The characterization of small fatigue crack growth in PH13-8 molybdenum stainless steel

The rotor hubs of Navy CH-46 helicopters have been made of 4340 steel and had extensive corrosion fatigue problems. Since these helicopters have to be used until the year 2020, the Navy decided to replace 4340 steel with PH 13-8 Mo stainless steel. Because the rotors are exposed to high frequency high cycle fatigue, small fatigue cracks are important in estimating remaining lifetime of the components. The objective of this study was to characterize the small crack growth behavior in the PH 13-8 Mo stainless steel under various loading conditions.; Constant amplitude loading was conducted at the stress ratios, R, 0.1 and 0.4. The crack growth rate was affected by the microstructures in early stage of the growth, mainly by the size of the martensite packets and oscillated up to the crack length of 200 μm. It was found that the crack growth rate was little influenced by the stress amplitudes and stress ratios. In addition, the small crack growth rate was found to be similar to the long crack growth rate at R = 0.1 and 0.4.; Overload tests and simple block loading were performed to understand load interaction effects on the small crack growth rate. The overload tests indicated that the crack growth rate was little affected by the overload. This might result from the fact that the overload ratio used in this study was low (<1.3). However, the results of the simple block loading showed overall crack growth retardation. The compressive residual stress present at the notch root of the specimen tested at R = 0.1 may lower the effective stress ratio, R_eff, from 0.1 to negative R, and may result in the crack growth retardation.; The small crack growth behavior was also examined under the saltwater. There was no difference in the crack growth rate between under air and under saltwater. In addition, the crack growth rate of the specimens tested under the saltwater was not affected by the test frequencies of 10, 1 and 0.1 Hz. It was shown that under the saltwater the PH 13-8 Mo stainless steel had an excellent corrosion fatigue resistance.