International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 10951107 www.elsevier.

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Simulation and evaluation of thermal fatigue cracking of hot work tool steels
Anders Persson a,, Sture Hogmark b, Jens Bergstrom a
a

Department of Materials Engineering, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden b The Gngstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden

Received 30 June 2003; received in revised form 2 February 2004; accepted 3 March 2004

Abstract Die casting is a very cost ecient method to manufacture near net-shaped and complex cast products. One limitation for further cost reduction is fatigue cracking of the tool due to thermal cycling, which is observed as a crack network on the tool surface. Hot work tool steels are commonly used as die material. In this study, an experimental test machine for simulation of thermal fatigue is described. The test is based on cyclic induction heating and internal cooling of hollow cylindrical test rods. The surface strain is continuously recorded during the thermal cycling through a non-contact laser speckle technique. The applicability of the test is demonstrated on two hot work tool steel grades, v v hardened and tempered to dierent conditions, and heat cycled between Tmin 170 C and Tmax 600850 C. It is shown that the test method can simulate surface cracking of tools exposed to thermal fatigue. The surface strain recordings proved to give sucient information to successfully deduce the strains and stresses behind the mechanism of thermal fatigue surface cracking, without knowledge of the temperature distribution below the surface. It was also found that low-cycle fatigue v occurs for the tests with Tmax 600 and 700 C, although the estimated tensile stress after cooling does not exceed the initial yield strength of the steel. Most probably, the reason is the gradual softening of the tool steels during the thermal cycling. Additionally, the presence of stress concentrators play a critical role during these conditions. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Thermal fatigue; Heat checking; Surface strain; Hot work tool steel; Die casting

1. Introduction Die casting is a very cost-ecient method of forming near net-shaped cast products of, for example, aluminium, zinc, magnesium, and copper based alloys of almost any shape [13]. Prior to casting aluminium and copper alloys, the die is normally preheated to a temv perature within the range of 250300 and 300350 C, respectively, to reduce the thermal shock, and the average tool temperature is usually kept at those levels through internal cooling. During a casting cycle, molten metal is forced into the mould by the application of pressure, the peak of which can exceed 70 MPa. A distinguishing characteristic of the process is that the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-54-700-18-21; fax: +46-54-70014-49. E-mail address: anders.persson@kau.se (A. Persson).

liquid metal ows with high velocity during injection and provides rapid lling of the die cavity, typically within milliseconds. For aluminium alloys, the entrance velocity of the melt is usually 2060 m/s and the melt v temperature is approximately 700 C, whereas those for v copper alloys is about 110 m/s and 970 C. The high melt velocity is necessary to completely ll the mould of thin-walled and complex shaped products. Continuous internal cooling of the tool during the process makes the solidication of the casting ecient, and high rate manufacturing of typically 100 castings per hour is possible. When the casting has solidied, the die is opened and the casting ejected. Thereafter, the die may be externally cooled and lubricated by spraying. Thermal fatigue cracking, gross fracture, erosion, corrosion and local adherence of the casting alloy (soldering) are important life-limiting tool failure mechanisms in aluminium and brass die casting [13]. Thermal

0142-1123/$ - see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2004.03.005

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fatigue cracking results from rapid alternations in temperature of the die surface during the casting process. The temperature cycling may induce stresses high enough to impose an increment of plastic strain in the tool surface during each casting cycle. Surface cracks develop generally within a few thousand cycles, or even earlier, and are, consequently, formed in the low-cycle fatigue range (<103104 cycles) [4,5]. Oxidation and creep may contribute signicantly to cracking [48]. Thermal fatigue damage is often observed as a network of ne cracks on the tool surface, and the cracks usually penetrate only a limited surface layer. This type of crack pattern is often named heat checking. The crack network degrades the surface quality of the tool and, consequently, the surface nish of the cast products. It may, ultimately, increase the production costs through expensive maintenance, die failures, and rejection of castings. High levels of hot strength (hot hardness), tempering resistance, creep strength, and ductility, along with low thermal expansion and high thermal conductivity are some essential properties for high resistance to thermal fatigue cracking [2]. Hot work tool steels oer several good candidates for die components. Steel grades such as AISI H11, H13, H20, H21, or H22 are frequently used as die material. Field tests of die casting tools are very expensive and time consuming. Furthermore, they do not enable the possibility to perform isolated studies on thermal fatigue cracking without any inuence from other failure mechanisms. Thus, there is a need for a simplied method to isolate and evaluate fatigue cracking of materials exposed to thermal cycling. Since this cracking is a low-cycle fatigue process, the surface strain response is of particular interest. To the authors best knowledge, no laboratory test for simulation of thermal fatigue cracking, where the surface strain response during heat cycling can be recorded, has been reported in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a simplied test method to imitate and evaluate thermal fatigue by deducing the surface strains responsible for failure. A comparison between the two hot work tool steel grades, quenched and tempered to various conditions, were also made.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental set-up used in the thermal fatigue test.

