Very Long Life Fatigue Behavior of Bearing Steel AISI 52100

For many applications, the understanding of very long life fatigue in materials becomes extremely important. In this study, the fatigue behavior of bearing steel GCr15 (conforming to AISI 52100) at very high number of cycles has been examined. Experiments on hourglass specimens were conducted in air at room temperature, for fully reversed loading condition (R=-1), using a piezoelectric fatigue testing machine operating at a frequency of 20kHz. The results indicate that the S-N data does not reach a horizontal asymptote (signifying the fatigue limit) at 107 cycles, as conventionally believed, and that the material can fracture up to 109 cycles. Therefore, to quote a fatigue limit at 107 cycles may not hold good for the material studied. The influence of defects (such as inclusions) on the crack initiation and fracture was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy.