Development of a novel methodology to study fatigue properties using the small punch test

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.01.074Get rights and content
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Abstract

Small scale mechanical test methods are now widely recognised as an established and quantifiable means of obtaining useful mechanical property information from limited material quantities. Much research has been gathered employing such approaches, but to date these methods have largely been restricted to characterising the creep, tensile and fracture characteristics of numerous materials and alloys through the small punch (SP) test. Clearly, a key element that is missing from this list of fundamental mechanical properties is understanding the cyclic response of the material, a significant form of damage that accounts for a large proportion of in-service failures in critical structural components. Therefore, in order to profit from the numerous benefits that SP testing has to offer, including a small sample size and hence reduced cost, a small scale fatigue testing methodology is now required to provide a holistic mechanical property evaluation. Such an innovative approach would provide real potential benefit to the engineering mechanical characterisation community. This paper will discuss the development and implementation of this highly bespoke SP fatigue testing methodology that can accommodate alternative loading ratios and frequencies to mimic conventional fatigue data. A number of novel experiments have been performed on the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V with accompanying analysis and fractography detailed. Numerical correlations to uniaxial fatigue data is also presented through the use of Finite Element Analysis.

Keywords

Titanium alloys
Small punch test
Fatigue
Fractography
Finite element analysis
Numerical correlations

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