Two types of synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SR‐CT)—projection CT (micro‐CT) and phase‐contrast imaging CT (nano‐CT)—were used to observe internal fatigue cracks in (α + β) Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy. Micro‐CT detected cracks in the specimen at ~1 μm spatial resolution, and the nano‐CT provided magnified images at ~200 nm spatial resolution. The crack initiation sites were clarified as the α‐phase for both the surface and internal cracks; however, their opening behaviors differed. A sharp crack tip was observed in the surface crack, and the crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) increased with an increase in the applied load. By contrast, a blunted crack tip, similar to that of a crack in a vacuum, was observed for the internal crack, and its CTOD remained almost constant regardless of the applied load. These phenomena are likely to explain the different behaviors of surface and internal cracks, particularly the slower growth rate of internal cracks, which leads to a longer fatigue life in the very high cycle fatigue regime.
To quantitatively investigate the cause of the changes in arithmetic mean roughness Ra and arithmetic mean waviness Wa of austenitic stainless steel under low-cycle fatigue loading, precise observation focusing on persistent slip bands (PSBs) and crystal grain deformations was conducted on SUS316NG. During the fatigue tests, the specimen’s surface topography was regularly measured using a laser microscope. The surface topographies were analysed by frequency analysis to separate the surface relief due to PSBs from that due to grain deformation. The height caused by PSBs and that by grain deformation were measured respectively. As a result, both of the heights rose with the increase of usage factor (UF). The amount of increase in the heights with respect to UF increased with strain range. The trend of development of both heights was similar with the trend of Ra and Wa. A comparison between Ra and the height caused by PSBs showed that these values strongly correlated with each other. A comparison between Wa and the height caused by grain deformation also showed that these values strongly correlated with each other. Consequently, the surface texture parameters Ra and Wa represent the changes in the heights of surface reliefs due to PSBs and grain deformation.
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