Fatigue characterization of flowformed A356-T6

¹ University of Manchester, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. Sackville Street Building, Manchester, UK M13 9PL
² University of British Columbia, Department of Materials Engineering. 6350 Stores Road, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4

^a Corresponding author: matthew.roy@manchester.ac.uk

Abstract

Flowforming is an incremental rotary forming technology consisting of deforming a cylindrical workpiece through contact between a roller and a rotating mandrel. This process delivers significant local compressive plastic strain to the workpiece. The effects on fatigue resilience of a common aluminum foundry alloy (A356) processed in this manner at an elevated temperature has been shown to improve post heat treatment. Fatigue properties of material processed with a standard heat treatment following casting is compared to material which has been cast and flowformed to varying degrees and then heat treated. Flowformed material with varying degrees of rotary deformation have been tested. Endurance limits have been found to be generally governed by porosity and maximum principal stress for high cycle fatigue on undeformed material. Fatigue properties have been quantified employing stress-life relationships derived from uniaxial fatigue tests. A 30% increase in the high-cycle endurance limits of flowformed compared to non-deformed material has been observed and is linked to the extent of deformation. Fractographic examination shows that this increase in endurance limit can be attributed primarily to the mitigation of porosity. Microstructural changes due to processing appear to be a secondary factor.