Investigation on Fatigue Threshold Testing Methods in a Near Lamellar TiAl Alloy

The effects of influential fatigue testing factors, including loading schemes (e.g., traditional load shedding and staircase load increasing), morphology of crack starters, and precracking approaches on the near-threshold fatigue crack growth behaviors for a near lamellar γ-TiAl alloy (Ti-45Al-2Mn-2Nb-1B) were investigated at room temperature and 650 °C. The results showed that the measured fatigue threshold values in lamellar γ-TiAl alloys are very sensitive to the applied testing procedures. For example, the staircase load-increasing method yielded smaller threshold values. When such a load-increasing method was used, the threshold values were measured either from a notch machined by electro-discharge machining or prepared by a compression–compression fatigue loading. Moreover, some differences could be seen with respect to the morphologies of the crack starters. Most of the above influences are associated with the brittle nature of the material and the characteristics of the lamellar microstructures, and closure effects are primarily induced by crack wake roughness or unbroken ligaments.

Temperature Dependence of Fatigue Crack Growth in Low-Carbon Steel Under Gaseous Hydrogen

In order to elucidate the temperature dependence of hydrogen-assisted fatigue crack growth (HAFCG), the fatigue crack growth (FCG) test was performed on low-carbon steel JIS-SM490B according to ASTM E647 using compact tension (CT) specimen under 0.7 MPa (≈ 0.1 ksi) hydrogen-gas at room temperature (RT: 298 K (≈ 77 °F)) and 423 K (≈ 302 °F) at stress intensity factor range of ΔK = 30 MPa m1/2 (≈ 27 ksi in1/2). Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) observation was performed on the mid-thick section of CT specimen in order to investigate change in plasticity around the crack wake in gaseous hydrogen environment and how it changes due to temperature elevation. The obtained results showed the higher temperature, the lower intense of HAFCG as reported in our previous article. Plasticity around the crack wake became less in gaseous hydrogen environment, especially tested at 298 K. The propensity of the results obtained at higher temperature (423 K) can be separated into two cases: (i) intense plasticity occurs like tested in air, (ii) crack propagates straighter accompanying less plasticity like tested in gaseous hydrogen environment at 298 K. This implies macroscopic FCG rate is determined by combination of microscopic FCG rate in the case (i) and case (ii).

Influence of Martensitic Phase on Microcrack Propagation in a Ferritic-Martensitic Steel

Hard phases such as martensite regions affect micro-crack extension by blocking the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip, but also by changing the crack opening which can be taken as loading quantity for cracks. This paper deals with the measurement of crack opening for microcracks in a ferrite/martensite dual phase steel. The methods used are in-situ testing in the SEM, X-ray tomography, and digital image correlation. It was found that martensite regions affect the relative displacement of the crack phases both at the crack tip and in the crack wake.