Research, SAS, Watsonova 47, Koice, 04011, Slovakia s 3) Technical University of Koice, Faculty of Metallurgy, Letn9, Koice 04200, Slovakia s a s
[Manuscript received July 21, 2008, in revised form January 8, 2009]

The aim of the work was to nd out how the modication of surface treatment and microstructures aect the fatigue characteristics of the considered sintered materials. Two dierent systems were prepared: as-sintered and shot peened prealloyed sintered (Astaloy CrL based) steels with addition of 0.5% and 0.7% C. Sintering was carried out in laboratory tube furnace in an atmosphere of pure gases 75%N2 +25%H2 . The sintering temperature was 1180 C and sintering time was 60 min. Heating and cooling rates were 10 C/min. Fatigue tests were carried out in symmetric plane bending at stress ratio R=1 with frequency of about 24 Hz. The presented experimental results showed that prealloyed water-atomised steels, with surface modication, exhibit positive eects on the fatigue failure resistance, and for that reason are suitable for high-performance applications. KEY WORDS: Sintered steels; Shot peening; Fatigue strength; S-N curves

1. Introduction In the present time a trend for PM (Powder Metallurgy) steels is an increasing use in highly stressed applications such as gears, where high fatigue performance is required[1] . Modication of density and microstructure (pressing and sintering) can be successfully achieved for the fatigue limits of PM steels at about 300 MPa in average[1] , this means that secondary operations are generally necessary to reach the higher fatigue properties. A suitable modication of functional surfaces may cause a sensitive upgrade in the properties of low alloyed steel. To achieve the production of sintered parts with high-performance applications it is therefore necessary to apply a further optimization of processing conditions, according to Sonsino[2] , such as service loading, component geometry, and manufacturing. Shot peening is an industrial process often used to improve the component properties[35] , especially fatigue life and fatigue strength. In comparison with wrought steels[6,7] , fatigue behavior of sintered steels is more complicated and depends on some factors related to sintered microstructures[814] . Fatigue properties of sintered steels depend on plasticity and strength of microstructures, as well as porosity. Pores are generally interconnected and this implies that the sintering contacts, which actually bear the load in the material (pores of course cannot be load-bearing), are isolated in these cases, and description of the microstructure has to focus on the sintering contacts. Relationship to strength is often expressed by ratio between fatigue strength and tensile strength. For many metals and their alloys, the ratio between fatigue strength and tensile strength, C /Rm, is close to 0.38[9, 1517] . The aim of this work was to determine the effect of surface modication on the fatigue endurance.
Corresponding author. Prof.; Tel.: +39 0131 229232; Fax: +39 0131 229399; E-mail address: robert.bidulsky@polito.it; rbidulsky@yahoo.com (R. Bidulsk). y

Fatigue strength was evaluated by Whler curves for o the plane bending fatigue tests on unnotched specimens of as-sintered and shot peened alloys. 2. Experimental Commercially pre-alloyed water-atomised Hgans Fe-(Cr, Mo) powder (Astaloy CrL containo a ing 1.5% Cr and 0.2% Mo) was used as base material. The other commercial raw materials were CR 12 graphite powder and HW wax powder as lubricant. Powder mixtures were homogenized in a Turbula mixer. Two dierent specimen types, compacted at 600 MPa to a green density of 7.0 gcm3 , were prepared: dog-bone tensile (ISO 2740) and fatigue (ISO 3928) specimens. Formulation and processing parameters of the tested alloys are presented in Table 1. Sintering was carried out in laboratory tube furnace in an atmosphere of pure gases 75%N2 +25%H2 . The sintering temperature was 1180 C and sintering time was 60 min. Heating and cooling rates were 10 C/min. The surface modications were carried out on KP-1 fa. G. Fischer laboratory testing apparatus. Parameters of testing apparatus were steel granulate S11 with dzD =0.6 mm, angle between shot stream and peened surface 90 deg., shot velocity v7000 =70.98 ms1 . Specimens were tested in static tensile test on a ZWICK 1387 machine at an extension rate of 0.1 mm/min. Fatigue tests were carried out in symmetric plane bending at stress ratio R=1, using an SCHENCK PWON testing apparatus. The maximum number of cycles was 107 . Batches of 15 specimens were tested. The prole surface roughness, Ra, was measured by using a tangent prolometer, Hommel Tester T1000. Light and scanning microscopy were employed for microstructural evaluations. 3. Results and Discussion The prole unevenness was expressed by the arithmetical mean deviation of the prole surface roughness Ra. The prole surface roughness is the average

