Original paper(Vol.46 No.10 pp.1149)

Super-long life tension-compression fatigue properties of quenched and tempered 0.46% carbon steel

Murakami Yukitaka; Takada Masayuki; Toriyama Toshiyuki

Abstract:To investigate the effect of non-metallic inclusions on the fatigue properties of quenched and tempered 0.46% carbon steel (HV congruent 650) in the super-long life fatigue range (N =< 5.0x108), tension-compression fatigue tests were carried out. The fatigue strength was discussed based on the root area parameter model.
The results obtained are:
(1) Fatigue fracture origins were mostly at a non-metallic inclusion.
(2) However, the locations of the inclusion at fracture origin were not uniformly distributed over the specimen section due to the nonuniform distribution of residual stress induced by heat treatment.
(3) The fatigue limit defined by the cycle N = 5.0x108 can be predicted by the root area parameter model, I.e. with three parameters, the Vickers hardness, HV, of the matrix, the square root of the projected area of inclusions, root area, and residual stress.
(4) The expected value of inclusion size root area sub m sub a sub x of 0.46% carbon steel in a definite number of specimens can be estimated using the statistics of extreme values. The lower bound of the scatter of fatigue strength was predicted with the combination of the root area parameter model and the value of root areamax.

Key Words:super-long life fatigue, tension-compression fatigue root area parameter model, residual stress, statistics of extreme value