Residual stress determination by the layer removal and X-ray diffraction measurement - correction method.

Very often a manufacturing process is followed by some surface treatment. Such a process induces residual stress into the manufactured component. Compressive residual stress is desirable for enhancing the fatigue properties of the component. The residual stress is often measured only at the surface, if at all. However, residual stress is equilibrating in the whole component. Therefore, compressive residual stress at the surface induces undesirable tensile stress inside in the component. Knowledge of the residual stress distribution in a body can be very useful in engineering applications. The authors found this knowledge necessary for a proper description of fatigue crack propagation in railway axles described in the original paper [1]. With the onset of modern surface treating technologies, e.g. induction hardening, which can affect the entire cross-section of the component, the residual stress determination is even more critical. The presented paper aims to describe a procedure developed for proper residual stress determination. The procedure can be easily used e.g. in R&D centers, where X-ray diffraction residual stress measurement is already in use. The procedure is suitable for the residual stress determination in sizable cylindrical bodies or components, e.g. railway axles. It uses X-ray diffraction residual stress surface measurement and layer removal by machining. Results experimentally obtained are corrected by a general procedure developed in MATLAB software in order to obtain the original residual stress state in the cylindrical body.•More accurate procedure for a residual stress determination in cylindrical bodies.

Effect of Underload Cycles on Oxide-Induced Crack Closure Development in Cr-Mo Low-Alloy Steel.

Underload cycles with small load amplitudes below the fatigue crack growth threshold are dominantly considered as insignificant cycles without any influence on fatigue lifespan of engineering structural components. However, this paper shows that in some cases these underload cycles can retard the consequent crack propagation quite significantly. This phenomenon is a consequence of oxide-induced crack closure development during cyclic loading below the threshold. The experimentally described effect of fatigue crack growth retardation was supported by measurement of the width and the thickness of the oxide debris layer using the EDS technique and localized FIB cuts, respectively. Both the retardation effect and the amount of oxide debris were larger for higher number and larger amplitudes of the applied underload cycles. Crack closure measurement revealed a gradual increase of the closure level during underload cycling. Specimens tested in low air humidity, as well as specimens left with the crack open for the same time as that needed for application of the underload cycles, revealed no retardation effect. The results can improve our understanding of environmental effects on fatigue crack propagation and understanding the differences between the results of laboratory testing and the fatigue lives of components in service.

Crack Propagation Analysis of Compression Loaded Rolling Elements.

The problem of crack propagation from internal defects in thermoplastic cylindrical bearing elements is addressed in this paper. The crack propagation in these elements takes place under mixed-mode conditions-i.e., all three possible loading modes (tensile opening mode I and shear opening modes II and III) of the crack are combined together. Moreover, their mutual relation changes during the rotation of the element. The dependency of the stress intensity factors on the crack length was described by general parametric equations. The model was then modified by adding a void to simulate the presence of a manufacturing defect. It was found that the influence of the void on the stress intensity factor values is quite high, but it fades with crack propagating further from the void. The effect of the friction between the crack faces was find negligible on stress intensity factor values. The results presented in this paper can be directly used for the calculation of bearing elements lifetime without complicated finite element simulations.