Effects of LCF Loadings on the HCF Life of Notched Specimens in Ferritic-Bainitic Steel

Abstract

Fatigue tests were performed on ferritic bainitic steel notched specimens (Kt = 2.5) under load controlled constant amplitude loading. These tests show that under constant amplitude tension compression loading, periodical overloads application have a detrimental effect on the fatigue crack initiation strength for fully reversed load ratio (R σ = — 1), while they have no influence under pulsating loading (R σ = 0). A finite element analysis shows that in the fully reversed tension (R σ = — 1), the stabilized cyclic behaviour at the notch root is an elastic-plastic shakedown while elastic shakedown is obtained under pulsated regime (R σ = 0), so that we can consider that the local cyclic behaviour has an influence on the overload effect. However, the overload application does not imply a remarkable modification of the stress and strain field under the subsequent constant amplitude loading and can not explain such a fatigue strength decrease in fully reversed tension.