Abstract
In order to investigate the methods to heal fatigue cracks in metals, tubular specimens of 1045 steel with axial and radial fatigue cracks were treated under the eddy current. The optical microscope was employed to examine the change of fatigue cracks of specimens before and after the eddy current treatment. The results show that the fatigue cracks along the axial direction of the specimen could be healed effectively in the fatigue crack initiation zone and the crack tip zone under the eddy current treatment, and the healing could occur within a very short time. The voltage breakdown and the transient thermal compressive stress caused by the detouring of eddy current around the fatigue crack were the main factors contributing to the healing in the fatigue crack initiation zone and the crack tip zone, respectively. Eddy current treatment may be a novel and effective method for crack healing.
Highlights
Fatigue failure is one of the most important failure modes for structural components working under cyclic loading
The tubular specimens of 1045 steel with fatigue cracks along the axial direction and radial direction were treated by eddy current, and the influence of eddy current treatment duration on the healing of the fatigue cracks was evaluated in this study
The main conclusions can be summarized as follows: (1) The fatigue cracks along the axial direction were healed under eddy current treatment while the fatigue cracks along the radial direction were not healed
Summary
Fatigue failure is one of the most important failure modes for structural components working under cyclic loading. Repetition of these cycles may cause the microcracks to initiate, propagate, and merge into oversized cracks and lead to a fracture, decreasing the service life of structural components. In order to increase the fatigue resistance and elongate the service life, it is necessary to develop effective methods to heal the microcrack or prevent the microcrack propagation since a very small crack may be healed if the maximum temperature of heat treatment is sufficient to bring in the atoms on either side of the crack to fill the crack [1]. Zhou et al [11,12]
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