Hardening and softening during fatigue fracture

Summary

The comparison of the change of hardness and plastic deformation amplitude at a constant stress loading or stress amplitude at a constant deformation loading during the fatigue process shows some singularity of the hardening and softening effects. These effects were investigated on mean carbon and low-alloyed steel and on globular cast iron.

The fatigue fractures at cycle numbers 10⁴÷10⁶ under stresses below the yield strength predominate in the softening process, which arises after an inconsiderable hardness increase extends in the region to 0·2 from the fracturing cycle number. Under the stresses above the yield strength, which in some cases for annealed and coarse-grained states are below the fatigue limit, the hardening process predominates, followed by a hardness increase in the field up to 0·25 and above the fracturing cycle number.

At low cycle fatigue fractures with cycle numbers < 10⁴ depending on the cyclic plastic properties of steels the fatigue process can be followed by a continuous hardening or softening till fracture. This process is characterized by the change of the deformation amplitude and a one-sided accumulation of plastic deformations at a constant amplitude of active stresses. The one-sided accumulation of deformations commonly ends in a quasistatic failure. Under loading with a constant deformation amplitude during softening a fatigue fracture takes place as a result of damage accumulation under the alternating stresses with amplitudes decreasing with cycle number.