Thermal activation model of endurance limit

Abstract

A thermal activation model of the endurance limit is proposed in the present study. It can quantitatively explain the effects of temperature and frequency on the endurance limit of metals at or below room temperature. Theoretical analysis indicates that the endurance limit, σ_ac, which is considered as a parameter characterizing the resistance of metals to cyclic microplastic deformation, has the same thermally activated nature as the plastic flow stress has and it can be resolved into two independent components: the long-range internal stress (the athermal component), μ(ε_apc), and the short-range effective stress (the thermal component), σ_a ^*(T, ε_p). The former is considered as a material constant insensitive to temperature and strain rate (or frequency). The latter, the temperature- and strain rate-dependent part of the endurance limit, is approximately identical with the effective stress component of plastic flow stress (or cyclic yielding stress). In light of the thermal activation model, the temperature and strain-rate dependence of monotonic and cyclic flow stresses in a low alloy steel (16Mn) and a precipitation-hardening aluminum alloy (LY12CZ) were experimentally investigated. The results indicate that the effective stress components of monotonic and cyclic flow stresses are identical, if the temperature and strain rate are held unchanged, and that both of them are approximately independent of the magnitude of plastic strain. On the basis of the thermal activation model, an expression predicting the endurance limit below room temperature is offered. The predicted values of the endurance limit agree with the test data of steels and aluminum alloys available in literature.