High cycle fatigue properties of stainless martensitic chromium steel springs

Abstract: For many materials and components like in high speed trains and airplanes fatigue failures occur in the range of over 107 load cycles which is called the high cycle fatigue range. A modern version of the springs was invented which are applied in a certain application. Ultrasonic fatigue testing (20 kHz machine) was conducted for evaluating the steel of the springs. This research explores the fundamental understanding of high cycle fatigue testing of strip steel and assesses a stainless martensitic chromium steel at the high cycle fatigue range. Finite element modeling was conducted to gain knowledge about the effect of various parameters. Significant attention was devoted to the fatigue failure initiations by SEM/EDS. The work demonstrated that the method of investigation for high cycle fatigue test is reliable. Fatigue failure at this range was initiated by internal defects which all included non-metallic inclusion. A critical distance was defined Within the strip fatigue specimen where all the fatigue failure initiated. The 3D stress field in the specimen was determined by FEM modeling and the local applied stress at the whole of the flat part of specimen and critical distance was estimated. FEM was also employed to give additional information about the effect of parameters. It was established that damping had the largest influence. The local applied stress of the fatigue test was calculated by means of FEM and SEM analysis. It was used to adjust the S-N curve which resulted in 15% lower values than the nominal applied stress.