Residual Stress and Fatigue Strength of

Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel

By Masahiko Ogirima*

To obtain the effect of cold rolling on fatigue strength, commercial 0.8% carbon eutectoid steel was cold-
rolled to various degrees of reduction and then fatigued in bending at constant deflection. On the other hand,
cold-rolled strips are always accompanied by residual stress, and the fatigue strength is much influenced by the
residual stress on the surface of cold-rolled sheets. The residual stress on the surface of the sheet cold-rolled at
each rolling rate was measured by the X-ray method (sin2ψ method) which was corrected by Fourie Analysis.

The intrinsic change of fatigue strength by cold rolling was obtained using the relation between fatigue strength
and mean bias stress. As a result, the fatigue strength increases monotonously with the reduction rate, and the
increasing rate of fatigue strength with the reduction rate in the earlier stage of cold rolling, if uncorrected by
residual stress, is very large because of the large compressive residual stress.
As an example, the residual stress on the surface of a cold-rolled sheet changes neither by the cold rolling
rate of at least more than 10% nor by the one-pass reduction in the range of 1.9%∼4.7%.

(Received October 1, 1968)

residual stress of SK5 with that of other material, the

cold-rolled strip of 18Cr-8Ni stainless steel was
Usually, mechanical properties such as tensile and
referred. This was cold-rolled to 0.3mm thick by
yield strengths are increased by cold rolling. But the about 30% reduction.
effect of cold rolling on fatigue strength is not exactly
known, and this problem is reduced to that of the
fatigue strength of prestrained material. The problem III. Experimental Procedure
is very complex because cold rolling is always
accompanied with residual stress, the value of which 1. Measurement of residual stress
varies very widely according to the crystal structure There are several methods to measure the residual
and rolling condition. It is well-known that the stress on the surface of the strip, among which the
tensile residual stress decreases the fatigue strength and X-ray method was adopted.
the compressive residual stress increases it. To When dl is the specific lattice space parallel to the
clarify the relation between fatigue strength and cold specimen surface, and dψ is the identical lattice space
rolling, commercial eutectoid steel (SK5) was cold- inclined by ψ from the surface along the direction of
rolled to various thicknesses and then fatigue tests residual stress, the relation among d⊥, dψ, and σ
were carried out. On the other hand, the residual
(residual stress) expressed in the following formula(1);
stress on their surfaces was measured by the X-ray
method, and the fatigue strength was corrected by
the known relation between fatigue strength and the
mean applied bias stress. where v is Poisson's ratio and E is Young's modulus.

This formula is called the sin2ψ method and the

plotting dψ against sin2ψ results in a straight line, the

II. Specimen Preparation
slope of which is positive if σ ＞0 (compressive stress)

Commercial eutectoid steel SK5 (standard chemical and vice versa. Moreover, when v/1+v=sin2ψ dψ is

composition) was used. The cold-rolling process is equal to d⊥ without regard to the value of stress, then

indicated in Fig. 1. Table 1 shows the thickness, the group of those straight lines cross at only one

reduction rate, number of passes, and mean reduction point dψ=d⊥, sin2ψ=v/1+v.
rate per pass. In this experiment, the measurement was carried
Annealing was carried out at 750℃ for 1 hr in vacuo, out using a diffractonieter. The condition of
with attention to decarburization. Test pieces for diffraction is shown in Table 2. Usually, the diffrac-
fatigue and tensile tests were cut parallel to the tion pattern of the heavily-deformed crystal is very
rolling direction into the forms indicated in Fig. 2. broad. Therefore, in order to determine a correct
Since their fatigue characteristics is very sensitive to diffraction angle, the pattern was approximated to a
surface defects such as flaws and rusts, the test pieces parabola and the correct diffraction angle was gained
were handled with much caution and preserved in oil. by means of the least squares method.
A rectangular sheets (30×50mm) for X-ray The diffraction pattern from the heavily-deformed
measurement of residual stress was cut from No.1∼ crystal is very broad and the peaks by Kα, and Kα2
No.10 strips. For the purpose of comparing the overlap with each other, so the separation of these two

* Central Research Laboratory , Hitachi Ltd., Kokubunji, (1) A. L. Christenson and E. S. Rowland: Trans. ASM,
Tokyo, Japan. 45 (1953), 638.

Trans. JIM 1969 Vol.10

 Masahiko Ogirima 183

Fig. 1 Cold rolling process

Table 1 Reduction rate and one-pass reduction rate Table 2 Condition of diffraction

2. Fatigue and tensile tests

The fatigue tests were carried out using a resonance-

type testing machine drived by electro-magnetic force
with about 400 cps. The maximum stress of the
free-free bar is obtained on the surface at the center
of the bar. The amplitude of deflection at the center
of the bar was measured by a microscope. The
amplitude was controlled by the condenser-type
amplitude detector attached to this machine, and the
stability was very excellent.
The tests were carried out in the air and for the
purpose of cooling, air or dry nitrogen gas was blown
against the center of specimens, so that the maximum
t emperature of specimens was about 40℃. In order

to avoid strain ageing during the pause of fatigue,

fatigue tests were carried out continuously till at
least 106 cycles.
Yield stresses were obtained using Instron-type
Fig. 2 Form and size of test pieces tensile testing machine.