2. Experimental 2.1. Test equipment The test equipment is based on cyclic induction heating and internal cooling of test rods. Surface strain measurements through a non-contact laser speckle technique, makes it possible to calculate the strains induced in the specimen surface during thermal cycling (see Fig. 1). The test specimens are hollow cylinders

with a diameter of 10 mm, a length of 80 mm and have a 3 mm axial hole for internal cooling. An induction unit (25 kW, 3 MHz) heats approximately 20 mm of the middle of the test rod. Continuous cooling is performed by circulating silicon oil or water through the specimen, and also externally with argon or air. A thermal cycle includes generally a steep ramp to the maximum temperature, followed by a hold time, and subsequent cooling to the minimum temperature. Consequently, the thermal conditions and test environment can be varied to simulate specied conditions. The surface temperature of the specimen is monitored by a pyrometer, but also measured by a thermocouple, which is spot welded to the surface. The former method is used for temperature control during heating, and the latter to obtain recordings of the surface temperature during thermal cycling, which later is used in surface strain estimations. The specimen surface represents the tool surface and the generated heat cycle simulates the temperature cycle during die casting. A surface area illuminated by a laser beam displays a characteristic pattern of small visually observed dots. This speckled pattern can be used to estimate the surface strains during thermal cycling [912]. In this study, a 17 mW HeNe laser is used to illuminate a spot on the diusely reecting specimen surface. The spot size was about 1.5 mm and the laser beam hits the specimen surface at right angle. Two pairs of symmetrically and perpendicularly arranged CCD-array sensors (Fig. 1) are used to record the movement of the speckle pattern during thermal cycling, and from this movement the axial and tangential surface strain E can be approximately calculated at any time using Eq. (1) [11]: e DA 2L0 tan h0 1

DA is the dierence between the speckle displacements detected by each pair of sensors, L0 ( 0:17 m) is the distance from the specimen surface to the CCDv sensors, and h0 ( 45 ) is the direction between the incident laser beam and each CCD-sensor. The vertical pair

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of sensors give the axial surface strain and the horizontal pair the tangential. The speckle displacements are acquired with a sampling rate of 500 Hz. 2.2. Materials Two Uddeholm hot work tool steels, QRO 90 Supreme and Hotvar, were used as test materials. QRO 90 has a nominal chemical composition (wt.%) of 0.38 C, 0.30 Si, 0.75 Mn, 2.6 Cr, 2.25 Mo, 0.9 V, and Fe balance. Hotvar has a nominal chemical composition (wt.%) of 0.55 C, 1.0 Si, 0.75 Mn, 2.6 Cr, 2.25 Mo, 0.85 V, and Fe balance. For the QRO 90 specimens, two variants of heat treatment were used: hardening v (austenitizing 30 min at 1030 C, followed by air v quenching) and tempering 2 2 h at 640 C to a hardness of 430 10 HV30 and hardening as above folv lowed by tempering 2 2 h at 625 C to a hardness of 510 10 HV30, respectively. The Hotvar specimens v were hardened (austenitizing 30 min at 1050 C, followed by air quenching) and tempered 2 2 h at 575 v C to a hardness of 640 10 HV30. All heat treatments resulted in microstructures of tempered martensite. The hardness of the steels was assessed by Vickers indentations on polished cross-sections, using a load of 30 kg. For all materials, the austenitizing treatment gives a nominal austenite grain size of about ASTM 9, and no signicant microstructural dierences between the materials could be detected. The heat treatment of the specimens was followed by grinding to a surface roughness (Ra) of 0:38 0:05 lm, as obtained using optical surface prolometry. Relevant mechanical properties of the two tool steels are given in Fig. 2. The true yield strength values (Fig. 2f) are obtained from visual inspections of tensile curves such as that of Fig. 2e, and are dened as the stresses when the stressstrain curves deviate from a linear relation. Note that the true yield stress values are well below Rp0.2 in Fig. 2b,e. 2.3. Thermal fatigue testing Three temperature cycles were used to simulate various die casting conditions (see Table 1), and designated according to their maximum temperature. The maximum temperatures for the three temperature cycles v were set to 600, 700, and 850 C, respectively, to include the thermal conditions for aluminium and brass die casting, respectively. The latter temperature corresponds to the maximum tool surface temperature during actual brass die casting [13]. The temperature cycles included a steep ramp to the maximum temperature, no holding time at maximum temperature, and subsequent cooling to the minimum temperature. Continuous cooling was performed by circulating silicon oil v (ow rate % 2.5 l/min) of 60 C through the specimen,

