Strain-life behavior of thick-walled nodular cast iron

For the design of thick-walled cast iron components used for wind energy turbines, large machines, presses, and engine parts made of nodular cast iron, the assessment of fatigue life of critical component areas is a crucial point to consider. Importance increases with the demand to safe resources by applying a lightweight design in combination with a certain resistance against extreme loads and misuse situations. Moreover, this gets more important when notches or deviations in the local microstructure are present. Nevertheless, due to accessibility, a lack in the description of the local strain-based material behavior still exists. Especially new cast iron grades such as ADI are not well investigated but offer an often-discussed potential for a lightweight design of the structure or to increase the highest admissible load on the structure. To determine the cyclic material behavior of nodular cast iron, different grades EN-GJS-400-18LT, EN-GJS-450-18, EN-GJS-500-14, EN-GJS-600-3, EN-GJS-700-2, and ADI in different wall thicknesses were investigated concerning their elastic–plastic material behavior under strain control. Moreover, new possibilities for the trilinear description of the strain-life and the stress–strain curve and the statistical and technological size effect are discussed in the following based on cyclic stress–strain and strain-life curves.