Very high cycle fatigue behavior of dissimilar martensitic stainless-steel diffusion-bonded joints

Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behavior of the diffusion bonded joints between 3Cr13 and 2Cr13 were investigated. Results showed that the diffusion bonded joints obtained a comparable fatigue property of 2Cr13, and the S-N curves exhibited a decreasing shape characteristic. However, fatigue life was dramatically decreased by occasional non-diffusion defects. Fatigue cracks in diffusion bonded joints occurred at specimen's surface in high cycle regimes, whereas VHCF cracks were originated from inclusions on the side of 2Cr13 based materials, in which the fine granular area (FGA) characteristics were observed around the internal inclusion. Furthermore, fatigue strength of the diffusion joints was interpreted based on the Murakami model. The crack propagation life estimated by Paris-Hertzberg-McClintock model mainly contributed for the fatigue life of the specimens with occasional non-fusion defects, in which non-fusion defects acted as pre-cracks.