Research on Fatigue Damage of Compressor Blade Steel KMN-I Using Nonlinear Ultrasonic Testing

Abstract EN

The fatigue damage of compressor blade steel KMN-I was investigated using nonlinear ultrasonic testing and the relation curve between the material nonlinearity parameter β and the fatigue life was obtained.

The results showed that the nonlinearity parameter increased first and then decreased with the increase of the fatigue cycles.

The microstructures were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

It was found that some small defects like holes and pits appeared in the material matrix with the increase of the fatigue cycles, and the nonlinearity parameter increased correspondingly.

The nonlinearity parameter reached the peak value when the microcracks initiated, and the nonlinearity parameter began to decrease when the microcracks further propagated to macrocracks.

Therefore, it is proved that the nonlinearity parameter can be used to characterize the initiation of microcracks at the early stage of fatigue, and a method of evaluating the fatigue life of materials by nonlinear ultrasonic testing is proposed.