Low cycle fatigue and strengthening mechanism of cold extruded large diameter internal thread of Q460 steel

Abstract

large diameter internal thread of high-strength steel(LDITHSS) manufactured by traditional methods always has the problems of low accuracy and short life. Compared with traditional methods, the cold extrusion process is an effective means to realize higher accuracy and longer life. The low-cycle fatigue properties of LDITHSS are obtained by experiments, and the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks are observed by scanning electron microscope(SEM). Based on the mechanical properties, surface microstructure and residual stress, the strengthening mechanism of cold extruded large diameter internal thread(LDIT) is discussed. The results show that new grains or sub-grains can be formed on the surface of LDIT due to grain segmentation and grain refinement during cold extrusion. The fibrous structures appear as elongated and streamlined along the normal direction of the tooth surface which leads to residual compressive stress on the extruded surface. The maximum tension stress of LDIT after cold extrusion is found to be 192.55 kN. Under low stress cycling, the yield stress on thread increases, the propagation rate of crack reduces, the fatigue life is thus improved significantly with decreasing surface grain diameter and the average fatigue life increases to 45.539×103 cycle when the maximum applied load decreases to 120 kN. The low cycle fatigue and strengthening mechanism of cold extruded LDIT revealed by this research has significant importance to promote application of internal thread by cold extrusion processing.