Fatigue cracks generally initiate at surface discontinuities or stress raise. Fatigue cracks grow as a result of plastic deformation at the tip of the crack during tensile load application.
Fatigue cracks generally initiate at surface discontinuities or stress raise. Fatigue cracks grow as a result of plastic deformation at the tip of the crack during tensile load application.
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Fatigue cracks generally initiate at surface discontinuities or stress raise. Fatigue cracks grow as a result of plastic deformation at the tip of the crack during tensile load application.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
• Maximum value of which is lower than the static stress required to cause fracture. • It occurs in metals and non metals alike • Generally characterized by local crack propagation Mechanism Of fatigue • Fatigue occurs because of: • Crack initiation • Crack propagation • Final fracture • After formation of fatigue crack the operative mechanism is similar as crack exist • Firstly it is a concern with a mechanism of damage which lead to the formation of macro cracks • The No. of cycles for this initiation process may be either large or small as the fraction of the total fatigue life • In smooth specimen the initiation stage may be range from less than 10% at high stress to 90% for low stress • Surface micro cracks grows in wards along crystallographic planes on which the resolved cyclic shear stress are large • It grows by to and fro slip until it reaches a sufficient length, then • The element a head of its tip fracture. • A micro crack initiated at a low stress may not reach its depth for change over to stage II • Macro cracks will not develop to grow /propagate • Fatigue crack generally initiate at surface discontinuities or stress raise • Fatigue damage from local plastic flow • Generates high dislocation densities on slip bands and lead to the formation of • Small intrusion and extrusion • This can be detected by optical or replica electron microscopy • The stress level at which crack initiate may be below the elastic limit of the material • However, on a micro scale the local stress may be much higher as a result of stress concentration at discontinuities • A fatigue cracks once initiated grows as a result of plastic deformation at the tip of the crack during tensile load application • Fatigue crack will not grow under compressive loading • Stage I: Initially the crack grows slowly along a slip band (highly dislocated substructure) • The length of stage I is usually small • After some time crack is in stage II • During which it grows normal to the tensile axis. Cyclic Stress strain Curve • Under strain control: • Under Stress control: Fatigue Hardening of Metals • In annealed material • During the initial rapid hardening stage, • Bundles of dislocations are produced separated by largely dislocation free regions • With continued cycling the dislocation densities with in the bundles increases and the spacing of the bundles decrease Strain control fatigue • During the saturation stage • Slip bands of inhomogeneous plastic deformation are produced provided the strain amplitude is sufficient • These bands have a different dislocation structure from the matrix • Such slip bands are observed on the polished surface • These were termed as persistent slip band (PSB) • Intensive slip bans on PSB give rise to the formation of intrusion and extrusion • Crack may nucleate whenever inhomogeneous slip is concentrated Fatigue Softening of metals • Cold worked FCC metal e.g Cu • The initial ragged (uneven) dislocation cell structure, altered to • Sharply defined cell structure • Cyclic deformation result in high concentration of point defect (vacancies) • Therefore metals to recover by a climb • Many precipitation hardened alloys are also subjected to cyclic softening • The precipitate in PSB being cut repeatedly to revert in to solution • Point defects over aged the age harden able Al alloy • The fatigue/endurance limit of such an alloy can be relatively low. Effect of Metallurgical Variables • Structure sensitive • Yield strength can be increased however fatigue limit usually does not increase proportionally • Stacking Fault energy • High stacking Fault energy: Cross slip easily therefore promotes formation of slip bands • Large slip bands at the tip of crack • This phenomena promotes the initiation and propagation of fatigue crack • Low Stacking fault energy: Suppress fatigue damage • Increase fatigue life through thermo mechanical processing • Homogeneous slip with many small regions of plastic deformation as opposed to a small no of extensive slip Quenched and tempered microstructure • Optimum fatigue properties • Austempering better fatigue properties than even quenched and tempered • Few trace of decarburizing and also surface drastically reduce the fatigue properties • Presence of intersitial solute atoms increase the yield strength • Additional increase due to strain aging Factors affecting fatigue crack propagation • Material thickness: Fatigue crack growth rate increases with increase in specimen thickness • Frequency of loading; Small increase in growth rate being possible at lower frequencies • Temperature: Low temperature is to reduce the crack growth rate. • The rate of crack propagation, is determined by Young's Modulus • - a measure of the elastic behaviour of the metal and not simply by tensile strength. • Alloying or heat treatment to increase the strength of a metal has very little effect on Young's Modulus • Therefore very little effect on crack propagation rates. • Thus no benefit to be gained by using high strength alloys if the design is fatigue limited. Corrosive Environment
• Corrosive environment is to reduce greatly
a material resistance to cyclic loading • Very difficult to predict the fatigue life or rate of crack propagation • On the basis of data determined in air