The influential factors on very high cycle fatigue testing results

Abstract

When the fatigue cycle is extended from high cycle (105~107) to very high cycle (107~109), the fatigue testing results will be more sensitive to the influential factors such as specimen size, specimen surface roughness and the inclusion size. The influential factors on the very high cycle fatigue testing results are investigated in the present paper. Firstly, the design and control method for ultrasonic fatigue test were introduced for several specimen shapes. The effect of the shape, size and the surface roughness of specimen on the ultrasonic fatigue test results are investigated. Meanwhile, the effect of test frequency and the size of the inclusion on the fatigue test results are also investigated. It is concluded that: 1. the test results of specimen with different shape and size differ with each other, due to the risk volume is different. 2. There is a critical roughness for the specimen, depending on the hardness of tested metallic material. A larger roughness than the critical one will lead to a premature fracture. 3. The frequency effect is obvious for the low strength steel, however, is prone to vanish for the very high strength steel. 4. The very high cycle fatigue will be more sensitive to the inclusion size as the strength increases and the S/N curve character is strongly related to the size of the inclusion.