IV. Experimental Results

peaks is necessary to get a correct diffraction angle.
They were separated by means of Fourie analysis(2). In 1. Measurements of residual stress
t his case, the ratio of peak height of Kα1 to that of The obtained diffraction pattern A. in Fig. 3 was
Kα2 is assumed to be 0.5, and the difference between separated into two elemental diffraction patterns B
t he diffraction angle by Kα1 and Kα 2 is obtained and C by the method mentioned before. The incident
by
measuring the full-annealed material. beam was inclined by 20°, 25°, 45° to the direction of
stress and in each state, and the patterns like Fig.3
(2) S. Taira, Y. Yoshioka and Y. Sakata: Preprints for
he 4th Symposium on X-ray measurements of strength were obtaired. From Fig.3. the relation sin2ψ-
of materials, (1965), p.75. cosec θψ is calculated, and indicated in Fig.4, where
 184 Residual Stress and Fatigue Strength of Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel

θΨ is the diffraction angle when the incident beam is 2. Fatigue strength and metallography
inclincd by ψ. The calculation was carried out using
a diffraction pattern by Kα
1 (curve B in Fig.3). Each
Fig. 5 shows S-N curves of specimensNo. 1, No. 2,
point in Fig. 4 is an average value of four specimens, No. 5 and No. 9 as representative examples. The
and the divergence is very small. Calculated values deviation of the plotting points is very small. As
of residual stress for specimens No.1∼No.10 are indi- indicated in Fig. 5, the inclined parts of S-N curves
Gated in Table 3. The residual stresses of specimens are always parallel in this case, suggesting that the
No.2∼No.10 are always compressive and almost the slope of the inclined part of the S-N curve is depend-
same value. If more accurate values are required, the ent not on the reduction rate but on the other factors
lattice plane dependence, absorption factor and such as the chemicalcomposition and heat treatment.
Lorentz polarization factor are necessary to be taken Fatigue limits obtained from each S-N curve are
into account, but in this experiment these corrections plotted against the cold reduction percentage in Fig.
were neglected. Moreover, it must be noted that the 6, which shows that the fatigue limits increase
values indicated in Table 3 is not the accurate values monotonously with the cold reduction percentage.
of stress on the surface, but the mean values of stress The variation of fatigue strength at the life of 105
of several microns under the surface. Then the cycles has the same tendency as that of fatigue limits.
correct absolute value on the surface is assumed to be The outline of the fracture surface of SK5 was much
a little larger than the gained values. jugged in contrast with that of 18-8 stainless steel.

Fig. 3 Separation of a diffraction pattern (A) into two

elementary patterns (B and C)

Fig. 5 S-N curves of cold-rolled sheets

Fig. 4 The relation between sin and cosec in sample

No.10

Table 3 Residual stress of cold-rolled sheets

Fig. 6 The relation between fatigue limit and cold reduc-

tion rate (uncorrected by. residual stress)
 Masahiko Ogirima 185

Photo. 1 Optical micrographs of SK5(×720×4/5)

An incubation period from the initiation of macro-
scopic cracks to the final fracture (so-called3rd period
of fatigue) was long and at the time of fracture,
many macroscopiccracks -werevisible on the specimen
surface.
Optical micrographs of specimens No. 1 and No. 9
are shown in Photo. 1(a) and (b). Photo. 1(a) is a
usual pearlite structure and in (b) most layers of
cementite were deformed to pieces. Nonmetallic in-
clusions are very few.
the relations of these factors are assumed to be in-
dicated schematically in Fig. 9. Point P is thought
to be decided by the nature of material and P shifts
to the right side in the case,of softer* material and to
the left in the case of harder* material. For the
purpose of comparing the. residual stress of SK5 with
that of othermaterialwhichhas largerdeformability,
the residualstressof 18Cr-8Nistainlesssteel (30%
cold-rolled)was measuredby the same methodas
mentionedabove. And the result is 34.5kg/mm2

V. Discussion
1. Cold rolling and residual stress
As a matter of course, residual stress in a full-
annealed material is almost zero. When this material
is cold-rolled, the residual stress arises in it. The
characteristicsand the value of residual stress is said to
be dependent on the kind of a material and the method
of rolling. Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the dependenceof
residual stress on the reduction rate and the mean
reduction rate per one pass, respectively. These
figures show that in SK5, the residual stress on the
specimen surface is almost equal in the range 9.1∼

89.7% (cold reduction pct) and 1.87∼4.68% (one

Fig. 8 The relation between residual stress and one-pass
pass reduction rate). Generally, the residual stress is reduction rate
controlled mainly by the one-pass reduction rate, and

Fig. 9 The schematic relation between cold reduction rate

and residual stress on the surface of a cold-rolled
sheet
Fig. 7 The relation between residual stress and cold reduc-
tion rate * These words mean the deformability of a material.
 186 Residual Stress and Fatigue Strength of Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel

