Evaluation of crack growth behavior and probabilistic S-N characteristics of carburized Cr-Mn-Si steel with multiple failure modes

The unexpected failures of case-hardened steels in long life regime have been a critical issue in modern engineering design. In this study, the failure behavior of a carburized Cr-Mn-Si steel under very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) was investigated, and a model for evaluating the probabilistic S-N curve associated with multiple failure modes was developed. Results show that the carburized Cr-Mn-Si steel exhibits three failure modes including the surface flaw-induced failure, the interior inclusion-induced failure without the fine granular area (FGA) and the interior inclusion-induced failure with the FGA. As the predominant failure mode in the VHCF regime, the interior failure process can be divided into four stages: (i) the small crack growth around the inclusion, (ii) the stable macroscopic crack growth outside the FGA, (iii) the unstable crack growth outside the fish-eye and (iv) the momentary fracture outside the final crack growth zone. The threshold values are successively evaluated to be 2.33 MPa m1/2, 4.13 MPa m1/2, 18.51 MPa m1/2 and 29.26 MPa m1/2. The distribution characteristics of the test data in transition failure region can be well characterized by the mixed two-parameter Weibull distribution function. The developed probabilistic S-N curve model is in good agreement with the test data with multiple failure modes. Although the result is somewhat conservative in the VHCF regime, it is acceptable for safety considerations.