PART V - Papers - Failure Modes in Nickel Fatigued in Vacuum as a Function of Temperature and Purity

Nickel, fatigued in vacuum, shows intragranular crack initiation and growth at low temperatures. An increase in temperature initially prolongs fatigue life due to a more homogeneous distribution of slip. With a further temperature increase, the mode of failure undergoes a transitiotz to intergranular crack initiation with concurrent recrystallization which results in a shorter life. The transition temperature varies with bending strain and specimen purity. UNTIL recently, very little work has been done on the effect of temperature on the mechanism of fatigue and the resultant variation in fatigue life. Except for mild steel, where strain aging raises the strength at moderate temperature, fatigue lives had been shown to decrease with an increase in temperature. In their review article, Allen and Forrest' summarized the work of McCammon and Rosenberg and of Forrest and Mann on the fatigue of copper from -269" to 325°C. The fatigue life vs stress curves remained roughly parallel over this temperature range, the fatigue strength decreasing progressively with increasing temperature. When testing was done in vacuum, the present authors' found the results for nickel were different from those quoted above. Initially, the fatigue lives increased with temperature and then decreased as a grain boundary mode of failure was observed. The initial increase was attributed to a more homogeneous distribution of slip, a condition which was not as conducive to crack initiation as the bunching of slip lines observed at 20°C. Ronay, Reimann, and wood3 observed a similar change of slip line distribution in brass, tested in air, with rising temperature. Our previous observations were based on preliminary work with relatively few specimens, fatigued at comparatively low strains. To learn more about the mechanisms, the present investigation was undertaken for the purpose of studying systematically this effect over a wider range of strains and as a function of purity of the nickel. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES The testing equipment, procedures, and specimen geometry have been described elsewhere.' An optical technique to measure bending strains was used as de-