Effects of cyclic torsional prestraining and overstrain on fatigue life and damage behavior of brass alloy

Many practical structural members and parts may be subjected to fluctuating plastic deformation by prestraining due to manufacturing and machining process (forming operation, straightening, etc.) and unintentional overstrains (misuse, accidents, under design, etc.). For this reason, the effect of the prestrain and periodic overstrains on fatigue life and damage behavior was being necessary considered for reasonable fatigue design. In this context, an experimental program was conducted to study the effects of overstrain and prestraining on fatigue life and damage behavior of brass alloy subjected to cyclic torsional loading. To establish baseline fatigue behavior, several virgin specimens were tested under fully-reversed strain control and constant amplitude fatigue torsional loading up to failure. The obtained experimental results showed that the fatigue life depends strongly on the strain amplitude and prestraining type (monotonic or cyclic). In addition, a beneficial effect in the fatigue life was observed for all tests with periodic overstrain. Cyclic fatigue fracture on a macroscopic scale revealed features reminiscent of locally ductile and brittle mechanisms. At the same time, microscopic analysis indicated a difference on fatigue fracture surface morphology between the conducted tests and those performed under constant amplitude loading.