MICROSTRUCTURAL EFFECT ON LOW CYCLE FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR IN Ti-ALLOYS UNDER BIAXIAL LOADING

— Low cycle fatigue tests under axial, torsional and combined axial‐torsional loading were conducted using thin‐wall tubular specimens of Ti‐6A1–4V titanium alloys. Two kinds of alloys with different microstructures, the (α+β) and β alloys, were investigated in fatigue tests at room temperature. When the failure life was correlated with the equivalent plastic strain, the life in axial loading shifted toward the lower life region compared with those in other loading modes in both alloys. Dominant surface cracks propagated in mode I under axial and combined loading in the two alloys. Although growth by the mode II type was predominant under torsional loading, the growth direction of the main crack coincided with the specimen axis in the (α+β) alloy, but the circumferential direction in the β alloy. The cracking morphology depended on the microstructure, especially under the torsional mode of loading, and was simulated successfully by using the proposed model for crack initiation.