International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE

5120 differing in microstructure
Hubert Bomas ⇑, Klaus Burkart, Hans-Werner Zoch
Stiftung Institut für Werkstofftechnik (IWT), Badgasteiner Straße 3, 28359 Bremen, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this investigation notched and fracture mechanics specimens were machined from the steel SAE 5120
Received 24 April 2012 (DIN EN 20MnCr5) in two cleanliness conditions. The first material is used for high-performance compo-
Received in revised form 5 October 2012 nents and is nearly free of oxides. The second material is standard steel and used for common requests in
Accepted 8 October 2012
the field of drive engineering containing non-metallic inclusions in a dimension that is state of the art in
Available online xxxx
steel making. The notched specimens were case-hardened in two different ways. Afterwards, the surfaces
were ground and therefore showed compressive residual stresses. Uniaxial VHCF tests were performed
Keywords:
up to 200 million cycles under the stress ratios R = 1 and R = 0 using two resonant pulse systems. For
Case-hardened steel
Crack initiation
this purpose the geometries of the specimens had been optimised so that the achieved test frequency
Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) was 190 Hz. Fatigue failure is possible at all applied numbers of cycles meaning that there is no real fati-
Kitagawa diagram gue limit in this region. Fatigue crack initiation took place from different origins and at different sites.
Competing sites of crack initiation Different analyses are shown for interpretating the type of fatigue crack initiation and its site in the spec-
imen. The fracture mechanics specimens were blank hardened in order to have the core properties of the
notched specimens. Crack propagation was measured in the near-threshold region. An extended Kitaga-
wa diagram is shown to demonstrate the influence of stress amplitude and flaw size on the failure
probability.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Many components especially in the field of transportation reach
lifetimes beyond 107 load cycles. Nevertheless, the common endur-
ance limit is determined for that number of load cycles. So, re-
cently an increasing number of investigations has been made to
find out if the conventional endurance limit supplies sufficient
knowledge for safe life design. More and more investigations show
the over tens of years assumed endurance beyond 107 load cycles
does not exist. In some cases it was verified that failure also occurs
after 1010 cycles. In consequence the failure mechanisms in the
VHCF regime have to be analysed and loading cycle dependent
endurance limits have to be established.
This paper is based on experimental results gained by the
authors that have partially been published [12]. The novelties of
this paper are a mathematical analysis of the influence of specimen
and load parameters on the type of crack initiation, crack-propaga-
tion data for the core material, the presentation of modified Kitag-
awa diagrams that contain an equivalent crack length and
equivalent stresses and thus make it possible to introduce data
from different load and specimen types into one diagram, and last
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 4298 467455.
E-mail address: hubert@bomas.de (H. Bomas).
but not least the calculation of local failure probabilities. Different
crack initiation sites as well as different crack initiation mecha-
nisms can be described by several statistical models [21]. The nat-
ure of local crack initiation led to a statistical characterisation
which is based on perceptions of the competing risks theory [15].
Concerning other theoretical considerations, it was necessary to
make assumptions about the material behaviour which are in each
case specified. A more general one is that the endurance limit as a
random variable follows a two-parametric Weibull distribution, an
assumption which has been made by many scientists e.g. [31].
2. Specimen preparation
Two steels of the type SAE 5120 (DIN EN 20MnCr5) in different
cleanliness conditions have been examined. Their chemical compo-
sitions are given in Table 1.
From these materials two similarly notched specimen types
were machined, differing in the radius of the circumferential notch
(Fig. 1). The first geometry had a notch radius q = 6 mm resulting
in a stress concentration factor Kt = 1.14. The second geometry
had a notch radius q = 4 mm causing a stress concentration factor
Kt = 1.21. Additionally, flat fracture mechanics specimens were ma-
chined (Fig. 1).

0142-1123/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
2 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

Nomenclature

a hydrostatic stress sensitivity M mean stress sensibility

q notch radius m Weibull shape parameter for endurance limit
r63 Weibull scale parameter for endurance limit mA Weibull shape parameter for surface endurance limit
s63 Weibull scale parameter for shear stress endurance lim- mV Weibull shape parameter for volume endurance limit
it N number of cycles
sa local shear stress amplitude Nf number of cycles to failure
ra,eq equivalent stress amplitude p local hydrostatic stress
rI,II,III ordered local principal load stresses P probability
rIr,IIr,IIIr ordered local principal residual stresses Pf probability of failure
rW local endurance limit for symmetric loading r radius
rW0 local endurance limit for symmetric loading of defect- R stress ratio
free material Rz 10-point height roughness defined as the average sum-
a defect size, crack length mation of the five highest peaks and the five lowest val-
A surface area leys
a0 border between long and short cracks according to S nominal stress
Kitagawa’s diagram Sa nominal stress amplitude
aeq equivalent defect size or crack length SD nominal endurance limit for R = 0
area projected area of a defect SW nominal endurance limit for symmetric loading
CHD depth of case hardening t depth
f, F proportionality factors V volume
h hazard rate VHCF very high cycle fatigue
Ha parameter describing the influence of hardness on a W width of fracture mechanics specimen
HT heat treatment indicator Y geometry factor
HV Vickers hardness YR surface factor
K stress intensity factor
K1ox oxidic cleanliness according to DIN 50 602
Kt stress concentration factor

