SEDL / STP / STP1157-EB / STP15344S

Fatigue Characteristics of Heavily Cold-Rolled Cu-20Nb

Biner, SB
Associate metallurgist and senior metallurgist, Ames Laboratory—U.S. Department of Energy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA

Spitzig, WA
Associate metallurgist and senior metallurgist, Ames Laboratory—U.S. Department of Energy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA

Pages: 15    Published: Jan 1992

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Abstract

Initiation and growth of fatigue cracks emanating from four different notches ranging in stress concentration factors from 2.0 to 9.6 were investigated. Results obtained for Cu-20Nb were compared with the results obtained for pure copper that was cold rolled the same amount as the Cu-20Nb. The Cu-20Nb exhibited superior fatigue characteristics in comparison to pure copper. Finite element method simulations indicated that this improvement is associated with the plasticity-induced crack closure resulting from nonhomogeneous deformation ahead of the crack tip due to the presence of the niobium filaments.