Fatigue of highly strengthened Cu–Ag alloys

The fatigue behaviour of high strength Cu–Ag alloys for applications as conductor materials in pulsed high-field magnets is reported. The desired high strength level is achieved through a combination of thermal treatments and heavy cold forming. The fatigue performance of all the three investigated alloys proved to fit the prospected service requirements in that a fatigue lifetime in the range of 5–9 · 103 cycles to failure is observed, when a stress amplitude of σa = 500 MPa at a load ratio R = 0.1 is applied.