Factors Influencing the Fatigue Behavior of Ferrous Laminates

Laminates based on ultrahigh carbon steel were prepared and found to exhibit enhanced fatigue life as compared to a monolithic reference material. This result was achieved through the insertion of weak interlaminar regions of copper into the layered material during preparation of the laminates. The presence of these regions allowed for the operation of a delamination mechanism in advance of the propagating fatigue crack. The result was interlaminar separation and associated crack blunting. Stress-life curves show that an increase in life by as much as a factor of four is achieved for these materials when compared to monolithic specimens of similar processing history.