Influence of surface mechanical attrition treatment duration on fatigue lives of Ti-6Al-4V

This work deals with the influence of surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) duration on fatigue lives of Ti-6Al-4V. The SMAT process was carried out in vacuum with SAE 52100 steel balls of 5 mm diameter for 30 and 60 min at a vibrating frequency of 50 Hz. SMAT treated surface was characterized by electron microscopy. Surface roughness, nano-indentation hardness, residual stress, and tensile properties of the material in both SMAT treated and untreated conditions were determined. SMAT enabled surface nanocrystallization, increased surface roughness, surface hardness, compressive residual stress and tensile strength but reduced ductility. Samples treated for 30 min exhibited superior fatigue lives owing to positive influence of nanostructured surface layer, compressive residual stress and work hardened layer. However, fatigue lives of the samples treated for 60 min were inferior to those of untreated samples due to presence of microdamages or cracks induced by the impacting balls during the treatment. © 2013 Indian Institute of Metals.