Effect of surface coating on fatigue life and fatigue crack growth behavior of AISI D2 tool steel

To study the effect of the specimen surface coating on the fatigue life and fatigue crack growth behavior, rotating bending fatigue tests were performed with a specimen coated with a TiCN thin film on AISI D2 tool steel (JIS SKD11) and a bare specimen without coating. Fatigue cracks developed inside the specimen because compressive residual stress was present on the surface of the coated and bare materials. The fatigue crack growth behavior of the internal cracks was investigated with the two-stage double-stress experimental method proposed by the authors. The fatigue life estimated from the fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of the internal cracks and the experimental results agreed. Furthermore, a method was proposed that can easily evaluate the effect of residual stress on fatigue life and FCG behavior. The evaluation and experimental results are in good agreement. In addition, the effects of atmospheric and vacuum conditions on FCG behavior are discussed.