Low-cycle fatigue of austempered ductile irons

Abstract

The effects of austempering temperature and isothermal transformation time on the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behaviour in ductile irons have been studied. The fracture surfaces were observed by a scanning electron microscope in order to understand the fracture mechanism of LCF. From the results, it can be concluded that the best LCF behaviour is for the irons austenitized at 950 °C and there is very good cyclic stability at the lower strain amplitude irrespective of the austempering condition. However, there is a little cyclic softening at higher strain amplitudes for all the austempering conditions. Under a larger strain amplitude, the best LCF behaviour is for the specimen that has undergone austempering at a higher temperature, but under a smaller strain amplitude, the best LCF behaviour is for the specimen austempered at 350 °C.