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Table 1 Materials and processing conditions Material Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C Fe1.5Cr0.2M0.05C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C State as-sintered as-sintered shot-peened shot-peened Sintering 1180 C/60 min 1180 C/60 min 1180 C/60 min 1180 C/60 min Atmosphere 25%H2 75%N2 25%H2 75%N2 25%H2 75%N2 25%H2 75%N2

Table 2 The prole surface roughness of investigated materials Material Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C State as-sintered shot-peened as-sintered shot-peened Ra/m 1.310.35 7.560.23 1.320.33 7.210.11

Fig. 3 The representative microstructures Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C materials

of

Fig. 1 The S-N curves of Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C materials

arithmetical deection from all unevenness from the central line in the measured length[1820] . The average results from 5 measurements of the prole surface roughness are presented in Table 2. Mechanical and fatigue properties of prealloyed sintered Fe 1.5Cr0.2Mo steels are presented in Table 3. The S-N curves of investigated materials are presented in Figs. 1 and 2. Prealloyed Fe 1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C is a material with a good combination of mechanical properties and fatigue strength, closely followed by Fe 1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C. The observed rankings in fatigue strength of the as-sintered and shot peened states are readily explained by the dierent microstructures, due to dierent processing conditions; for this work a cooling rate of 10 C/min was used. This implies that microstructures of Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C consist of mainly ne pearlite with areas of ferrite and bainite (Fig. 3). The microstructures of Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C consist of predominate upper bainite with small areas of pearlite (Fig. 4). The reason for fatigue strength improvement by shot peening can be attributed to the formation of compressive residual stresses in the surface layer of the material. The compressive residual stress usually[2123] decreases the tensile stress in the component by external forces and therefore increases the fatigue life of the material. In order to determine the dierences in the residual stress states, the residual stresses of the investigated specimens were calculated using equations[24] : mcrs = 0.86 0.2 51 MPa srs = R (114 + 0.563 0.2 ) MPa (1) (2)

Fig. 2 The S-N curves of Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C materials

Table 3 The properties of investigated steels Material Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C State as-sintered shot-peened as-sintered shot-peened 0.2 /MPa 510 532 605 577 UTS /MPa 652 786 787 847 El. /% 2.1 2.99 1.6 2.39 c /MPa 180 242 195 260 c /Rm 0.2761 0.3079 0.2478 0.3070

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Fig. 4 The representative microstructures Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C materials

of

where, mcrs maximum compressive residual stress, 0.2 yield strength, srs surface residual stress, R coecient, [R=0.997] Based on these equations, mcrs and srs values were calculated and given in Table 4.
Table 4 The calculated residual stresses of the investigated specimens Material State mcrs /MPa srs /MPa Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C shot-peened 406.52 412.28 Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.7C shot-peened 445.22 437.53

Fig. 5 Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C, detail on a surface something close to a fully densied area aected by shot peening

If we consider the residual stresses produced by various treatments, stress relaxation is a function of the eventual movement of dislocation, and of the stability of the metallurgical structure. Any modication to the microstructure leads to a modication of the distribution of residual stresses and according to literature [24] the parameters of shot peening aects the surface residual stress as well as the surface coverage besides properties of target materials. Residual stress relaxation should be taken into account in fatigue life analysis. A quantitative criterion which is able to take into consideration the residual stress induced by shot peening on fatigue strength has not yet been developed[25,26] . The relative increase of the surface stiness in the investigated materials are presented due to the densication reduces the strain in the entire crosssection at a given load level, representing by residual stress; and the elimination of the detrimental eect of pores open to the surface[27] . For high-dense sintered steels[10] the presence of isolated pores, which act as stress concentrators is dominant; the degree of the local strain increases depending on pore geometry, on the distance between the pores and on the local stress directions and their interactions. The original powder particle surfaces may be contaminated by impurities or inclusions[10,28] . Their presence can give rise to deterioration of interfaces between the adjacent particles, thus nucleating the rst microcracks, as well as providing easy paths for crack growth and crack propagation. The role of microstructure constituents is important as it has been reported in literature [29, 30], the amount of martensite basically controls the fatigue strength of PM steels. As underlined by Bergman[30] , a pearlitic Fe-Cu-C steel has a bending fatigue limit of 220 MPa at sintered density 7.1 g/cm3 , while

