High-cycle fatigue and fracture behaviours of Cu-Be alloy with a wide strength range

ABSTRACT The high‐cycle fatigue and fracture behaviours of Cu‐Be alloy with tensile strength ranging from 500 to 1300 MPa acquired by different treatments were studied. Fatigue crack initiation, fracture surface morphologies, S‐N curves and fatigue strength show obvious differences due to the change of microstructure. At relatively low‐strength level, some fatigue cracks originated from defects; while at high‐strength level, all the fatigue cracks initiated from cleavage facets. It was found that the fatigue ratio increases linearly and fatigue strength changes quadratically with increasing tensile strength, only considering one strengthening mechanism. Finally, the fatigue strengths of various Cu‐Be alloys were summarized.