Low Temperature Fatigue Behavior of Steels - A Review

This paper consists of a comprehensive literature review of constant amplitude fatigue behavior at low temperatures in steels. S-N, low cycle ε-N, and fatigue crack growth da/dN results are included. Unnotched, notched and cracked specimen fatigue behavior is presented. In many cases the constant amplitude fatigue resistance is enhanced at low temperatures. A sufficient number of situations exist, however, to indicate this is not always true. Poor low temperature fatigue behavior in steel is usually due to a change from ductile to brittle fatigue mechanisms. A fatigue transition temperature which can be significantly different than NDT values exists in many steels.