Low-Temperature Fatigue Crack Propagation in a -Titanium Alloy
SourceFatigue crack growth rates and crack closure have been examined for a body-centered-cubic (bcc) titanium alloy (Ti-30Mo) at five test temperatures ranging from 123 to 340 K. In the same temperature range the influence of internal hydrogen (as provided by gas phase charging) has been studied. Detailed fractographic analyses have been made to quantify the amount of cleavage fracture as a function of test temperature, hydrogen concentration, and stress intensity factor range. The extent of cleavage, both cyclic and static, increased with decreasing temperature. For the lowhydrogen content specimens the fatigue crack growth resistance increased with increasing cleavage over the temperature range from 340 to 190 K. The fatigue crack growth resistance for the high hydrogen alloy remained relatively insensitive to the increasing amounts of cleavage over the same temperature range. An examination of the fatigue crack growth rate data shows that the power exponent in the following expression is in the range of 2 to 2.5 for temperatures of 123 to 340 K: