Fatigue Life Prediction of Induction Hardened Case Depth Specimens Made From 38MnVS6 Micro Alloyed Steel

The application of induction hardening treatment plays a vital role for enhancing fatigue life of various automotive components. This will incorporate compressive residual stresses in the component at significant extent. In this paper, wide range of experiments have been carried out on Rotating Bending Fatigue (RBF) specimens made from 38MnVS6 micro alloyed steel with induction hardening up to three different case depths. The set of specimens are fatigue tested at fully reverse loading condition using rotating bending fatigue testing machine. Based on this study a surface treatment factor is evaluated. This surface treatment factor is used as an input for evaluating precise fatigue life of the specimen using FEA packages. The fatigue life evaluated using FEA is showing good agreement with the results obtained through tests on the actual specimens.