Step loading for very high cycle fatigue

T. NICHOLAS
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials & Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 45433, U.S.A. Received in final form 11 June 2002

ABSTRACT

The conventional method for determining fatigue strength at high cycle counts is to either extrapolate SN data from lower cycle counts or to generate SN data in the high cycle count regime using special high frequency test machines. In the process of generating SN data, runout tests often occur where no failure is obtained within the allotted time for a test. Such data points are normally indicated on an SN plot with an arrow, but no information is available as to whether failure would ever occur. As an alternative, and as a method for getting a data point for every test, a step-loading method may be employed. In this paper, some of the unique test equipment being applied to the study of high cycle fatigue in our laboratory are reviewed. Data are presented on the long-life fatigue behaviour of Ti-6Al-4V which validate both the step-loading methodology and indicate the trend of fatigue strength as a function of cycle number in the very high cycle fatigue regime. The absence of coaxing is demonstrated by comparing SN data with step-loading data. Applicability of high frequency testing to the determination of fatigue crack growth thresholds is also demonstrated. Keywords coaxing; high cycle fatigue; high frequency; step loading; Ti-6Al-4V.

INTRODUCTION

Advances in electronics, instrumentation, computers, and other technical fields have provided the capability to evaluate the long life fatigue behaviour of materials far beyond what was envisioned in the early 20th century. It is of interest, however, to note the concepts that were identified in the last century involving the concerns over the needs for accelerated test methods and the existence of history effects such as coaxing. Many of our present day concerns were expressed decades ago by the founding fathers of fatigue. Noting that endurance testing is very time consuming, Gough1 identified a need for rapidly determining fatigue endurance limits. The requirements of such a test are: (1) It must be expeditious, (2) It should be simple, not requiring elaborate apparatus, or particularly skilled personnel, (3) It should require the minimum number of specimens, which should be of a simple form, and (4) It must be accurate. Gough1 however, noted that by subjecting a material to
Correspondence: T. Nicholas, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials & Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 45433, USA. E-mail: monica.nicholas@sinclair.edu

periods of cycling in steps of increasing magnitude, it can be made to withstand stresses considerably above the primitive fatigue limit. This phenomenon is referred to as coaxing. Coaxing refers to the subjecting of a material to stresses below those to which it may be subjected in a long-life fatigue test. This phenomenon, also called `understressing', was investigated early by Smith2 who first drew attention to the fact that understressing might have an effect on the endurance limit of a material. In particular, he found that many metals are permanently strengthened by understressing them before fatigue testing in the endurance limit stress regime. Similar examples of raising the fatigue limit by understressing were also reported by Moore and Jasper.3 It has been noted over the years that coaxing occurs only in detectable form in ferrous materials, is commonly associated with the phenomenon of strain ageing, and that the final fracture stress after coaxing was greater if the stress was built up slowly.4 Two possible phenomena are suggested by Forsyth.5 One is that understressing may subject a material to less time at stress than in a conventional test and may reduce the amount of environmental degradation. Such an accelerated step test may

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not be able to simulate the time-dependent effects of atmospheric corrosion and strength-reducing effects which might depend on corrosion. Another phenomenon may be the development and arrest of microcracks at low stresses which would have propagated at higher stress levels. One can only speculate that it may be more difficult to propagate an arrested crack than to start one fresh in an untested material. While Forsyth notes that the coaxing phenomenon has been associated with strain ageing, he concludes that `it is very likely that the strainageing phenomenon is peculiarly effective in prohibiting the formation of brittle-component growth, perhaps by plastically deforming the root of the crack and upsetting what is a purely crystallographic cleavage process'. By early last century, numerous accelerated tests for endurance limit had been proposed and rejected because they did not prove to be reliable. Among these early accelerated tests was that of Moore and Wishart6 who developed an `overnight' test based on application of a fixed number of high cycle fatigue (HCF) cycles followed by determination of tensile strength. The basis of this test was that fatigue testing below the endurance limit increases the tensile strength and endurance limit, while above the endurance limit, cracks form and ultimately degrade the tensile strength. Commenting on this paper, Gough stated that `I have arrived definitely at the conclusion that no reliable form of short-time test known has yet been devised' and he saw `no fundamental reason why any short-time test can be expected to prove reliable. Later, Prot7 developed a rapid test for determining the fatigue limit without using constant stress tests. His technique involved starting at a stress below the estimated fatigue limit and increasing the stress at a constant rate until failure occurs. In his approach, one test specimen is required for each rate of increase in stress. Still, it was claimed that this method reduces testing time by nine-tenths. The Prot method, though not widely used today, is considered to be the standard of reference for accelerated testing methods. While concerns over coaxing persisted in accelerated test development, the Prot method was validated by Ward et al.8 on welded SAE 4340 steel and found to be applicable to ferrous metals with a well-defined endurance limit.9 However, Corten et al.9 noted that for ferrous metals that are susceptible to coaxing, the Prot procedure appreciably raises the endurance limit compared to that obtained by conventional methods. In a discussion of their paper, they pointed out the following: `Only if coaxing is absent and the number of cycles in each step is sufficiently large (possibly 107 cycles), does it appear reasonable to expect that the fracture stress data obtained from the step-up method will agree with the endurance limit obtained from conventional tests.' Other work by Dolan et al.10 showed that improvement in the

