Retardation of fatigue crack growth in rotating bending specimens with semi-elliptical cracks

Abstract

This work investigates overload-induced retardation effects for semi-elliptically cracked steel round bars. The specimen geometry equals the shaft area of a 1:3 down-scaled railway axle and the material is extracted from railway axle blanks made of EA4T steel. Rotating bending tests under constant amplitude loading as well as overload tests considering overload ratios of ROL = 2.0 and ROL = 2.5 are conducted. The experimental results are compared to a crack growth assessment based on a modified NASGRO equation as well as the retardation model by Willenborg, Gallagher, and Hughes. The evaluated delay cycle number due to the overload by the experiments and the model shows a sound agreement validating the applicability of the presented approach.