High Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Shot-Peened Steels

The uniaxial fully reversed (R = -1) long life fatigue behavior of four shot-peened engineering steels with approximately the same hardness was investigated. Shot-peening, air-cooled forged AISI 1141 and crackable AISI 1070 steels had little effect on their fatigue limits (+2.5 and -2.0 pct, respectively). In the case of a powder forged 0.5 pct C steel, an increase in the fatigue limit of 10.4 pct was observed, albeit with a large standard deviation. Shot-peening quench and tempered AISI 1151 steel decreased its fatigue limit 12.0 pct, as a result of cyclic softening. In general, the beneficial effects of shot-peening these smooth specimens were relatively small. Neither cyclic softening nor hardening occurred in the non-shot-peened steels cycled under the same conditions.