fatigue life by understressing depended a great deal on the relative difference between the understress level and the endurance limit. Retesting with a small increase in stress level resulted in abnormally long life, but retesting with a large difference in stress level showed no apparent coaxing effect. In structural steels, Hempel11 observed that fully reversed bending fatigue at a stress level 22% below the endurance limit did not lead to development of slip lines, even at stress numbers in excess of 107. At higher stress amplitudes, but still below the endurance limit, slip traces occur only in individual crystallites. At stresses above the endurance limit, slip markings were far more conspicuous and were present in a large number of crystallites. But slip markings do not necessarily lead in every case to the formation of micro- and macrocracks or to fatigue failure. The existence of a coaxing effect, while important in establishing the validity of an accelerated test procedure of the type due to Prot, does not appear to have an established scientific basis. One possible explanation of the coaxing effect is one which is purely statistical in nature. Epremian and Mehl12 point out that elimination of the weaker specimens during fatigue testing below the fatigue limit biases the population of specimens tested at higher stress levels. Because of the statistical selectivity, specimens subsequently tested above the fatigue limit tend to show longer lives. For any of the proposed explanations of the existence of a coaxing phenomenon, it is not felt that coaxing is a real phenomenon in titanium alloys and, therefore, the step loading test procedure used herein is valid for determination of the fatigue limit. The Prot approach has been found to be reasonably reliable for a titanium alloy13 and an alternate steptest method has been validated in several investigations recently using Ti-6Al-4V as the test alloy.14 In this paper, the validity of the step-test procedure is examined in the long life regime as well as in the conventional fatigue limit regime of 107 cycles. In particular, attention is given to behaviour at a high stress ratio in a titanium alloy where cyclic ratcheting is observed in contrast to pure fatigue at lower stress ratios.
APPARATUS AND EXPERIMENTS

Two test machines were used in this investigation, one of which has the capacity for fatigue testing at frequencies of up to 500 Hz while the other can test at 1.8 kHz. In the first, (Fig. 1) an electro-dynamic shaker applies oscillatory loads while a pneumatic cylinder fitted in the rigid fatigue test frame produces the mean load. The air chamber is very compliant for the high frequency, low amplitude loading, allowing a very large fraction of the oscillatory load from the shaker to be transferred to the specimen instead of the load frame. Under quasi-static

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mean loads, on the other hand, the air chamber is relatively stiff. Tests for this study were conducted at 400 Hz in lab air at room temperature. The choice of frequency was dictated by a need to avoid system resonance and by a desire to have as high a frequency as possible with the available hardware. The second apparatus utilizes a magnetostrictive material as the high frequency actuator while the mean load is applied with a conventional hydraulic actuator. A very large load mass acts as an isolation block which is stiff for high frequency loads but very compliant for a low frequency or static mean load. A schematic of the system is shown in Fig. 1. The system functions at frequencies beyond 2 kHz, but dynamic load levels and system dynamics dictated that the best usage was at 1.8 kHz or slower. New data reported here were performed at

frequencies of either nominally 400 Hz using the shaker system or 1.8 kHz with the magnetostrictive system. Two product forms of Ti-6Al-4V were used in this investigation: a round forged bar and a forged plate. Microstructures of each are furnished in Fig. 2. The two product forms will be referred to as bar and plate throughout the paper. The bar material was in the form of 45 mm diameter stock that was heat treated as follows: vacuum treat at 705 8C for two hours, static argon cool to below 149 8C, anneal in a vacuum at 549 8C for two hours, and static argon cool to less than 149 8C. This produced a microstructure of wide, plate-like a with intergranular b containing approximately 90% a-phase, 10% b-phase (Fig. 2). The material properties in the longitudinal direction were as follows: sy 980 MPa, sUTS 1030 MPa.

Alignment device

Isolation block

Magnetostrictive actuator Load cell

Specimen

Grips
High frequency load transducer

Specimen

Grips Load shaft Air chamber Rolling seal

Alignment device

Isolation block
Low frequency load transducer

Hydraulic actuator

Electro-magnetic shaker

Fig. 1 Schematic of shaker system (left) and 1.8 kHz magnetostrictive system.

S
50 m

50 m

T
Fig. 2 Microstructure of Ti-6Al-4V bar (left) and plate.

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The plate was forged from a parent bar, produced in accordance with AMS 4928. The heat treatment for the plate was as follows: preheat to 938 8C for a minimum of 30 min, solution heat treat at 932 8C for 75 min, and fan air cool. The plate was then mill annealed in vacuum at 705 8C for two hours, and fan cooled in argon. Complete details of the processing can be found in Ref. [15]. The result was an alphabeta titanium alloy microstructure with acicular Widmansta tten structures (Fig. 2). Quasi-static mechanical properties of the final Ti-6Al-4V plate in the longitudinal direction were as follows: sy 930 MPa, sUTS 978 MPa. Test specimens were extracted from either of the product forms using wire electro-discharge machining. All specimens were finish machined using standard low stress grind procedures for titanium followed by polishing with 600 grip paper to a 15-mm finish. Specimens for the shaker systems were cylindrical with uniform gage section of 25 mm and a diameter of 5.0 mm. The specimens for the 1.8 kHz machine were cylindrical with an hourglass gage section with a minimum diameter of 5.0 mm. Orientation of the specimens was in the longitudinal direction of both the bar and plate materials. To establish the fatigue strength, samples were fatigue tested using the step-loading procedures described by Maxwell and Nicholas.16 At each stress ratio, a specimen was fatigued to a limit of typically 107 cycles at a stress level lower than the expected fatigue limit. After each runout of 107 cycles, the stress was increased by approximately 5% until failure occurred at less than 107 cycles. The fatigue limit stress was then determined using the linear interpolation scheme as described in the following equation: se so sNfail =Nlife 1

were used, while Ds was taken typically at 5% of the initial load block. The step-loading procedure is shown schematically in Fig. 3 for blocks of 107 cycles.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Statistical considerations To examine the expected outcome using the step-loading technique, assuming no coaxing, consider the schematic of Fig. 4. The SN curve is drawn to indicate the existence of an endurance limit. One can define the fatigue limit on such an SN curve arbitrarily as Nf, even though there is no assurance that this is a true endurance limit corresponding to `infinite' life. The fatigue limit stress can be considered a random variable rather than a deterministic material property. At Nf, there will exist an unknown cumulative distribution function (CDF) which will define the fatigue limit stress at that number of cycles covering some finite range. The stress corresponding to CDF 0 defines the stress level below which there are no failures within Nf cycles. When CDF 1, the corresponding stress defines the condition under which all specimens fail at or below Nf cycles. If there is a large amount of scatter as in curve `A', which may occur if the SN curve is very flat, then a larger number of steps in the step-loading technique will be required to cover all of the possible values of stress corresponding to Nf. If, however, there is less scatter, as in curve `B', or the SN curve is steeper which will essentially cut off the higher values of stress which cause failure at lower numbers of cycles, then the number of steps is fewer. In either case, the larger the number of steps in a test, the higher is the expected stress. Thus, what appears to be a `coaxing' effect is no more than the statistics of the distribution of material fatigue strength. The actual number of steps in a step-loading experiment depends on the starting stress, the distribution function or range in stress levels, and the size of the step. An alternate approach to the step method for determining the fatigue limit is to conduct tests at various values of stress up to the number of cycles corresponding to the

where se is the maximum fatigue strength corresponding to Nlife cycles, so is the previous maximum fatigue stress that did not result in failure, Ds is the step increase in maximum fatigue stress, Nfail are the cycles to failure at the fatigue stress (so Ds), and Nlife the defined cyclic fatigue life (i.e. 106, 107, etc.). Typical steps of 107 cycles