(tensile). In the case of cold rolling of 18-8 stainless the minimum value indicated, of course, the intrinsic
steel, the influence of martensitic transformation in fatigue strength when the residual stress does not
the course of cold rolling must be taken into consider- decrease at all. According to Fig. 10, the intrinsic
ation. fatigue strength increases monotonously by cold
rolling, but the change of fatigue strength in the range
2. Fatigue strength and residual stress of small cold reduction rates is larger in Fig. 6 because
Fig. 6 does not indicate the intrinsic relation of the effect of residual stress. Fatigue strength (both
fatigue limit and fatigue life) increases by cold rolling.
between fatigue strength and cold rolling rate, because
The fatigue limits of 90% cold-rolled specimen reaches
the effect of residual stress due to cold rolling is
about 1.5 times of full-annealed one. This increase
included in the fatigue strength obtained by the
is thought to be due to the high dislocation density,
usual testing method. The effect of residual stress
on fatigue strength has been studied by many research- formation of fibre structures and deformation of
ers, but the established theory about the relation pearlite structures (Photo. 1 (b)). The variation of
between residual stress and fatigue strength has never fatigue strength indicated in Fig. 10 includes all these
factors. In this experiment, these factors could not
been proposed. Then, the residual stress is assumed
to be regarded as mean bias stress and from the be separated but the increase of dislocation density is
considered to be a predominant factor. Fukui et al. (10)
experimental results of Sires(3), fatigue strength σω
can be related with mean bias stress σb (in this case σb
indicated that in 0.22% carbon steel, the fatigue limits
is equal to residual stress) as in the following formula: decreased once after small torsional deformation
(about several pct) was applied and increased by
(1) larger deformation.
In order to know the effect of the individual factors,
where σy is the yield stress and σ ω0 is the fatigue
microscopic investigations using a simpler material
strength when σb=0. The numerical coefficient 0.5
is expected.
is almost constant without regard to the kind of
material. The yield strength of each specimen was
obtained from stress-strain curves of tensile tests.
According to the formula (1), correction of Fig. 6 was
carried out and the result is indicated in Fig. 10.
Here, the variation of residual stress during the fatigue
test must be taken into consideration. These problems
have been studied mainly by Taira et al.(4)∼(9), and

according to their results, the variation of residual

stress is much, dependent on both the initial value of
residual stress and on the cyclic stress amplitude. In
most cases, the residual stress has a tendency to
decrease monotonously with fatiguing, but about 70%
of the initial value remains even after fatiguing to
107 cycles, and it does not happen that the whole
residual stress vanishes after fatigue tests. Of course
the microscopic stress distribution in the heavily
damaged region by fatiguing is very different from
that of the matrix (not so heavily damaged). But the
relation indicated by formula (1) is that between the
macroscopic stress state and fatigue strength, and in
this experiment, the residual stress was measured by
the X-ray method in a considerably large area, so that
the correction of Fig. 6 using the relation of formula Fig. 10 The relation between fatigue limit and coldreduc-
tion rate (correctedby residual stress)
(1) is considered to be reasonable. The maximum
value of each plotting point in Fig. 10 indicates the
intrinsic fatigue strength when the residual stress VI. Summary
decreases to 70% of the initial value by fatiguing, and
0.8% carbon steel (SK5) was full-annealed and cold-
(3) G. Sines: Metal Fatigue (1959), p.145. rolled to various degrees of reduction, and fatigue
(4) S. Taira and Y. Murakami: J. Japan Soc. Test.
Mater., 7 (1958), 591. tests were carried out. Residual stress on the surfaces
was measured by the X-ray method, and the intrinsic
(5) S. Taira and R. Kitano: ibid, 7 (1958), 552.
(6) S. Taira and Y. Murakami: ibid, 8 (1959), 607. relation between reduction rate and fatigue strength
(7) S. Taira and Y. Murakami: J. Japan Inst. Metals, was obtained using the relation between fatigue
23 (1959), 603. strength and the mean bias stress. The results are
(8) S. Taira and Y. Murakami: Treatise Complication as follows:
Japan Soc. Mach., 25 (1959), 545.
(9) S. Taira and Y. Murakami: J. Japan Soc. Test.
(1) Residual stress on the surfaceis about -30kg/
Mater., 9 (1960), 475. mm2 (compressive) and almost independent of the
degree of reduction (in the range 10∼90%) and the
(10) S. Fukui and S. Sato: Rep. Res. Inst. Sci. and Tech.
Tokyo Univ., 3 (1949), 311. mean one-pass reduction rate (in the range 1.9∼4.7%).
 Masahiko Ogirima 187

(2) Fatigue strength of cold-rolled strips increases Acknowledgments

monotonously with cold reduction rate. The author wishes to express his appreciation to
(3) Taking account of residual stress, the increasing Dr. H. Ohara for his kind support to carry out his
rate of fatigue strength with the degree of reduction is work. Thanks are also due to the General Manager
smaller in the range of small reductions (about 0∼
of Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd., for his
20%).
permission to publish this paper.