Effects of Surface Finish on the Fatigue Limit in Austenitic Stainless Steels (Modelling and Experimental Observations)

Advances and Challenges in Structural Integrity

“…As shown schematically in Figure 2, a component surface is made up of both external and internal features each of which can influence the incubation / initiation of defects. For example, the presence of tensile residual stresses at a surface, caused by rough machining, is known to increase susceptibility to the initiation and propagation of surface defects by fatigue, thermal-fatigue and localised corrosion [4,5,6]. Local tensile residual stresses enhance the total stress acting on microstructurally short cracks, and hence can increase local crack growth rates.…”