Alternating stress

R = constant

Alternating stress

R = constant Stress
A

Step number

Goodman 107 2107 3107 N (cycles) Loading history

Goodman Mean stress Goodman diagram

6 4 2 0

Number of cycles

Nf

CDF

Fig. 3 Schematic of step-loading procedure.

Fig. 4 Schematic of SN curve and CDF for two different degrees of scatter.

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fatigue limit. Two types of data are obtained. First, some specimens will fail before Nf is reached, and these will provide data for an SN curve that can be fit to some equation and then extrapolated to Nf. The second type of data will be stress levels for which no failure was obtained within Nf cycles. These stress levels will be denoted as runouts or lower bounds on the fatigue limit. In conducting tests under constant stress, consider the case where the SN curve is relatively flat such as when the number of cycles Nf is very large. As a hypothetical example, consider the fatigue behaviour in the region between 107 and 109 cycles where it has been shown that the SN curve still has a slightly negative slope.17 For illustrative purposes, the CDF for failure within a given number of cycles is shown schematically in Fig. 5a for either 107 or 109 cycles. At 107 cycles, there is no failure for stresses below level `C' and all samples will fail at or above `F'. Similarly, at 109 cycles, no failure occurs below `A' and all samples will fail at `E' or above. By definition, stress level `C' corresponds to the lower bound of the fatigue limit stress at 107 cycles while stress level `A' corresponds to the lower bound at 109 cycles. Consider, however, what happens in a typical experimental investigation. The CDF is shown as a function of number of cycles in Fig. 5b for several stress levels depicted in Fig. 5a. As shown, there are no failures at `A' while at `F' most samples will have failed below 107 and none will reach 109. At `E' there is a higher probability of survival beyond 107 but all fail by 109. At some intermediate level `D', some will fail by 107 and most will have failed by 109, but as the stress level decreases to `C' or `B', the likelihood of failure before 109 decreases. Considering the time and cost of conducting such longlife tests, the likelihood of determining the probability density functions for a number of stress levels and, in turn, defining the fatigue limit, is poor. In this situation, the step-loading procedure may provide an equally good answer with fewer tests and, with sufficient tests, provide a rough estimate of the distribution of fatigue limit stresses.

Fatigue limit stress data Data for a Haigh diagram were obtained using the step loading procedure for both the bar and plate materials. A Haigh diagram, erroneously referred to as a Goodman diagram, is a locus of points corresponding to a constant life (107 cycles in these cases) on a plot of alternating stress against mean stress. The data, from an earlier investigation conducted at 70 Hz14 are shown in Figs 6

800 Alternating stress (MPa) 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 Ti-6Al-4V bar 70 Hz 0 0 200 2 steps 3 steps 4 steps 5 steps 11 steps

600 400 Mean stress (MPa)

800

1000

Fig. 6 Haigh diagram for bar material.

800 Alternating stress (MPa) 700 600 500 400 300 200 100
Ti-6Al-4V plate 70 Hz 2 steps 3 steps 4 steps 6 steps 10 steps

0 200

200 400 Mean stress (MPa)

600

800

Fig. 7 Haigh diagram for plate material.

(a)

(b)

107 F E

109 1 F Stress CDF E D

D C B A 1 CDF 0

C B 0 A 107 Number of cycles 109

Fig. 5 Schematic of CDF: (a) as a function of stress for two different values of Nf (b) as a function of N.