After machining two differing heat treatments were applied to
the notched specimens of both steel variants:
1. One fraction of the specimens was case-hardened according to
the following procedure: low pressure carburizing acetylene
940 °C/austenitizing 850 °C 20 min/furnace cooling/austenitiz-
ing 850 °C 20 min/quenching 10 bar N2 room tempera-
ture + tempering 180 °C 2 h. This treatment will be addressed
as ‘‘single’’.
2. The second fraction of the specimens was directly case-hard-
ened the following way: low pressure carburizing acetylene
940 °C/austenitizing 850 °C 20 min/quenching 10 bar N2 room
temperature + tempering 180 °C 2 h. This treatment will be
addressed as ‘‘direct’’.
For the purpose of calculation a heat treatment indicator HT is
defined: HT = 0 means direct hardening, HT = 1 means single hard-
ening. The variation of material cleanliness, specimen geometry
and heat treatment led to six variants: A, B, C, D, E and F. Table 2
gives an overview.
After heat treatment of the notched specimens the near surface
structure is martensitic with a carbon content of about 0.7% and a
volume fraction of retained austenite up to 20%. The case harden-
ing depth CHD, which is defined as the depth below the surface
where Vickers hardness decreases to a value of 550 HV, is about
0.7 mm for all variants. The core material consists of a differing
mixture of martensite and bainite depending on the chemical com-
position of the regarded material and the applied heat treatment.
The determined surface, respectively core hardness is listed in
Table 3.
After heat treatment the surfaces of the notched specimens
were ground resulting in a surface roughness Rz = 3.6 ± 0.8 lm
(average and standard deviation). Residual stresses have been
measured in notch root and in the depth beneath the notch root
and will be used for the calculation of the endurance limit. A typ-
ical result of these measurements has already been published [12].
The fracture mechanics specimens were not carburised, but
only blank hardened: The before described heat treatments were
applied without the first step containing the carburising. In the fol-
lowing, two variants of these specimens are considered that, due to
their heat treatment, comply with the core materials of variants E
and F in Table 2. Since no mistaking is to be suspected, these vari-
ants of fracture mechanics specimens are also called E and F.
3. Fatigue behaviour
3.1. Conditions of constant amplitude lifetime tests
Lifetime tests were performed uniaxially at the notched speci-
mens in an electro-magnetic resonant system under the stress ra-
tios R = 1 and R = 0 up to a limit of 2  108 load cycles. Due to the
stiffness of the specimens, load frequencies between 180 and
190 Hz were achieved. A correlation between the two geometries
and the resulting load frequency could not be verified.

Table 1
Chemical composition of materials (mass-%).

Steel C Si Mn P S Cr Mo Ni Al Cu
Superclean 0.22 0.17 1.35 0.014 0.011 1.23 0.02 0.07 0.031 0.04
Normal 0.21 0.28 1.21 0.010 0.031 1.21 0.04 0.22 0.021 0.16

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 1. Geometry of the fatigue specimens; left: mildly notched specimen for lifetime investigations, q = 4 mm; middle: similar specimen, but q = 6 mm; right: specimen for
long-crack propagations tests.

Table 2
Examined variants of the notched specimens and corresponding cleanliness, geometry and heat treatment; K1ox according to DIN 50 602.

Variants Cleanliness Notch radius q (mm) Heat treatment Heat treatment indicator
A Superclean K1ox = 0 6 Single hardening 1
B 6 Direct hardening 0
C Normal K1ox = 9 6 Single hardening 1
D 6 Direct hardening 0
E 4 Single hardening 1
F 4 Direct hardening 0

Table 3
Surface and core hardness of the examined variants. 3.2. S–N behaviour and endurance limits of the notched specimens

Variants A B C D E F
Results of the fatigue tests with the notched specimens with
Surface hardness (HV1) 729 734 677 693 699 700 R = 0 are shown in Fig. 2. It is remarkable that there is no disconti-
Core hardness (HV1) 425 466 396 408 450 453
nuity in the relation between lifetime and stress amplitude beyond

Fig. 2. S–N results at stress ratio R = 0 including types of crack initiation [12].

