The characteristics of granular-bright facet in hydrogen pre-charged and uncharged high strength steels in the very high cycle fatigue regime

In this study, the effect of hydrogen on fatigue strength of high strength steels in the very high cycle fatigue regime was further discussed. It is found that the calculated results of fatigue strength by modified Murakami's expression are in good accordance with the experimental results in +/- 15% error band. The relationship between fatigue life (N-f) and the ratio of granular-bright facet (GBF) to inclusion size (root A(GBF)/root A(inc)) for quenching and tempering (QT) specimens and pre-charged specimens by soaking (SK) and cathodic (CD) charging can be approximately expressed by root A(GBF)/root A(inc) = R-GBF/R-inc = 0.25N(f)(0.125); however, the value of root A(GBF)/root A(inc) for specimens pre-charged by high-pressure thermal hydrogen charging is obviously greater than that for QT specimens and pre-charged specimens by SK and CD charging at an identical N-f. The stress intensity factor range at the periphery of the GBF, Delta K-GBF, was calculated in this work. It is found that value of Delta K-GBF is not a constant but approximately proportional to (root A(GBF))(1/3). Besides it is also found that Delta K-GBF decreases with the increase of hydrogen content.