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and 7 for the bar and plate material, respectively. In each of the figures, the number of steps that were used for each specimen is indicated in the legend. All of the steploading tests were conducted at a constant value of R. Careful study of the data shows that there does not appear to be any systematic trend which would lead one to believe that the number of steps had any influence on the results. In fact, it is rather remarkable that the expected trend of higher strength versus number of steps from a purely statistical point of view is not observed. This is probably due to the choice of starting stress for each test which was variable because each test covered a different value of R compared to the prior test. Conventional SN-tests conducted at 420 Hz on plate material were used to determine the fatigue strength corresponding to 107 cycles by least squares fit to the SN data obtained at lives close to 107 cycles. The results are shown in Fig. 8 for tests conducted at a number of values of stress ratio R from 0.5 to 0.8. It can be seen that the data lie right on top of the data from step-loading tests in the same range of R. Further, there seems to be no effect of frequency in going from 70 Hz in earlier tests to 420 Hz in the present tests.

Data were also obtained at R 0.5 and R 0.8 using the step-loading procedure to compare with the interpolated SN data (horizontal line) as shown in Fig. 9. Different values of stress in the first loading block, shown on the x-axis, were used to evaluate the effect of number of blocks for the two values of R. Numbers in parenthesis in the figure indicate the number of load blocks used to determine the stress corresponding to 107 cycles. In both the plate material used here and the bar material used elsewhere, the failure at R 0.5 is purely fatigue, while at R 0.8, it is observed that the fracture surface shows no indication of fatigue, but rather, ductile dimpling.18 This issue is discussed later. In both cases, however, Fig. 9 shows no indication of a trend with number of blocks or starting stress for the step-loading procedure. Data obtained at 1.8 kHz are presented in Fig. 10. Three types of tests are represented: conventional SN to failure, terminated SN producing runouts, and step loading at either 107 or 108 cycles. While the vertical scale is blown up significantly, it can be noted that there is very little scatter at R 0.8 where all the tests were conducted, and no influence of a history effect due to the

800 Alternating stress (MPa) 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 00 200 400 600 Mean stress (MPa) 800 1000 Maximum stress (MPa)
ML 70 Hz step ASE 70 Hz step ML 420 Hz SN Ti-6Al-4V plate 107 cycles

1100 Ti-6Al-4V bar 1800 Hz R = 0.8 1050

1000
Failure Runout Step test

950 105

106

107 108 Number of cycles

109

1010

Fig. 8 Haigh diagram for plate material comparing step test and SN data.

Fig. 10 Fatigue limit stress results at R 0.8, 1800 Hz.

Fatigue strength at 107 cycles (MPa)

950 650
From SN curve

(6) 600
(8) Ti-6Al-4V 107 cycles R =0.5, 420 Hz Step tests (5) (3)

(3)

(12)

(9) (4)

900
From SN curve

550

(2) ( ) = # steps

850

Ti-6Al-4V R =0.8, 420 Hz Step tests

( ) = # steps

500 400

550 450 500 Block 1 stress (MPa)

600

800 600

650

700 750 800 850 Block 1 stress (MPa)

900

Fig. 9 Influence of block 1 stress in step loading fatigue limit stress.

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step-loading procedure. The lower step-test data point at 108 cycles represents two independent tests which had a maximum stress within 1 MPa of each other. The data obtained at R 0.8 are of particular interest in the evaluation of the validity of the step-loading procedure. In a prior investigation on the bar material, Morrissey et al.18 noted that at high values of R, the material accumulated strain under fatigue loading. Tests conducted at different frequencies showed that the strain accumulation was dependent primarily on number of cycles, not on time, so that the phenomenon could not

be considered to be cyclic creep. Rather, the strain accumulation is due to ratcheting. A similar phenomenon has been observed in the Ti-6Al-4V plate material, where cycling at stress ratios higher than approximately 0.7 leads to strain accumulation. Micrographs of the fracture surface at various magnifications taken with SEM are presented in Figs 11 and 12 for stress ratios R of 0.7 and 0.8, respectively. It can be observed that at R 0.7 (Fig. 11), the fracture surface looks like fatigue with well-defined faceted features and evidence of striations. At R 0.8 (Fig. 12), the features are those of a tensile

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 100 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 840MPa. R=0.7

MAG- X 400

PHOTO-0

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 20.0 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 840MPa. R=0.7

MAG- X 950

PHOTO-0

00-A-95, Ti-6-4, = 840 MPa, R =0.7, a = 0.4mm

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 10.0 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 840MPa. R=0.7 MAG- X 3.00 PHOTO-0 EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 500 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 840MPa. R=0.7 MAG- X 3.00 PHOTO-0

Fig. 11 Fractographs at R 0.7.