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
4 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

107 cycles, meaning that no true fatigue limit is observable. In ab-

sence of an accepted method to determine S–N curves including fa-
tigue lifetimes beyond 107 cycles the following procedure was
applied to obtain curves for a certain lifetime region: All applied
stress amplitudes that show at least one broken specimen in the
lifetime range between 107 and 2  108 load cycles were taken into
account to calculate partial-area Basquin curves [4] which are also
shown in Fig. 2. The restriction to this area is necessary since the
Basquin relation seems not to be applicable to the whole range
of measured lifetimes.
From the fatigue tests the endurance limits SW, SD and the mean
stress sensibilities M for a lifetime of 2  108 load cycles were cal-
culated and are listed in Table 4. The endurance limit SW is the
stress level at which the failure probability of the specimens is
0.5 at a stress ratio R = 1. Analogously, the endurance limit SD is
valid for a stress ratio R = 0. The mean stress sensibility M can be
calculated from SW and SD after Schütz [29]:
SW
M¼ 1 ð1Þ
SD

3.3. Crack initiation

Fig. 3 presents the three typical types of crack initiation found

in the fracture faces of the notched specimens. The middle picture
shows non-defect crack initiation. All specimens of the surperclean
variants A and B which failed in the VHCF regime show this type of
crack initiation in a depth beneath the case hardening depth. This
kind of failure has been described scarcely in literature and seems
to be associated with very high cycle fatigue [3,13]. It is assumed
that the non-defect mechanism is caused by different deformation
behaviours of different phases in the same microstructure as they
here exist as bainite and martensite in the core material [13].
The failure mechanism in the VHCF regime of variants C and D
was either non-defect or induced by inclusions. With regard to the
relative number of failures there is no apparent preference of one
of these two failure mechanisms in the variants C and D: Both
are observed at almost equal rates. Furthermore, no separation of
lifetime ranges concerning these two failure mechanisms occurs
in these two variants. The bottom picture shows crack-initiation
from an oxidic inclusion. A typical feature of this inclusion type
is its weak adhesion to the matrix which results in the fact only
one of the two fracture faces contains the inclusion. The presented
picture shows one half of the cavity which housed the inclusion.
Additionally to the observed two failure mechanisms of variants
C and D, specimens of variants E and F also failed at the surface due
to the sharper notch geometry. This is a third failure mechanism
which occurred (top of Fig. 3).
An overview over the frequency of occurred failure mechanisms
in the tests separated after variant and stress ratio is given in Ta-
ble 5. In this table all specimens were taken into account that were
tested at a stress level that showed no failure or at least one spec-
imen that failed after 107 load cycles according to the procedure for
the evaluation of the partial S–N curves shown in Fig. 2. So, the fo-
cus of this table is on the VHCF regime.

Table 4
Endurance limits and mean stress sensibilities M for a lifetime of 2  108 load cycles. Fig. 3. Fracture faces with different types of crack initiation; top: crack initiation at
the surface, variant F, R = 0, Sa = 470 MPa, Nf = 3  106; middle: non-defect crack
Variants SW (MPa) R = 1 SD (MPa) R = 0 M initiation, variant F, R = 0, Sa = 480 MPa, Nf = 78  106; bottom: crack initiation at an
inclusion, variant D, R = 1, Sa = 500 MPa, Nf = 32  106.
A 693 500 0.39
B 639 470 0.36
C 562 425 0.32 Since it is not easy to read the influences of different parameters
D 499 383 0.30 out of this table, a simple mathematical analysis of these data was
E 740 500 0.48
carried out. It is based on the assumption that four parameters are
F 679 470 0.44
influencing the type of crack initiation:

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx 5

Table 5
Number of fatigue specimens which failed from different origins and number of run-outs.

Variants Stress ratio R Crack origin Run-outs

Surface Inclusion Non-defect Not identified
A 1 – – 12 – 5
B – – 15 3 5
C – 5 4 – 4
D – 5 10 – 5
E 6 4 3 – 7
F 2 1 6 1 5
A 0 – 1 14 – 10
B – – 14 – 2
C – 5 7 – 8
D 1 4 10 – 5
E 10 7 – – 7
F 6 1 1 – 9

