Thermo-mechanical fatigue property and life prediction of vermicular graphite iron

Thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) failure is the major problem of the cylinder head subjected to combined variations in temperature and loading during operation. This study mainly focuses on the TMF property and the life prediction of vermicular graphite iron (VGI). The ferrite clusters can be easily found from the microstructure and fractography images. Compared with the TMF experimental data testing at 125-400 degrees C and 125-500 degrees C, significant cyclic hardening occurs in the former and slight hardening does in the latter. Depending on the difference in the damage mechanism between TMF and iso-thermal low-cycle fatigue (LCF), based on the hysteresis energy, a life prediction method has been proposed at first. By the minimum amount of LCF and TMF tests, the present method can predict the TMF life rapidly, accurately and cheaply. And based on the difference in the fatigue crack propagation thresholds between pearlite and ferrite, the fracture mechanism of TMF was also discussed.