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 100 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 69/MPa. R=0.7

MAG- X 26.0

PHOTO-0

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 500 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 69/MPa. R=0.7

MAG- X 26.0

PHOTO-0

00-A-91, Ti-6-4, = 920 MPa, R = 0.8

EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm 100 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 697MPa. R=0.7 L- SEI MAG- X400 PHOTO-0 EHI - 15.0 KV WD - 15 mm L- SEI 20.0 m 00-A95 Ti-6-4, 920MPa. R=0.8 MAG- X 26.0 PHOTO-0

Fig. 12 Fractographs at R 0.8.

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test with ductile dimpling in evidence and no indications of cleavage or striations. The crossover point, at about R 0.75, is nominally the same as in the bar material as reported by Morrissey et al.18 Data obtained over a range of frequencies from 30 to 1000 Hz under our HCF program at various laboratories are presented in Fig. 13 for R 0.8. Including our own (ML) data at 420 Hz, there is very little scatter over the fatigue cycle range from 105 to 108 cycles, and no effect of frequency although frequencies of each data point are not shown. Additional data from Honeywell are shown in Fig. 14 at R 0.8 at both 60 and 200 Hz. No frequency effect is apparent, the scatter is minimal, and data using the step-test procedure at 107 cycles fall right on top of the other data. From these results, as well as from Fig. 10 at 1800 Hz, it is concluded that step testing produces an accurate estimate of fatigue limit stress in the 107108 life regime for R 0.8 in the titanium plate where strain ratcheting is the dominant fatigue failure mechanism.

Last, we look at data from two sources on the number of cycles on the last loading block in the step-loading tests when a crack is present. Data in Fig. 15 are obtained on a notched specimen which was precracked in LCF and tested in HCF with blocks of 107 cycles.19 It was observed that the specimens typically failed early in the block, within a million cycles, indicating that the precrack eliminated some of the initiation life. A similar observation can be made for the data in Fig. 16 which are obtained on a C-shaped specimen which was originally a pad in a fretting fatigue experiment where cracks were formed on the pad in the contact region. From earlier observations, the HCF load block was reduced from 107 to 2 106. Here, again, most of the failures occur within a million cycles, indicating that initiation life in the step tests is reduced or eliminated. Of significance is the observation that in both series of tests, uncracked specimens failed at a random number of cycles up to 107, which was the loading block used in the step tests in both cases for uncracked specimens.

1000 Maximum stress (MPa)

1107 Ti-6Al-4V 8106 107 cycle blocks Kt = 2.2 notch

950

Last block cycles All data ML 420 Hz 106 Cycles 107 R = 0.8 108

6106 4106 2106 0100 0

900

850

800 105

100

200 300 400 Crack depth (microns)

500

600

Fig. 13 SN data obtained from 30 to 1000 Hz.

Fig. 15 Number of cycles in last block for notched bars with LCF cracks.

2106 50 Stress range (ksi) 40 60 Hz 60 Hz Runout 60 Hz Step test 200 Hz 200 Hz Step test Ti-6Al-4V Plate R = 0.8 Last block cycles Ti-6Al-4V 1.5106 1106 5105 0100 105 106 Cycles to failure 107 108 2106 cycle blocks C specimen

30

20 104

50

100 150 Crack depth (microns)

200

Fig. 14 Honeywell data at 60 and 200 Hz.

Fig. 16 Number of cycles in last block for C-specimens with LCF cracks.