1. the oxidic cleanliness K1ox, 3.4. Long-crack propagation

2. the notch radius q,
3. the heat treatment indicator HT, The fracture mechanics specimens shown in Fig. 1 have been
4. the stress ratio R. tested with stress ratios R = 1 and R = 0 with decreasing stress
amplitudes in order to observe long-crack propagation in the
The influenced values are the probabilities Pi of crack initiation near-threshold region. As mentioned, these specimens had not
from the origin i under the condition that crack initiation takes been carburised, but only blank hardened. Since the fatigue cracks
place. The following origins have been observed: i = surface, inclu- in the notched carburised specimens often initiated rather deep
sion, or non-defect. The dependence of these conditional probabil- under the surface (Fig. 9) where the material state is not far from
ities is developed as Taylor series in the four influencing variables that of the core material the behaviour of the fracture mechanics
and stopped after the first derivative: specimens can be used to accomplish in these cases the knowledge
about crack initiation with that of crack propagation. The next
chapter will show two Kitagawa diagrams which contain these
@Pi two parts of failure.
Pi ðK1ox ; q; HT;RÞ ¼ Pi ðK1ox;0 ; q0 ; HT0 ; R0 Þ þ  ðK1ox
@K1ox To ensure an optimal observability of the crack growth with
@Pi @Pi travelling microscopes, the specimens have been polished in the
 K1ox;0 Þ þ  ðq  q0 Þ þ  ðHT
@q @HT middle section after a Chevron-notch had been inserted. Further-
@Pi more, strain gauges on the front and on the specimens’ rear side
 HT0 Þ þ  ðR  R0 Þ ð2Þ were applied to have control about a possible bending while the
@R
sample is getting clamped. At the beginning of every measurement
the specimens were cyclically loaded at a constant stress ampli-
The starting point (K1ox,0, q0, HT0, R0) for the Taylor series was cho- tude until a fatigue pre-crack of the order of 1–2 mm had formed.
sen as the respective left ends of the influencing values: K1ox,0 = 0, Keeping the stress ratio constant the stress amplitude has been
q0 = 4 mm, HT0 = 0, and R0 = 1. The partial derivatives in Eq. (2) lowered stepwise. The investigations were carried out in alignment
have been optimised by minimising the differences between the with ASTM E 647 [1].
measured and the calculated conditional probabilities with the least The stress intensity factor K depends on the crack length a and
square method. The result can be seen in Table 6. the applied tensile stress S and results to
From Table 6 it can be read that the oxidic cleanliness has no
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
influence on surface crack initiation, increases crack initiation at K ¼S p  a  YðaÞ ð3Þ
inclusions and decreases non-defect crack initiation. Increasing
the notch radius decreases the probability of crack initiation at with the geometry factor Y(a) = 1.12  0.231 a + 10.55  a2 – 21.72 
the surface and increases it inside the specimen. The heat treat- a3 + 30.39  a4 and a = a/W, where a is the average of the front’s and
ment has no influence at crack initiation at the surface. Direct
hardening supports non-defect crack initiation whereas single
hardening support crack initiation at inclusions. Increasing the
stress ratio supports crack initiation at the surface and decreases
non-defect crack initiation.

Table 6
Partial derivatives in Eq. (2) showing the influence of the oxidic cleanliness, notch
radius, heat treatment, and stress ratio on the conditional probabilities of crack
initiation at the surface at an inclusion or non-defect crack initiation.

Partial derivation Surface i = 1 Inclusion i = 2 Non-defect i = 3

@P i 0 4 4
(%)
@K1ox
@P i 24 8 17
(%/mm)
@q
@P i 0 15 16
(%)
@HT
@P i 12 0 12
(%) Fig. 4. Long-crack propagation in the near-threshold region in the core materials of
@R
variants E and F.

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
6 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx
the rear’s crack lengths and W is the width of the specimen [11].
Starting in the Paris region, at a crack propagation rate of da/
dN = 104 mm, the crack growth has been studied with stepwise
load shedding towards decreasing growth rates. Below crack prop-
agation rates of 106 mm the curve deviates from Paris-law behav-
iour and goes to the threshold value of the stress intensity factor
DKth at a crack growth rate of da/dN = 107 mm, below which prop-
agation effectively ceases. Fig. 4 shows the measured crack-growth
curves of variants E and F in blank hardened conditions at different
stress ratios.
Following ASTM E 647, the determination of DKth was achieved
by linear interpolation on da/dN = 107 mm of at least five mea-
sured values from the range da/dN < 106 mm [1]. This analysis re-
sults in the threshold values shown in Fig. 5. Single hardening
(variant E) results in better threshold values than direct hardening
(variant F).
3.5. Modified Kitagawa diagram
The Kitagawa diagram shows the endurance limit as a function
of defect sizes where the defect can be a small inclusion as well as a
long crack [22]. For establishing these diagrams the information of
the before described constant-amplitude tests at the notched spec-
imens have been used as well as results from long-crack propaga-
tion tests that have been made at the variants E and F. In order to
map the results of these different tests in one and the same Kitag-
awa diagram it is necessary to work with equivalent stress ampli-
Fig. 5. Core threshold values of variants E and F depending on the stress ratio R.
Fig. 6. Non-defect crack initiation and allotted defect area which was introduced in the Kitagawa diagram.
Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
tudes and equivalent crack lengths. Equivalent stress amplitudes
are well established, but the definition of an equivalent crack
length needs a definition:
The equivalent length aeq of a regarded crack a is half of the
length that an ideal crack must have in the condition of a through
mode-I crack in an infinite plate to produce the same stress inten-
sity factor as the regarded crack. The stress intensity factor of the
regarded crack can be described as in Eq. (3) with the remote stress
S and the geometry factor Y. In the reference condition of the re-
lated equivalent crack aeq the geometry factor equals unity so that
the stress intensity factor can be described like this:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
K ¼ S p  aeq ð4Þ
It follows for the equivalent crack length:
aeq ¼ a  Y 2 ð5Þ
With this definition and using equivalent stress amplitudes modi-
fied Kitagawa diagrams have been created. Fig. 7 shows two exam-
ples containing the following data of variants E and F:
1. Constant–amplitude VHCF tests at notched specimens as
described before with stress ratios R = 1 and R = 0. For these
tests Dang Van’s criterion was used to generate the equivalent
stress amplitude.
2. Tests at fracture–mechanical specimens of the core material
containing long cracks that have been tested at growth rates
da/dN near 106 mm. For these tests the maximum remote
stress was taken as equivalent stress amplitude.
In case of crack initiation at inclusions in the notched specimens
the fracture faces have been analysed and the projected areas of
the inclusions in the fracture faces have been determined. In case
of ‘‘non-defect’’ failure the bright appearing areas were measured
as accurate as the blurring transition to the surrounding fracture
surface allowed (Fig. 6). A comparison between the sizes of these
areas and the inclusion areas projected on the fracture face of spec-
imens that failed from inclusions showed comparable results. Both
defect types were treated as penny-shaped cracks with a crack size
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a ¼ area=p which is the radius of the penny, and a geometry fac-
tor Y = 2/p. The equivalent crack sizes a  Y2 are introduced together
with the local equivalent stress amplitude according to Dang Van’s
criterion [14] at the inclusion are introduced in the diagram as
asterisks.
In case that the notched specimens did not fail before
2  108 cycles the defect size is not known after the experiment.
It was revealed by stepwise increasing the stress amplitude till
failure occurred. Then a fracture surface analysis as stated above
area
 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx 7