and also externally with either argon (forced convection) or air (natural convection). Argon was used as cooling medium because the tools are exposed to an environment with reduced oxygen content during actual die casting. The oxygen in the die cavity is partly consumed through oxidation of tool material and casting alloy. For comparison, some tests were performed in air. Prior to testing, the specimens were pre-oxidised to obtain a thin oxide layer, which facilitates the pyrometer temperature control during heating. This was made by electrochemical oxidation in a NaOH-solution (containing deionized water and 300 g/l NaOH) at v 70 C for about 5 min, followed by 1 h heat treatment v at 200 C in air. A K-type ChromelAlumel thermocouple with thin wires (1 0.13 mm) was spot welded to the specimen to measure the surface temperature during testing. The thin wires enable rapid response of any change in temperature. Finally, to obtain a good speckle pattern for the surface strain measurements, an area of approximately 10 10 mm located in the middle of the specimens was roughened by a 1000 mesh abrasive paper. 2.4. Evaluation techniques During the heat cycling, the surface strain is continuously obtained by the laser speckle technique from the change in the specimen dimensions, and represented as surface strain vs. temperature. Any thermal fatigue damage of the specimen surface was revealed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was further characterised with respect to crack growth (crack length vs. number of cycles) and crack density (number of cracks per unit of length along the specimen surface) by measurements on polished axial cross-sections performed in light optical microscopy (LOM). For each specimen, all evaluation of cracks is based on cracks longer than about 5 lm, detected along two lines, each of 8 mm length. Proles of surface hardness and hardness vs. depth after exposure to the heat cycling were assessed by Vickers indentations on polished specimen surfaces and cross-sections, respectively, using a load of 25 g. Finally, the residual stress state in the surface layer was measured by X-ray diraction (XRD) using CuKa radiation and the sin2 w method. 2.5. Tests for verication of the strain measurements To investigate if the surface strains obtained by the laser speckle arrangement correlate with the actual surface deformation, a cylindrical pressure vessel of aluminium (diameter 100 mm, wall thickness 2 mm, and length 80 mm) was selected. The vessel was designed and positioned in such a way that its external surface

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Fig. 2. Nominal mechanical properties of Hotvar and QRO 90 hardened as above and tempered to various conditions. (a) Temper resistance as v hardness at room temperature vs. holding time for temperatures within the range of 550650 C. (b) Hot yield strength as Rp0.2 vs. temperature. (c) Modulus of elasticity vs. temperature. (d) Hot ductility as reduction of area at tensile fracture vs. temperature. (e) Schematic of sample tensile curve. (f) Estimated true yield strength ry vs. temperature. The solid lines are the second order polynomial t to the data.

was kept in the same position as that of an ordinary thermal fatigue specimen. To achieve a good speckle pattern for the speckle measurements, the surface were roughened as above. Consequently, the speckle movements during deformation of the pressure vessel were
Table 1 Thermal cycles used in the thermal fatigue tests Max. temperature [ C] 600 700 850
v

detected by the CCD-sensors under equal optical conditions as those during heat cycling of the thermal fatigue specimens. A strain gauge was glued to the surface, next to the spot illuminated by the laser beam, to obtain reference values of the surface strain.

Min. temperature [ C] 170 170 170

Heating time [s] 0.2 0.3 2.2

Total cycle time [s] 11.2 14.3 26.2

External cooling Argon or air Argon or air Argon or air

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The design of the pressure vessel enabled deformation under well-controlled conditions and simultaneous strain measurements by the laser speckle technique and the strain gauge, respectively. For the two methods, the tangential surface strain (hoop strain) after loading or unloading of the pressure vessel was used for the evaluation, since the induced deformation is signicantly larger in the tangential than in the axial direction. The results from the two techniques were compared.