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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The experimental observations presented in this paper indicate that the step-loading procedure used in this investigation provides a valid method for determining the fatigue limit stress corresponding to a given number of cycles in the high cycle regime. The procedure is demonstrated to be valid on Ti-6Al-4V and produces data consistent with those obtained from conventional SN testing, even at cycle counts as high as 108. There is no apparent effect of coaxing or any other load-history dependent phenomenon when testing at R 0.8 where cyclic creep and ratcheting have been observed to be present. Acknowledgements This project was supported by the U.S. Air Force under the National Turbine Engine High Cycle Fatigue Program. Special thanks are due to Mr David Maxwell and Ms Alisha Hutson of University of Dayton Research Institute and Dr Monty Moshier of AFRL for providing some of the data. Thanks are also due to many of the staff of UDRI who helped in the experiments, and particularly to John Porter for the excellent fractography work.
REFERENCES
1 Gough, H. J. (1926) The Fatigue of Metals, Ernst Benn Limited, London. 2 Smith, J. H. (1910) Some Experiments on Fatigue of Metals. Jour. Iron and Steel Inst., Part II. 3 Moore, H. F. and Jasper, T. M. (1924) An Investigation of the Fatigue of Metals. Bulletin no. 136, Eng. Expt. Stat., University of Illinois, Urbana. 4 Sinclair, G. M. (1952) An Investigation of the Coaxing Effect in Fatigue of Metals. ASTM Proceedings, Vol. 52, pp. 743758. 5 Forsyth, P. J. E. (1969) The Physical Basis of Metal Fatigue. Blackie. & Son Ltd., London. 6 Moore, H. F. and Wishart, H. B. (1933) An `Overnight' Test for Determining Endurance Limit. Proceedings of the ASTM, Vol. 33, Part II, pp. 334347. 7 Prot, M. (1937) Un Nouveau Type de Machine D'Essai des Metaux a la Fatigue per Flexion Rotative. Rev. Metall. 34, 440

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p.: see also: Prot, M. (1948) Fatigue tests under progressive load. A new technique for testing materials. Rev. Me tall. 45, 481489. Ward, E. J., Schwartz, R. T. and Schwartz, D. C. (1953) An Investigation of the Prot Accelerated Fatigue Test. Proceedings of the ASTM, Vol. 53, pp. 885891. Corten, H., Dimoff, T. and Dolan, T. J. (1954) An Appraisal of the Prot Accelerated Fatigue Test. Proceedings of the ASTM, Vol. 54, pp. 875894. Dolan, T. J., Richart, F. E. Jr and Work, C. E. (1953) The Influence of Fluctuations in Stress Amplitude on the Fatigue of Metals. Proceedings of the ASTM, Vol. 49, pp. 646. Hempel, M. (1956) Performance of Steel under Repeated Loading. Fatigue in Aircraft Structures, (Edited by Freudenthal, A. M.), Academic Press, New York, pp. 83103. Epremian, E. and Mehl, R. F. (1952) A Statistical Interpretation of the Effect of Understressing on Fatigue Strength. Fatigue with Emphasis on Statistical Approach, ASTM STP 137, pp. 5869. Vitovec, F. H. and Lazan, B. J. (1955) Strength, Damping and Elasticity of Materials Under Increasing Reversed Stress with Reference to Accelerated Fatigue Testing. Proceedings of the ASTM, Vol. 55, pp. 844862. Nicholas, T. and Maxwell, D. C. (1999) Evolution and Effects of Damage in Ti-6Al-4V under High Cycle Fatigue. Progress in Mechanical Behaviour of Materials Proceedings of ICM-8, (Edited by Ellyin, F. and Provan, J. W.), Vol. III, pp. 11611166. Moshier, M. A., Nicholas, T. and Hillberry, B. M. (2001) Load History Effects on Fatigue Crack Growth Threshold for Ti-6A1-4V and Ti-17 Titanium Alloys. Int. J. Fatigue 23, S253S258. Maxwell, D. C. and Nicholas, T. (1999) A Rapid Method for Generation of a Haigh Diagram for High Cycle Fatigue. Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics: 29th Volume, ASTM STP 1321, (Edited by Panontin, T. L. and Sheppard, S. D.), American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 626641. Bathias, C. (2000) Relation Between Endurance Limits and Thresholds in the Field of Gigacycle Fatigue. Fatigue Crack Growth Thresholds, Endurance Limits, and Design, ASTM STP 1372, pp. 135154. Morrissey, R. J., McDowell, D. L. and Nicholas, T. (1999) Frequency and Stress Ratio Effects in High Cycle Fatigue of Ti-6Al-4V. Int. J. Fatigue 21, 679685. Moshier, M. A., Hillberry, B. M. and Nicholas, T. (2000) The Effect of Low-Cycle Fatigue Cracks and Loading History on the High Cycle Fatigue Threshold. Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics: 31st Volume, ASTM STP 1389, (Edited by Halford, G. R. and Gallagher, J. P.), American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 427444.

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