Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Experimental and analytical investigation of the TMF-HCF lifetime behavior of two cast iron alloys
(2017)
The combined loading Thermomechanical Fatigue (TMF) with High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) has been experimentally investigated for two cast iron alloys. Both alloys contain globular graphite nodules but the first one has a ferritic structure while the second one has an austenitic crystal structure. In particular, the influences of the HCF frequency, of the HCF loading amplitude and of the location of the superposed HCF cycles have been investigated. It was observed that the HCF frequency has a limited impact on the fatigue life. On the other side, the HCF-strain amplitude has a highly non-linear influence on the fatigue life. The experimental results can be understood in terms of a fracture mechanics based damage mechanism: Cracks quickly initiate due to the TMF loading and the growth of the cracks up to a few mm controls the fatigue life. If HCF-loading cycles are superposed, cyclic crack propagation dramatically accelerates after a threshold has been reached. This threshold is regarded as controlling the fatigue life reduction. The previous ideas have been expressed in a model that can be very simply applied to estimate the fatigue life reduction ratio due to the superposed HCF cycles. It only contains two adjustable parameters and can be combined with any TMF life assessment model.
TMF tests were carried out on EN-GJSA-XNiSiCr35-5-2 at constant minimum temperature (400 °C) and varying maximum temperatures (Tmax = 700 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C) with hold times of 180 s at Tmax and two phase angles (in-phase (IP), 180° out-of-phase (OP)). The results showed a comparable strength under OP- and IP-TMF loading. At Tmax = 700 °C and 900 °C, the lifetime in IP-tests was slightly longer than that of OP-tests, while it is vice versa at Tmax = 800 °C. The IP-tests at Tmax = 900 °C showed a similar lifetime as OP-tests at Tmax = 700 °C and 800 °C, which was unexpected for such a high testing temperature. All IP-tests at Tmax = 900 °C showed a continuous cyclic softening from the beginning on, which was different from all other testing conditions. Complementary metallographic investigations indicated that under this test condition, intergranular creep damage is present in the volume of the test pieces.
Modeling the lifetime reduction due to the superposition of TMF and HCF loadings in cast iron alloys
(2016)
The superposition of small amplitude, high frequency loading cycles (HCF) to slow, large amplitude loading cycles (TMF) can significantly reduce the fatigue life. In this work, the combined TMF+HCF loading has been experimentally investigated for a cast iron alloy. In particular, the influence of the HCF frequency of the HCF amplitude and of the location of the superposed HCF cycles has been assessed. It was observed that the HCF frequency has a limited impact on the TMF fatigue life. On the other side, the HCF-strain amplitude has a highly non-linear influence on the TMF fatigue life. A simple estimate for the fatigue life reduction due to the superposed HCF cycles has been derived from fracture mechanics considerations. It is assumed that the number of propagation cycles up to failure can be neglected after a threshold for the HCF loading has been reached. The model contains only two adjustable parameters and can be combined with any TMF life prediction model. The model predictions are compared with the test results for a large range of TMF+HCF loading conditions.