took place, permitting to present the run-outs in the Kitagawa
diagram as open circles.
In summary, the points in the Kitagawa diagram from the
notched specimens can be divided into points which assign failure
and points which assign endurance up to 2  108 cycles. For the
crack propagation tests at the fracture mechanical specimen
failure was defined in agreement with the determination of the
threshold values as a crack propagation rate larger than
106 mm: 106 mm < da/dN, and endurance was defined as crack
propagation rates that lie beneath this value: da/dN < 106 mm.
El Haddad and Topper provided a formula that describes the
endurance limit as a function of the crack size which can be used
for short and long cracks [18]:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a0
rW ðaeq Þ ¼ rW0 
a0 þ aeq
This function produces a curve in the Kitagawa diagram that can be
understood as border line with a failure probability Pf = 0.5. The
filled symbols in the diagram can be understood as conditions with
a failure probability Pf = 1.0, and the open symbols in the diagram
can be understood as those with a failure probability Pf = 0.0. It
was assumed that the endurance limit obeys a two-parameter Wei-
bull distribution. The differences between the measured failure
probabilities and the Weibull distribution were minimised with
the least-square method. Thus, the two parameters of Eq. (6) could
be determined as rW0 = 746 MPa and a0 = 23 lm for variant E, and
as rW0 = 634 MPa and a0 = 20 lm for variant F.
3.6. Prediction of the endurance limit
A prediction of the endurance limit was aspired based on the
weakest-link concept. Developed by Weibull this concept is able
to describe the influence of defects on the material’s strength
[32]. It has been applied to the prediction of fatigue behaviour of
metals by different authors [23,5,30,24,6–
ð6Þ 8,2,34,19,25,9,16,33,10,28]. The basic assumption of the model is
the existence of statistically distributed defects which may initiate
fatigue cracks under cyclic loading. In the case of crack initiation
from inclusions in hard steels, it has been shown that there is a di-
rect relation between the distribution function of the endurance
limit and that one of the size of the crack initiating inclusions
[7,8]. Since fatigue crack propagation is not described by this mod-

Fig. 7. Modified Kitagawa diagrams for variants E and F.

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
8 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

el, it is only applicable to problems of fatigue crack initiation. Due

to this fact, the failure probabilities described by the weakest-link
model are crack-initiation probabilities. Since the crack initiation
mechanisms are different at the surface and in the volume of a part
– if there is volume crack initiation – it has to be distinguished be-
tween surface and volume crack initiation. In most publications
the weakest-link model has been applied either to surface crack
initiation or to volume crack initiation. Only recently, extensions
have been formulated which consider a combination of both crack
initiation mechanisms [6–10]. It should be mentioned that similar
considerations have been made for the failure of ceramics [26].
Due to their features of fatigue crack initiation and to their
hardness range, the fatigue failure of the examined steels seems
to be in accordance with the pre-conditions of the weakest-link
concept. Hence, the endurance limits were calculated on the basis
of this concept, considering the different mechanisms of crack ini-
tiation in the volume and at the surface.
To start with the calculation it is necessary to know the highly
stressed surfaces A of the specimens. They have been calculated by
the method of Böhm and Heckel [5]:
 0:95  0:55 !
2 r t
A ¼ 11:2  r   1  0:2   m0:45
A ð7Þ
q q