Fig. 6 Fe1.5Cr0.2Mo0.5C, initiation area and beginning of fatigue crack propagation of as-sintered sample

martensitic PM steels have been reported to reach bending fatigue limits of 380 MPa at the same density. Consequently, a lot can be gained by optimizing the microstructure of PM steels. Results of fatigue strength are in agreement with literature data for PM materials[9, 15, 2933] , information on the fatigue properties of Fe-(Cr, Mo) steels with higher carbon content is however limited. The Fe-(Cr, Mo) steels exhibit an exceptionally high fatigue strength, in the range from 230 MPa to 250 MPa, which is a suitable value for PM steels in general, and in particular at a density level of 6.97.0 g/cm3 . Kabatova et al.[34] and Polasik et al.[35] reported that the microstructural constituents controlled subcritical fatigue crack growth: easiest along prior particle boundaries and obstructed by high-strength regions. Thus fractographic features including ductile failure through sinter necks, cleavage and interparticle fracture Figs. 5 and 6 are shown in as generally observed in PM steels. Finally, the modication of functional surfaces of Fe-(Cr, Mo) steels increased fatigue failure resistance by means of stronger segments on the specimens surfaces due to an almost fully densied surface layer obtained by shot peening. This caused a decrease in the crack propagation. Moreover since compressive stresses are introduced into the surface and subsurface layers by shot peening, fatigue cracks do not easily initiate or propagate through an area under compression, in accordance with literature [21, 25, 26, 36 38].

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(1) The result showed an increase in fatigue strength of about 34% due to surface hardening by shot peening processes. This was due to the densication of surface layer and the elimination of the detrimental eect of pores open to the surface. (2) The gain in fatigue performance in Fe-(Cr, Mo) with 0.7C is primarily due to a shift from mainly pearlitic to mainly bainitic microstructure. (3) The inuence of surface modication on the cyclic properties of PM steels still requires further investigations; the information on the fatigue properties of Fe-(Cr, Mo) steels with higher carbon contents is rather limited to the present.

Acknowledgements Authors thanks research project CNR-SAS and project VEGA 2/6209/26. R. Bidulsk thanks the Poy litecnico di Torino, the Regione Piemonte, and the CRT Foundation for co-funding by the fellowship for visiting professor. REFERENCES [1 ] Technical Trends: Met. Powder Rep., 2004, 59(5), 26. [2 ] C.M. Sonsino: Powder Metall., 1990, 33(3), 235. [3 ] V. Bacova and D. Draganovska: Mater. Sci., 2004, 40(1), 125. [4 ] M. Mihalikov, M. Burk, J. Michel and K. Koa sa valov: J. Met. Mater. Min., 2005, 15(2), 53. a [5 ] D. Kniewald, J. Brezinov and A. Guzanov: Coma a munications, 2004, 6(2), 37. [6 ] F. Nov, P. Palek and M. Chalupov: Kovove Mater., y c a 2005, 43(6), 447. c [7 ] F. Nov, M. Cinala, P. Kopas and O. Bokuvka: y Mater. Sci. Eng., 2007, 462A, 189. [8 ] G.F. Bocchini: Rev. Powder Metall. Phys. Ceram., 1985, 2(4), 313. [9 ] R. Bidusk and M. Actis-Grande: High Temp. Mater. y Process., 2008, 27(4), 249. [10] E. Dudrov, M. Kabtov and R. Bidulsk: in Proc. a a a y RoPM 2005, ed. R.L. Orban, Cluj-Napoca, TU 2005, Vol. 1, 101. [11] V. Simkulet and M. Selecka: Powder Metall. Prog., 2006, 6(4), 156. [12] M. Kabtov, E. Dudrov and A.S. Wronski: Powder a a a Metall., 2006, 49(4), 363. [13] H. Danninger, U. Sonntag and B. Kuhnert: Pract. Metallogr., 2002, 39(8), 414.

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