3. Results 3.1. Verication of the laser speckle technique By pressuring the aluminium vessel, it proved possible to verify that the surface strains obtained by the laser speckle technique correlates very well to the reference values measured by the strain gauge (see Fig. 3). It is concluded that the laser speckle technique makes it possible to detect surface strains with a resolution of about 25 10-6 . Because of security reasons, it was necessary to limit the maximum pressure exposure of the pressure vessel, which as a result, restricted the maximum and minimum surface strains of this verication to about 160 106 . 3.2. Recorded surface temperatures Induction heating very rapidly increases the surface temperature, as seen in Fig. 4a. After the short heating time, the surface will cool down following a more gradual slope. The three heat cycles tested all start with a v specimen temperature of 60 C (= oil temperature). It takes about four cycles to obtain equilibrium temperature conditions (see Fig. 4b and Table 1). No signi-

Fig. 4. Typical surface temperature recording for the 700 C test at equilibrium (a), and of maximum temperature Tmax and minimum temperature Tmin during the rst 10 cycles extracted from the temperature recordings (b).

cant dierences could be seen among the dierent steels. 3.3. Surface strain during thermal cycling Typically, the surface strain increases with the surface temperature, followed by an almost constant or a slightly increasing strain level during the rst steep part of the cooling phase, whereafter it decreases with temperature (see Fig. 5). As expected, the surface strain level was strongly dependent on the maximum temperature during each thermal cycle (see Fig. 5). During v heating to 850 C, there is a sharp increase in the surv face strain curve at about 760 C to a slope that is signicantly higher as compared to that at any lower temperature (see Fig. 5c). After the cooling event and at equilibrium temperature conditions, each surface strain recording forms either a closed loop with practically no residual surface strain at the minimum v temperature (see Fig. 5a (Tmax 600 C) and b v (Tmax 700 C), or an open loop with tensile residual surface strain at the minimum temperature (see Fig. 5c; v Tmax 850 C). Note also that the tangential strain e/

Fig. 3. Comparison of tangential surface strain (hoop strain) obtained by the laser speckle technique and the resistance strain gauge, respectively, after pressuring or depressurising the aluminium vessel. Each circle represents the result from one loading (positive values) or unloading (negative values) event. The solid line is the linear t to the experimental data.

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Fig. 6. Overview of typical crack network after 10 000 thermal v cycles to 700 C in argon (SEM). The axial direction of the specimen is horizontal.
v

to 700 C, the crack path was relatively straight (Fig. 7a), whereas branched cracks (Fig. 7b) in addition to the single cracks were observed after heat v cycling to 850 C. The crack length was strongly dependent on the number of cycles and the maximum temperature during each cycle (see Fig. 8). Since the crack propagation v rate was very high during the 700 and 850 C cycles, as v compared to the 600 C cycles, it was necessary to limit

Fig. 5. Typical surface strain recordings of QRO 90 at 510 HV30 during thermal cycling in air at equilibrium temperature conditions to v v v 600 C (a), 700 C (b), and 850 C (c).

and axial strain ez are almost identical, and in the following only e/ is considered. 3.4. Surface cracking after thermal fatigue 3.4.1. Argon atmosphere Thermal fatigue damage was typically observed as a network of cracks on the specimen surface (see Fig. 6). Polished cross-sections revealed that the appearance of the cracks was strongly dependent on the maximum temperature during each cycle. For thermal cycling up

Fig. 7. Polished cross-section revealing typical crack after thermal v cycling in argon (LOM). (a) 10 000 cycles to 700 C. (b) 1 000 cycles v to 850 C (QRO 90 at 510 HV30).

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Fig. 9. Length and density of thermal fatigue cracks after 1000 v cycles to 700 C in air. One specimen of each material was tested.

about 5 lm were observed on Hotvar after 100 cycles v to 850 C. 3.4.2. Air atmosphere The crack length and crack density after 100 cycles v v to 850 C and 1000 cycles to 700 C, respectively, in argon and air atmosphere were comparable. v Thermal cycling in air (1000 cycles to 700 C) revealed that the crack length and crack density in general decrease with increasing hardness, see Fig. 9. For all materials, no cracks larger than the evaluation criteria of about 5 lm were detected after 100 cycles to v 850 C. 3.5. Hardness after thermal fatigue As expected, the surface hardness decreased with the number of thermal cycles for all materials and conditions, as exemplied by Fig. 10. It is seen that the surface hardness is rapidly reduced initially, followed by a more gradual loss of hardness with the number of cycles. The hardness levels and the thickness of the softened surface layer were strongly dependent on the number of heat cycles and the maximum temperature during each cycle (see Fig. 11). Evidently, after v exposure to 600 C there is no notable eect on the hardness levels (Fig. 11a), whereas a considerable softening of the surface layer is detected after thermal v v cycling to 700 C (Fig. 11b) and 850 C (Fig. 11c), v respectively. For the 700 C test, the hardness decreases gradually from a depth of about 0.5 mm towards v the surface (Fig. 11b). Thermal cycling at 850 C resulted in a dramatic hardness reduction throughout the whole specimen (see Fig. 11c), which also reveals a hardness maximum at about 0.3 mm depth for all steels. Finally, the softening rate and the thickness of the softened surface layer is larger for the Hotvar steel than for the QRO 90 steel, so that the hardness levels gradually evens for increasing number of heat exposures (see Figs. 10 and 11b,c).

