Abstract
This study is dedicated to the effect of the heat treatment on the fatigue strength of an automobile rear axle beam and aims to propose a suitable and reliable methodology for the fatigue design. The rear axle beam is made of sheet metal (22MnB5); the microstructure is initially ferrito-pearlitic before the heat treatment and is martensitic after. A vast experimental campaign has been undertaken to investigate the behaviour, and more specially, the fatigue damage mechanisms observed for both treated and non-treated material, under different loading conditions: tension and shear test with different load ratios. In order to test the sheet metal in shear an original fatigue test apparatus is used.A probabilistic approach using the weakest link concept is introduced to model the fatigue behaviour. This approach leads naturally to a probabilistic Kitagawa type diagram, which in this case explains the relationship between the influence of the heat treatment and the microstructural heterogeneities.Integrate in a numerical model, this methodology permit to predict the effect of a local heat treatment on the fatigue strength of the components.
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