Effect of artificial defects on the very high cycle fatigue behavior of 316L stainless steel

Xiong, Z.*; Naoe, Takashi   ; Futakawa, Masatoshi  

The effect of surface defects on the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behavior were investigated on the solution annealed (SA) and cold-rolled (CW) 316L. Surface defects were artificially created using indentation. VHCF test was conducted using an ultrasonic fatigue method. The results showed that the fatigue crack initiation was independent of the indent with the applied range of depth in this research. Furthermore, the critical depth of the indent was evaluated based on an empirical formula. In the case of SA, the VHCF strength was not affected when the indent depth was less than 40 m, which is consistent with the value obtained from the empirical formula. In the case of 20% CW, VHCF strength was not affected when the indent depth was less than 80 m. The results were much larger than the results obtained from the empirical formula and might have been caused by the plastic deformation, residual stress and probable deformation induced martensite transition around the indent.