The results for the two specimen geometries are A = 28 and

A = 40 mm2. These areas are located in the notch root of the speci-
mens and have ring-like geometries with the diameter of the spec-
imens in the notch root. The smaller ring has a height of 1.5 mm
whereas the larger ring has a height of 2.1 mm. It is now assumed
that the highly stressed volume lies directly under the surface ring.
It is notionally divided in n volume elements Vi, all of them being of
ring-like shape (Fig. 8). The wall thicknesses of these volume rings
were chosen rather small so that homogeneous stresses can be as-
Fig. 9. Measured and calculated crude failure probabilities accumulated from the
sumed in them. surface.
For the following calculations with the weakest-link concept
failure events in these elements must be thought to be indepen-
dent from each other meaning that each of these elements has to
be imagined as small specimen tested separately from the other for the volume elements [14]. These criteria assume the equivalent
ones. Under this condition they have the failure probabilities PfA value to be a linear combination of the maximum shear stress
and Pfi (1 6 i 6 n) depending on the local equivalent stress amplitude and the mean respectively the maximum hydrostatic
amplitudes: stress: sa;max;A þ aA  pmA at the surface or sa;max;i þ ai  pmax;i in a vol-
  mA  ume element Vi. Following these criteria the local equivalent stress
  A ra;eq;A
PfA ra;eq;A ¼ 1  exp  ð8Þ amplitudes are these:
A0 r63;0;A
ra;eq;A ¼ 2  ðsa;max;A þ aA  pmA Þ ð10Þ
  mV 
  Vi ra;eq;i sa;max;i þ pmax;i
Pfi ra;eq;i ¼ 1  exp  ð9Þ ra;eq;i ¼ ð11Þ
V0 r63;0;i 1
þ a3i
2

These probabilities are two-parametric Weibull distributions of lo- The ordered local principal stresses rI, rII, and rIII (rI P rII P rIII)
cal endurance limits with the scale parameter ðA0 =AÞ1=mA  r63;0;A , are proportional to the nominal stress S of the specimen:
respectively ðV 0 =V i Þ1=mV  r63;0;i , and the shape parameter mA,
respectively mV. The local equivalent stress amplitudes are depend- rIA ¼ fIA  S; rIIA ¼ fIIAS  S; rIIIA ¼ fIIIA  S ð12Þ
ing on the chosen fatigue criteria: These were the criterion of Bo-
mas, Linkewitz and Mayr for the surface and Dang Van’s criterion rIi ¼ fIi  S; rIIi ¼ fIIi  S; rIIIi ¼ fIIIi  S ð13Þ
Ò
All the proportionality factors f are known from an ABAQUS anal-
V2 ysis which has been made. Now, the maximum local shear stress
V1 amplitudes, the mean local hydrostatic stresses and the maximum
local hydrostatic stresses can be written as functions of the nominal
stress amplitude Sa, the stress ratio R, and the local principal resid-
ual stresses:
Sa
A sa;max;A ðSa ; RÞ ¼ ðfIA  fIIIA Þ  ; pmA
2
fIA þ fIIA þ fIIIA 1 þ R rIrA þ rIIrA þ rIIIrA
¼   Sa þ ð14Þ
3 1R 3
Fig. 8. Division of the highly stressed region of the specimen in a surface element A
and small volume elements V1, V2, . . . Vn.

