Effects of Residual Stresses on the High Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Ti-6Al-4V

Axial force-controlled fatigue tests are conducted at various stress ratios (R) on Ti-6Al-4V specimens prepared by two different manufacturing techniques (hard turning plus polishing with and without vacuum stress relieve anneal carried out after polishing). Residual stress is measured by using X-ray diffraction. Results indicate that the surface compressive residual stress lead to an increase of fatigue limit at a given life and stress ratio. This effect decreases with increasing stress ratio R. At R = 0.6, the effect of surface residual stress on fatigue limit fades away. In addition, the location of crack initiation shifts from surface to interior when the stress ratio changes from −1 to 0.6.