Residual Stress of a TC17 Titanium Alloy after Belt Grinding and Its Impact on the Fatigue Life

Abstract

Titanium alloy materials are widely used in the design of key parts, such as aeroengine blades and integral blades. The surface residual stress has a great influence on the fatigue life of the parts mentioned above. Presently, abrasive belt grinding can form residual stress on the surface. However, the formation mechanism has not yet been revealed, providing the impetus for the present study. First of all, the surface residual stress is characterized based on Bragg’s law. The influence of contact force, reciprocating frequency, and feed speed on the residual stress of a titanium alloy abrasive belt grinding is obtained using an experimental method. The residual stress model is simulated by the tensile force on the surface of the model, and the fatigue life of the bar under a sinusoidal tensile load is analyzed by simulating the fatigue test of the titanium alloy bar. Finally, fatigue testing and fracture analysis are carried out. The experimental results show that with the increase of the grinding contact force, increase of the reciprocating frequency, and decrease of the feed speed, the residual compressive stress on the surface of the parts increases and the fatigue life is higher at the same working stress level. It also shows that the residual compressive stress produced by abrasive belt grinding is in the range of 120–300 MPa. The fatigue simulation curve’s inflection point appears at the level of 550 MPa. The error between the simulation data and the experimental data is less than 10%, which shows the accuracy of the simulation experiment. The fracture morphology at room temperature is a ductile fracture with fine equiaxed dimples.