Effect of Mean Stress on Fatigue Strength of Spheroidal Graphite Cast Iron

Mechanical properties, especially fatigue strength, of ferritic spheroidal graphite cast iron might depend not only on the graphite size but also on the ferrite grain size, little systematic research has been made on these factors. To clarify the influences of these structural factors as well as loading condition, fatigue tests have been carried out on ferritic spheroidal graphite cast iron with different sizes of graphite nodules and ferrite grains, under the axial loading with mean stress from -70MPa to 240MPa. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: (1) The fatigue limits are decreased with increasing graphite nodule and matrix grain sizes. (2) The fatigue limit decreases with increasing tensile mean stress. The fatigue limit at an arbitrary mean stress has been estimated by the modified Goodman diagram as well. (3) The parameter α is evaluated from the experimental results relating to the stress ratio R, for the mean stress acting on the tensile side and on the compressive side separately. For the case of R0, the value of α is 0.324. The result has been applied to the fatigue limit evaluation equation of Y.Murakami et al, the fatigue limit ratio falls within the range of about ±10%.