Fig. 8. Length and density of thermal fatigue cracks after heat cycling in argon atmosphere. (a) Maximum crack length vs. number of cycles. (b) Mean crack length vs. number of cycles. (c) Crack density vs. number of cycles. Each pile is the mean value of three or four speciv v mens, except those for 100 cycles to 850 C and 1000 cycles to 700 C, respectively, which are based on one specimen of each material. The error bars indicate the maximum and minimum recording.

the number of cycles to 10 000 and 1000 cycles, respectively, for these temperature levels. In a relatively early stage, the density of cracks was also strongly dependent on the number of cycles and the maximum temperature level. Thereafter, the crack density averaged at almost constant levels. With few exceptions, the crack length and crack density seem to have a tendency to decrease with increasing hardness. Note also that no cracks exceeding the evaluation criteria of

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Fig. 10. Surface hardness vs. number of heat cycles to 700 C. (a) For the rst 5000 cycles. (b) Close-up of the rst 100 cycles (note the linear scale for the number of cycles).

3.6. Residual stresses Residual tensile stresses are gradually building up in the surface layer during the thermal cycling, whereas the residual shear stress is virtually unaected (see Fig. 12). It is seen that the residual tangential and axial stresses increase rapidly from a compressive to a tensile state, followed by a more gradual increase in tensile stresses with the number of heat exposures. Note that the tangential and axial stresses follow the same tendv ency. For the 600 C tests, the tensile stress state is reached after about 10 heat cycles, whereas that for v the 700 C experiments is obtained immediately after the rst cycle. Generally, the levels of the tensile stresv ses are higher after the 700 C tests than after those of v 600 C. The maximum scatter in residual stress at all number of cycles, except at the rst where it is highest (about 6070%), is about 1040%.

Fig. 11. Hardness vs. depth after exposure to thermal cycling. (a) 20 v v 000 cycles to 600 C. (b) 10 000 cycles to 700 C. (c) 1000 cycles to v 850 C.

the mechanisms behind thermal fatigue. Please note that this is possible just by recording the surface temperature and strain. Knowledge of the temperature prole below the surface is not needed! 4.1. Characteristics of the induction heating

4. Discussion The laser speckle technique was shown to give the true surface strains (see Fig. 3 and Ref. [14]), and could thus be used to obtain information necessary to verify

Induction heating of steel using a frequency of 3 MHz results in very fast heating of only a thin surface layer, of the order of 10 lm (skin-eect). When applying this technique to the tool steel test rods, the thermal expansion of the surface material is retained by

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Fig. 12. Residual tangential stress ru, axial stress rz, and shear stress s, respectively, in the surface layer vs. number of thermal cycles v (QRO 90 at 510 HV30). (a) Heat cycling to 600 C. (b) Heat cycling v to 700 C.

Fig. 13. Typical surface strain response during thermal cycling (QRO 90 at 510 HV30, equilibrium temperature conditions). (a) Heat v v cycling to 600 C. (b) Heat cycling to 700 C.

the cooler bulk material (see Fig. 5). During the initial phase of the cooling, the surface contracts but the bulk material still expands due to heat conduction. Thereby, the decrease in surface strain with temperature is delayed (see Fig. 5). v When heating to 850 C, the heating rate is dramatically reduced above the Curie temperature of Fe v (768 C) (see Table 1), as a result of the change in the magnetic properties of the material. This promotes the temperature distribution through the specimen to even out by heat conduction. Hence, thermal cycling by induction heating above the Curie temperature does not ideally generate the temperature prole representative for die casting of e.g. brass [13]. Consequently, the v 850 C test in this investigation is not as representative v for die casting as those of 600 and 700 C, and is not included in the strain estimations below. 4.2. Mechanical surface conditions during thermal cycling 4.2.1. Deduction of mechanical surface strain Since the thermal strain of the surface layer is constrained during the thermal cycling, the surface

material will be exposed to cyclic stresses. The hypothetical strains corresponding to these stresses are dened as mechanical strains Emech. Crack nucleation and growth during thermal cycling is determined by uctuations in Emech. Similarly, we dene thermal strains Eth from the thermal expansion coecient of the tool material a(T) and the minimum temperatures Tmin without any constraint as: eth T aTT Tmin 2

