Shear-type fatigue crack growth in SAE52100 steel

Shear-type fatigue crack behavior in a bearing steel, SAE52100, was investigated in a biaxial fatigue testing machine using cylindrical specimens. Either of the following two types of artificial defect with the total length of 400-440 μm and the depth of 200-300 μm was introduced into the specimen surfaces: (a) a semi-elliptical pre-crack emanating from 2 adjacent holes by a tension-compression loading, (b) 3 adjacent holes oriented in the axial direction which had slits made by the focused ion beam technique at the both ends. Fully reversed torsion with a shear stress amplitude at specimen surface, τ_a = ∼600 MPa, was applied to the specimens under the static axial compressive stress σ_m = -1000 ∼ -1200 MPa. In case of the defect (a), a shear-type crack propagated from the pre-crack in direction perpendicular to the specimen axis. At the specimen surface, the shear-type crack periodically branched from the crack tip and propagated 5-10 μm in Mode I directions. The shear-type crack growth was decelerated with an increase in the crack length and finally stopped at N ≅ 7.5×10⁶ cycles and 2a ≅ 600 μm. On the other hand, in case of the defect (b), the shear-type crack propagated in axial direction, and the crack growth was accelerated with an increase in the crack length. In addition, the threshold stress in case without the compressive stress on crack-face was determined by a τ_a-decreasing test. The results revealed that the shear-type crack growth was strongly influenced by the crack-face friction and the existence of the Mode I blanched cracks.