Study of the ratcheting by the indentation fatigue method with a flat cylindrical indenter: Part I. Experimental study

Abstract

Generally, ratcheting is studied on round specimens under tension–compression tests with a nonzero mean load. This work explored the possibility of studying ratcheting by indentation fatigue with a flat cylindrical indenter. In the experiment, emphasis was concentrated on the influence of maximum indentation load (Pmax.), indentation load variance (ΔP = Pmax − Pmin) and frequency of cycling (f) on the indentation depth–cycle curves. The experimental results showed that the indentation depth–cycle curves are analogous to the conventional strain–cycle curve of uniaxial fatigue testing, which has a primary stage of decaying indentation depth per cycle followed by a secondary stage of nearly constant rate of indentation depth per cycle. It was found that the steady-state indentation depth per cycle is an approximate linear function of maximum indentation load (Pmax) and indentation load variance (ΔP = Pmax − Pmin) in the log–log grid. This relationship can be given with a power-law expression as an analogous equation of steady-state ratcheting rate. Further study showed that the influence of frequency of cycling on the steady state indentation depth per cycle can be ignored when the frequency of cycling exceeds a certain value. Finally, comparison was made between the conventional uniaxial fatigue test and indentation fatigue test for the steady-state stage. It was shown that the conventional uniaxial fatigue parameters can be obtained by the indentation fatigue method.