A B S T R A C T The microstructural features and the fatigue propensities of interior crack initiation region for very-high-cycle fatigue (VHCF) of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy were investigated in this paper. Fatigue tests under different stress ratios of R = À1, À0.5, À0.1, 0.1 and 0.5 were conducted by ultrasonic axial cycling. The observations by SEM showed that the crack initiation of VHCF presents a fish-eye (FiE) morphology containing a rough area (RA), and the FiE and RA are regarded as the characteristic regions for crack initiation of VHCF. Further examinations by TEM revealed that a layer of nanograins exists in the RA for the case of R = À1, while nanograins do not appear in the FiE outside RA for the case of R = À1, and in the RA for the case of R = 0.5, which is explained by the Numerous Cyclic Pressing model. In addition, the estimations of the fatigue propensities for interior crack initiation stage of VHCF indicated that the fatigue life consumed by RA takes a dominant part of the total fatigue life and the related crack propagation rate is rather slow.Keywords crack initiation; fatigue life; nanograins; Ti-6Al-4V alloy; very-high-cycle fatigue.
N O M E N C L A T U R E2a FiE = equivalent diameter of FiE 2a RA = equivalent diameter of RA ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi area p = equivalent size of FiE or RA A, m = material parameters BFI = bright field image BSE = back scattered electron (imaging) EG = equiaxed α grain FIB = focused ion beam FiE = fish-eye FGA = fine granular area HAADF = high angle annular dark field (imaging) ΔK FiE = range of SIF in FiE region ΔK RA = range of SIF in RA ΔK th = threshold of SIF LM = lamellar structure NCP = numerous cyclic pressing NG = nanograin N f = total fatigue life N i = fatigue life of crack initiation RA = rough area SAD = selected (electron) area diffraction SIF = stress intensity factor VHCF = very-high-cycle fatigue