In the calculations, a(T) is the nominal value for the steels as the mean value between room temperature and the temperature of interest. Thus, emech at any part of the thermal cycle is possible to deduce from the corresponding values of the surface temperature cycle, thermal expansion coecient of the tool material, and the measured surface strain Etot according to Ref. [15]: emech T etot T eth T 3 Obviously, knowledge of the temperature distribution below the surface is not necessary. The three types of surface strain during thermal cycling can be deduced from results such as those of Figs. 4 and 5, and using Eqs. (2) and (3) (see Fig. 13). Note that the surface layer is not totally constrained

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Fig. 14. Mechanical surface strain vs. number of thermal cycles durv ing heat cycling to 600 and 700 C, respectively (Hotvar 640 HV30).

during the heat cycling because Etot is not represented by perfectly horizontal lines. The situation should rather be considered as a partially constrained case. From mechanical surface strain loops such as those of Fig. 13, the minimum mechanical surface strain Emin and any residual mechanical surface strain at the minimum temperature eresidual of each cycle could be extracted (see Fig. 14). For all tests, these two strains seem to be independent of the number of thermal cycles. For v the tests at 600 and 700 C, eresidual was about zero for all cycles, and emin was about 0.47% and 0.56%, respectively, for the two temperature levels at all equilibrium cycles. No dierences were seen between the tested steels. These values of the mechanical surface strain can be used for numerical simulations and experimental tests of thermal fatigue processes. 4.2.2. Estimated surface stress and risk of plastic strain Simplied, the elastic stress r(T) in the surface layer at any temperature within the thermal cycles of the test rods can be estimated by Hookes law in plane stress using the mechanical surface strain emech from this investigation and Poissons ratio m(T) and modulus of elasticity E(T) of the tool materials (isotropic and elasticideal-plastic) as: rT ETemech T 1 mT 4

Fig. 15. Surface stress vs. time during thermal cycling to 700 C at equilibrium temperature conditions (QRO 90 at 510 HV30). r(T) is estimated using Eq. (4) and the true yield stress ry(T) is according to Fig. 2f. The conventional yield strength Rp0.2 according to Fig. 2b,e is included for reference. (a) Two whole cycles. The residual stress rresidual after the rst cycle is dened. The arrows indicate the development of r(T). (b) Close-up of the rst 10 s of the rst thermal cycle (linear-logarithmic scale).

compressive yield strength ry(T). For QRO 90 at 510HV30 and Hotvar at 640 HV30, Tc was found to be v approximately 420 and 460 C, respectively. Thereafter, the surface material accumulates compressive plastic strain until the maximum cycle temperature is reached. The maximum plastic strain Ep is obtained at Tmax and can be expressed by Eq. (5) below: ep emech Tmax emech Tc ry Tc 1 mT emech Tmax ETc

Starting with a stress-free state at cyclic equilibrium temperature and solving Eq. (4) with mT 0:3, and E(T) and emech(T) according to Figs. 2c and 13b, respectively, the stress on the surface layer during two thermal cycles varies as shown in Fig. 15. It is seen that during the rst cycle, the compressive surface stress r(T) increases with temperature, and the surface material behaves elastically until the stress reaches the true yield strength of the material ry(T) in compression (see Fig. 2f). Thus, the critical surface temperature Tc during heating at which the material begins to deform plastically is the temperature when r(T) equals the

During this plastic strain the stress level is determined by the compressive yield strength curve. During the subsequent cooling, the surface stress is reversed towards the tensile direction by the thermal contraction. It is seen in Fig. 15 that the developing tensile stress r(T) during the cooling part of the cycle never reaches the corresponding ry(T). The magnitude of the v tensile residual stress rresidual at Tmin 170 C equals the maximum rresidual and occurs at Tmin (Fig. 15). It is

A. Persson et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 10951107 Table 2 Estimated plastic strains [%] and residual stresses [MPa] after thermal v cycling with preheating (Tmin 170 C) Material ep =rresidual Tmax 600 C QRO 90 at 510 HV30 Hotvar at 640 HV30 0.20/600 0.15/500
v

