On the fatigue notch sensitivity of Ti6Al4V specimens with α+β microstructure produced by laser powder bed fusion

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is an additive manufacturing (AM) process which offers several advantages over conventional manufacturing techniques, including material savings and design possibilities. For these reasons several industrial sectors such as biomedical, aerospace and automotive, are considering L-PBF for customized parts production. Among the processable material palette, Ti6Al4V gained increasing interest due to the high specific strength, and stiffness, and excellent bio-compatibility, and corrosion resistance. However, to include L-PBF Ti6Al4V parts in load bearing applications it is important to properly understand the mechanical properties of AM’ed materials with a specific focus on fatigue behaviour. In this study the fatigue notch sensitivity of Ti6Al4V L-PBF manufactured specimens is investigated in depth. Samples with different notches were subjected to stress relieving heat treatment to generate a fine α+β microstructure. The results were used to define a relation between the perturbed stress field generated by the geometrical discontinuity, the microstructure size and the notch sensitivity. Moreover, the critical distance has been calculated using the theory of critical distance formulated with the line method (LM). The estimated value were adopted to predict fatigue properties of notched components with different notch radii.

A novel thread connection structure of slimehole drilling tool in ultra-deep natural gas well

The thread connection’s root fillet radius of 0.038″ size is the greatest weakness of the API NC type joints and thread. During the slimehole drilling, especially in the deep and ultra-deep gas well, its stress concentration factor and notch sensitivity factor are very high A novel thread connection design (TM) of a drilling tool is proposed to decrease the fatigue failure of the slimehole drilling tool in the deep and the ultra-deep gas well in the Tarim oilfield China. The novelty in the TM thread structure is, reducing the threads per inch, extending the distance from the last engaged thread to the external shoulder of the pin and adding three threads to the conventional connection. The novel thread connection will improve the slimehole drilling tool’s anti-fatigue life due to its improved elasticity and rigidity. Furthermore, the TM can transfer the maximum stress at the connection root to the loaded surface, which can effectively lower the fatigue notch’s sensitivity coefficient. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) is applied to carry out the detailed comparative analysis of the TM with existing thread connection NC38, TX60 and TH90. The TM has the lowest stress concentration factor and fatigue notch sensitivity coefficient, so its anti-fatigue life is the highest. In addition, TM is manufactured and is tested at Tarim oilfield in China.