Investigation of fatigue properties of titanium alloy applying variational infrared thermography

Abstract

This paper describes the application of the infrared thermographic method to estimate the fatigue life of titanium alloy. Using a variational thermographic method, fatigue tests were implemented in order to reckon the fatigue properties. Infrared thermogarphy provides thermal images which are closely related to the limiting fatigue stress. The deformation energy distribution can be determined on the hypothesis of the cycle index five million, relative to the limiting fatigue stress. This variational thermographic method, based on the infrared thermography, is applied to rapidly estimate the fatigue limit of titanium alloy. Through the comparison, the predicted fatigue behavior is confirmed in good agreement with the traditional fatigue results. © The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. 2014.