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx 9

Sa the local values of the materials’ Vickers hardness, of the residual

sa;max;i ðSa ; RÞ ¼ ðfIi  fIIIi Þ  ; pmax;i
2 stresses and of the load stresses. For each material state six model
fIi þ fIIi þ fIIIi 2 rIri þ rIIri þ rIIIri parameters HaV, FV, mV, HaA, FA, mA are needed to calculate the
¼   Sa þ ð15Þ endurance limits. A material state in this work is determined by
3 1R 3
the chemical composition and the carburising treatment. This re-
The parameters aA and ai are assumed to depend on the local
sults in four states which are represented by the variants A, B, E
Vicker’s hardness HVA and HVi at the surface A or in the volume
and F. The variants C and D have the same material state as E and
element Vi, respectively [9]:
F, respectively, but the notch radii are larger. The endurance limits
HVA of the variants A, B, E and F have been chosen to determine the mod-
aA ¼ ð16Þ
el parameters: By varying the six parameters until the calculated
HaA
failure probabilities Pf(SD, R) at the endurance limits meet the exper-
HVi imental ones being Pf(SD, R) = 0.5 the model parameters for variants
ai ¼ ð17Þ
A, B, E and F have been found and are presented in Table 7. The miss-
HaV
ing surface parameters for variants A and B are a result of the miss-
The reference area A0 and the reference volume V0 can be chosen
ing surface failures in theses variants. The endurance limits SD and
arbitrarily. In this work they were chosen as A0 = 1 mm2 and
SW for the variants C and D can be predicted from the determined
V0 = 1 mm3. The scale parameters r63,0,A and r63,0,i of the local
model parameters of variants E and F and have already been pub-
push–pull endurance limits refer to the reference area or volume,
lished and discussed [12].
respectively.
The following relations between the scale parameters for sym-
3.7. Calculation of crack initiation sites
metric shear and push–pull endurance limit are a direct implica-
tion of the criterion of Bomas et al., respectively Dang Van’s
Having determined the model parameters for calculating the
criterion:
endurance limit, a prediction of probable crack-initiation sites is
r63;0;A ¼ 2  s63;0;A ð18Þ possible. Since the specimen has already been divided in one sur-
face element and n volume elements the failure probabilities of
s these elements have to be considered. For the calculation of the
r63;0;i ¼ 1 63;0;iai ð19Þ
2
þ 3
endurance limit on the base of the weakest-link model failures in
these elements had to be regarded as independent from each other.
If the equivalent stresses in Eqs. (8) and (9) are replaced by the con- For the calculation of crack initiation sites in the real specimen this
cretions in Eqs. (10) and (11), and if the scale parameters of the view is not appropriate: It was observed that failure could always
push–pull endurance limits in Eqs. (8) and (9) are replaced by the be located by crack initiation in only one element which means
expressions of Eqs. (18) and (19), then the failure probabilities of that the events of failure in the different elements are not indepen-
the surface element and of the volume elements can be expressed dent but competing. In mathematics this situation is addressed as
as functions of the maximum local shear stress amplitude and the the situation of competing risks and the failure probability due to a
mean, respectively maximum local hydrostatic stress: competing risk is often called ‘‘crude’’ since it is directly observable
  m  but is not identical with the underlying ‘‘net’’ probability which de-
A sa;max;A þ aA  pmA A
PfA ðsa;max;A ; pmA Þ ¼ 1  exp  ð20Þ scribes the failure probability due to this risk if it were the only risk
A0 s63;0;A
present [15]. The theory of competing risks is usually applied to the
  m  lifetime but can be translated to the endurance limit which is nec-
V i sa;max;i þ ai  pmax;i V
Pfi ðsa;max;i ; pmax;i Þ ¼ 1  exp  ð21Þ essary in this context. It leads to the following crude failure prob-
V0 s63;0;i abilities of the surface and of the volume elements:
The elements’ scale parameters are assumed to be a linear function Z Sa
0
of the local Vickers hardness, as described by Murakami and Takah- PfA;crude ðSa ; RÞ ¼ hA ðS0a ; RÞ  ð1  P f ðS0a ; RÞÞ  dSa ð26Þ
0
ashi for endurance limits [27]. For the surface scale parameter it is
further on assumed that the influence of surface roughness can be Z Sa      0
described by a coefficient YR: Pfi;crude ðSa ; RÞ ¼ hi S0a ; R  1  Pf S0a ; R  dSa ð27Þ
0
s63;0;A ¼ F A  ðHVA þ 120Þ  Y R ð22Þ
hA and hi are the hazard rates of the surface and the volume
elements, respectively, and can be calculated as follows:
s63;0;i ¼ F V  ðHVi þ 120Þ ð23Þ
hA(Sa, R) = d(ln(1  PfA(Sa, R)))/dSa and analogously for the volume
YR is the surface factor according to the German standard DIN 3990 elements. In the following only the crude probabilities at the endur-
and considers the influence of a rough surface on the endurance ance limit SD where the failure probability of the specimen is 50%
limit of carburised gears [17]. It is estimated as independent from will be regarded. Introducing the detailed information from the
the local hardness and assumed to be valid in the range chapter before the crude failure probabilities can be substantiated:
1 lm 6 Rz 6 40 lm:

Y R ¼ 1:490  0:471  ðRz þ 1Þ0:1 ð24Þ

Since the events of failure in the surface element A and in the vol-
ume elements Vi are independent from each other the failure prob- Table 7
ability Pf of the whole specimen is: Model parameters for variants A, B, E and F.

Y
n mV HaV FV mA HaA FA
Pf ðSa ; RÞ ¼ 1  ð1  PfA ðSa ; RÞÞ  1  P fi ðSa ; RÞ ð25Þ A 68 700 0.925 – – –
i¼1
B 68 832 0.756 – – –
E 68 850 0.834 20 1000 0.471
The calculation of element failure probabilities was performed in
F 68 1100 0.691 20 1150 0.417
MS Excel sheets. The essential input quantities in this model are

Please cite this article in press as: Bomas H et al. VHCF behaviour of case-hardened specimens made of two grades of steel SAE 5120 differing in micro-
structure. Int J Fatigue (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2012.10.001
10 H. Bomas et al. / International Journal of Fatigue xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

 
A mA fIA  fIIIA fIA þ fIIA þ fIIIA 1 þ R
PfA;crude ðSD ; RÞ ¼   þ aA 
A0 s63;0;A 2 3
Z SD   The tested steels in case-hardened conditions show no real fati-
sa;max;A ðSa Þ þ aA  pmA ðSa ; RÞ mA 1
 gue limit in constant amplitude tests up to 2  108 load cycles. Due
0 s63;0;A
  m
A sa;max;A ðSa Þ þ aA  pmA ðSa ; RÞ A
 exp 
A0 s63;0;A
 m !
Xn
V i sa;max;i ðSa Þ þ ai  pmax;i ðSa ; RÞ V
  dSa ð28Þ
i¼1
V0 s63;0;i
 