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Tmax 700 C 0.30/880 0.26/830

deduced by Eq. (6) below: rresidual ry Tmax ETmax emech Tmax 1 mT 6

Consequently, the residual tensile stress at Tmin is simply the dierence between the elastic stress that the material would have experienced at Tmax if there was no plastic deformation (r(Tmax), Eq. (4)) and the yield stress at Tmax. Solving Eqs. (5) and (6) with m(T) and E(T) as above, and Emech(T) and ry(T) according to Figs. 13 and 2f, respectively, the values shown in Table 2 on the plastic surface strain after the rst thermal cycle and the residual stress in the surface layer after each cycle were obtained. Due to lack of true yield stress values (such as those in Fig. 2f) for QRO 90 at 430 HV30, no estimations were made on this material. However, the plastic surface strain magnitude and the tensile residual stress in the surface layer is expected to be even higher for this steel. Generally, the magnitude of the plastic strain and the residual tensile stress increases more than proportional to the maximum surface temperature level, since the yield strength decreases at the same time as r(Tmax) increases with temperature. During the following thermal cycle, the maximum compressive stress on the surface material is equal to the compressive yield strength and, therefore, the material behaves elastic during the whole cycle. The reason is the presence of residual tensile surface stress, which at the end of each cycle, except for the rst one, is equal to that of the previous one. Consequently, the surface material is already exposed to the worst mechanical conditions during the rst cycle. On the other hand, if the surface material only would experience elastic deformation during the rst cycle, there would be zero residual stress at the end of the rst as well as the following cycles. As seen in Fig. 15 and by comparing the data in Table 2 with Fig. 2f, the calculated residual stresses v after the 600 and 700 C cycles do not exceed the true v yield stress of the tool materials at 170 C. In spite of this fact, numerous cracks appear during the very rst few cycles. However, the stress estimations are based on simplied elasticideal-plastic materials and the information given in Fig. 2. Any thermally induced alternations in yield stress or any presence of stress

concentrators has not been accounted for. Nor is the well-known eect that ry increases with strain rate considered. Locally, due to surface irregularities, the tensile stress during cooling may well exceed the yield stress. It is indicated in Figs. 10 and 11 that the yield stress values measured prior to testing also degrade signicantly during thermal cycling, causing further accumulation of plastic strain. This is conrmed by the measured residual stresses after temperature cycling to v 600 and 700 C, respectively (see Fig. 12). Consequently, it is reasonable to believe that the surface material will experience tensile stresses locally that exceed the yield stress during thermal cycling to 600 v 850 C after a certain number of cycles. This is supported by the observation that thermal cracks are formed and propagate within the low-cycle fatigue range (see Figs. 8 and 9). However, from Fig. 12 it is evident that the surface layer material initially exhibits a compressive residual stress of the order of 500 MPa. This stress should be superimposed to the initial elastic stress during heating as given in Fig. 15. The consequence is that the surface material will reach the compressive yield stress earlier during the rst cycle, and accumulate a larger amount of compressive plastic strain until the maximum cycle temperature is reached. However, the residual stress after the rst and consecutive cycles is not inuenced. It is also obvious from Fig. 12 that the magnitude of the measured residual stresses is lower than calculated ones (see Table 2). The reason, except those mentioned, is the fact that the X-ray measurements give average values of the stress within a surface layer of a few micrometres. The stress in the supercial surface layer which was calculated is probably much higher. The limited depth resolution of XRD also explains the observation that no tensile residual stresses are v observed after the rst 600 C cycle (see Fig. 12a). Similarly, if the surface layer initially had been in a tensile residual stress state, the sign and magnitude of the residual stress after the rst heat cycle could also been given by Table 2, provided that the initial tensile stress did not completely prevent plastic deformation during heating. The conclusion is that an initial tensile residual stress state above a certain magnitude in the tool material surface layer may delay crack initiation, whereas initial compressive residual stresses of any level would facilitate crack formation. In the above calculations, it was assumed that the specimens were preheated to the minimum equilibrium v temperature of about 170 C and that steady-state temperature conditions prevailed from the rst cycle itself. v However, the initial specimen temperature is 60 C, and from Fig. 4b it is obvious that it takes about four cycles to obtain cyclic equilibrium temperature conditions with constant minimum and maximum surface

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Table 3 Estimated plastic strains [%] and residual stresses [MPa] after thermal v cycling without preheating (Tmin 60 C) Material ep =rresidual Tmax 600 C QRO 90 at 510 HV30 Hotvar at 640 HV30 0.17/530 0.12/390
v