V i mV fIi  fIIIi fIi þ fIIi þ fIIIi
Pfi;crude ðSD ; RÞ ¼   þ ai 
V 0 s63;0;i 2 3
Z SD  mV 1
sa;max;i ðSa Þ þ ai  pmax;i ðSa ; RÞ

0 s63;0;i
  m
A sa;max;A ðSa Þ þ aA  pmA ðSa ; RÞ A
 exp 
A0 s63;0;A
Xn  m !
V j sa;max;j ðSa Þ þ aj  pmax;j ðSa ; RÞ V
  dSa
j¼1
V0 s63;0;j
Since the failure of the surface, the failures in the volume elements
and the survival of a specimen form a complete system of events
the failure probability of the specimen can be calculated from the
crude failure probabilities in this way:
X
n Since crack-initiation is the time dominating part of the failure
Pf ðSa ; RÞ ¼ PfA;crude ðSa ; RÞ þ Pfi;crude ðSa ; RÞ
i¼1
If this summation is stopped after a certain summand the so far cal-
culated probability is the probability of crack initiation in the spec-
imen up to a certain depth from the surface (Fig. 8). It can be
directly compared with the observed relative frequency of crack ini-
tiation up to this depth.
These summations have been done for a stress amplitudes that
equal the theoretical endurance limits, and the results are shown
in Fig. 9. Additionally, this figure shows the observed relative local
failure frequencies, also accumulated from the surface.
Generally, the predicted curves have steeper parts than the
experimental ones. This can be attributed to a slight distortion of
the specimens during heat treatment resulting in the fact that
the center of the cross section in the notch roots is not in line with
the center of the heads. Thus, grinding the notch after heat treat-
ment results in different removals along the contour of the notch
followed by different CHDs. So, the strength profiles are not exactly
of rotational symmetry whereas the prediction assumes this
symmetry.
A second reason for the observed deviations between theoreti-
cal and experimental results are residual stresses that depend con-
siderably on individual cooling conditions of the specimens in the
heat treated batches and thus differ from specimen to specimen. It
is known that residual stresses are of greater importance at stress
ratio R = 1 than at R = 0 e.g. [20], a fact, that cannot be imple-
mented in the used two-parametric fatigue criteria.
In the case of stress ratio R = 1 the crack-initiation probability
at the surface is generally underestimated. The depth of the sub-
surface crack initiation is underestimated, especially for variants
C and D. These variants exhibit inclusion and non-defect failure
in the tests which is not explicitly incorporated in the endur-
ance-limit calculation.
In the case of stress ratio R = 0 the crack-initiation probability at
the surface is underestimated for specimens with the notch radius
q = 6 mm and overestimated for the sharper notches. The depth of
the subsurface crack initiation is predicted fairly exact.
4. Summary and conclusion

1R
to this, the declaration and calculation of endurance limits for
these case-hardened steels is depending on the regarded lifetime.
In other words, an endurance limit calculated from tests with a
maximum of 107 load cycles does not mean infinite life.
It is assumed that the occurrence of inclusions is more scattered
than the occurrence of the pre-conditions for ‘‘non-defect’’ failure.
Due to this, the latter one was favoured by the notched specimen
2 geometry where the tested effective volume is small compared
 to an un-notched one. The smaller the stressed volume the lower
1R
is the probability to activate an inclusion as crack-initiation site.
Contrary, the non-defect failure can be activated in the whole core
material because the two phases martensite and bainite exist
everywhere in the core. Summarised, the relation of occurrences
of these two different failure mechanisms depends on the speci-
men geometry. A quantitative analysis of this and other relations
ð29Þ between the main influencing parameters and the conditional
probabilities of the different crack-initiation types is possible with
a Taylor series in several variables which is stopped after the linear
term. With this method it is easy to identify the specific impacts of
the influencing parameters.
Long crack growth has been studied for the core materials and
crack propagation threshold values have been determined: Single
hardening results in better threshold values than direct hardening.
ð30Þ process in the VHCF regime this finding is in accordance with the
fatigue tests.
For specimens with subsurface crack-initiation modified Kitag-
awa diagrams were established which enable to show results of
different load and crack types in one diagram. For doing this, it is
necessary to define an equivalent crack size aeq ¼ a  Y 2 as well as
an equivalent stress amplitude.
Crack-initiation at the surface and in different depths in the car-
burised specimens must be regarded as competing events that ex-
clude each other. For predicting the local crack-initiation
probabilities in these specimens the weakest-link concept and
the competing risks theory was applied to the endurance limit
and to crack initiation, respectively. The weakest-link concept
was based on two-parametric fatigue criteria for the specimen sur-
face and its volume. Principally, the sites of crack initiation can be
predicted, but it seems that experimental scatter, the load-depen-
dant influence of residual stresses and the number of crack-initia-
tion mechanisms are opposing the exactness of this prediction.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support of this
work from the ‘‘Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft’’ (DFG) under
Contract Numbers ZO140/3 and ZO140/7. The latter contract is part
of the DFG priority program SPP 1466, called ‘‘Life1’’.
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