Tmax 700 C 0.28/820 0.23/720

temperature. For the 600 and 700 C tests, these conditions are obtained with an approximately constant temperature range (TmaxTmin), whereas the range for v the 850 C experiments decreases slightly during the rst cycles. The fact that the mechanical surface strain is related to the temperature range (see Figs. 13 and 4b), implies v that emech(T) for the rst 600 and 700 C cycle should be approximately equal to that at equilibrium conditions. Solving Eq. (4) as above and using the temperature values for the rst cycle, the critical surface temperature for plastic compression Tc was found to be v approximately 330 and 385 C, respectively, for QRO 90 at 510HV30 and Hotvar at 640 HV30. Solving Eqs. (5) and (6) as above and using Tmax according to Fig. 4b, the values given in Table 3 on the plastic surface strain and the residual stress in the surface layer after the rst thermal cycle without preheating (initial v temperature 60 C) were obtained. Again, no estimations on QRO 90 at 430 HV30 could be made. Obviously, preheating of the specimens to the minimum equilibrium temperature has a tendency to make the mechanical conditions during the rst cycle worse than without preheating. However, since the cyclic equilibrium temperature conditions are obtained within the rst few cycles (see Fig. 4b), there would probably not be any notable eect on the thermal cracking. 4.3. Thermal fatigue cracking

Fig. 16. Schematic of crack length vs. number of cycles (after Ref. [16]). The present experiments are conned to the shadowed area.

tures, and material inhomogeneities such as slag inclusions, carbides, and voids [4,17], play a critical role. Even though the crack length increases within the whole range of cycles tested, the crack density is saturated after a smaller number of cycles, between 1000 v 5000 and 100500, respectively, for the 700 and 850 C tests (see Fig. 8). After some initial cycles during which most cracks are formed, some cracks continue to grow deeper into the tool material during the subsequent cycles [4]. Since the material surrounding the cracks is relieved, the growth of adjacent cracks is retarded [18]. Fig. 8 illustrates the well-known sensitivity to the maximum temperature in thermal fatigue [19]. In addition, Figs. 8 and 9 demonstrate that the crack length and density decreases with increasing tool steel hardness. Both phenomena are well explained by the previous estimations of surface stress and risk of plastic strain. There is no remarkable inuence of the test environment on the crack characteristics during the early stage of thermal fatigue (see Figs. 8 and 9).

5. Conclusions When exposing the tested tool steels to thermal cycv ling to 600850 C, it takes the order of <102104 heat cycles to initiate and propagate the rst thermal fatigue cracks (see Figs. 8 and 9). After initiation, both the mean and maximum crack lengths increase substantially with the number of cycles. This agrees with the experimental results obtained by Lieurade et al. [16] (see Fig. 16). Initially, the crack length accelerates with the number of cycles, since the geometrical eect dominates. Later, when the cracks have grown to a certain depth the driving stress is reduced, and the growth rate decreases. In the previous paragraph it was suggested that the crack initiation is associated with the gradual softening of the tool steels during the thermal cycling. In addition, stress concentrators due to topographical feaThe following conclusions can be drawn from this study. . Induction heating and internal cooling of hollow cylindrical test rods can be used to simulate the type of surface cracking observed from die casting, forging, rolling, and other processes that involve thermal cycling. . The test can be useful for selection and development of new tool materials in hot forming applications by giving detailed information on crack nucleation and propagation, inuence of material parameters such as hardness and residual stresses, temperature variations, test environment, inuence from cooling uids, etc.

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. The surface strain recordings oered by the laser speckle technique, proved to yield sucient information for calculation of surface strains and stresses responsible for the thermal fatigue of the surface layer, without knowledge of the temperature prole below the surface. . With the tool steels tested, low-cycle fatigue occurs v for the tests with Tmax 600 and 700 C even though the calculated tensile stress after cooling does not exceed the yield stress that the material exhibits prior to testing. The reason is the gradual softening of the tool steels during the thermal cycling, and the presence of stress concentrators. . Preheating of the tool does not improve the resistance to thermal fatigue cracking. . An initial tensile residual stress state of a certain magnitude in the tool material surface may delay crack initiation, whereas an initial compressive residual stress of any level facilitates crack formation. . The hardness ranking between the materials was maintained throughout the tests, even though all steels suered a considerable softening. . Unfortunately, the induction induced heating to 850 v v C is disturbed by the Curie transition at 768 C, which dramatically reduces the heating rate above that temperature. Thus, the results generated cannot be directly transferred to the thermal operations aimed at.

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Uddeholm Tooling AB, Tour & Andersson AB and Bodycote Heat Treatment AB. The nancial support from the Swedish Knowledge Foundation is also acknowledged. Special thanks to Mr Lars Carlsson at Karlstad University for assisting at the verication tests of the laser speckle arrangement.

References
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