skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: High cycle fatigue in the transmission electron microscope

Journal Article · · Nano Letters
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  2. Hysitron, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN (United States)

One of the most common causes of structural failure in metals is fatigue induced by cyclic loading. Historically, microstructure-level analysis of fatigue cracks has primarily been performed post mortem. However, such investigations do not directly reveal the internal structural processes at work near micro- and nanoscale fatigue cracks and thus do not provide direct evidence of active microstructural mechanisms. In this paper, the tension–tension fatigue behavior of nanocrystalline Cu was monitored in real time at the nanoscale by utilizing a new capability for quantitative cyclic mechanical loading performed in situ in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Controllable loads were applied at frequencies from one to several hundred hertz, enabling accumulations of 106 cycles within 1 h. The nanometer-scale spatial resolution of the TEM allows quantitative fatigue crack growth studies at very slow crack growth rates, measured here at ~10–12 m·cycle–1. This represents an incipient threshold regime that is well below the tensile yield stress and near the minimum conditions for fatigue crack growth. Evidence of localized deformation and grain growth within 150 nm of the crack tip was observed by both standard imaging and precession electron diffraction orientation mapping. Finally, these observations begin to reveal with unprecedented detail the local microstructural processes that govern damage accumulation, crack nucleation, and crack propagation during fatigue loading in nanocrystalline Cu.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Contributing Organization:
Hysitron, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; FG02-04ER83979; FG02-07ER84813
OSTI ID:
1271014
Report Number(s):
SAND2016-6822J; 645284
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 32 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (44)

A history of fatigue journal May 1996
Failure of metals II: Fatigue journal April 2016
Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials journal May 2006
Toward a quantitative understanding of mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline metals journal July 2007
Fatigue of nanocrystalline copper journal December 1995
Anomalous Fatigue Behavior and Fatigue-Induced Grain Growth in Nanocrystalline Nickel Alloys journal May 2011
Plasticity in small-sized metallic systems: Intrinsic versus extrinsic size effect journal August 2011
Pushing the Envelope of In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy journal May 2015
In situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Observations of Toughening Mechanisms in Ultra-fine Grained Columnar Aluminum Thin Films journal July 2005
In situ TEM observations of fast grain-boundary motion in stressed nanocrystalline aluminum films journal August 2008
In situ observation of dislocation nucleation and escape in a submicrometre aluminium single crystal journal January 2009
Source Truncation and Exhaustion: Insights from Quantitative in situ TEM Tensile Testing journal September 2011
Dislocation starvation and exhaustion hardening in Mo alloy nanofibers journal March 2012
Quantitative Evidence of Crossover toward Partial Dislocation Mediated Plasticity in Copper Single Crystalline Nanowires journal June 2012
Quantitative in situ TEM tensile fatigue testing on nanocrystalline metallic ultrathin films journal January 2013
Real-time, high-resolution study of nanocrystallization and fatigue cracking in a cyclically strained metallic glass journal November 2013
In situ nanoindentation study on plasticity and work hardening in aluminium with incoherent twin boundaries journal September 2014
Cyclic deformation leads to defect healing and strengthening of small-volume metal crystals journal October 2015
In situ transmission electron microscopy study of electric-field-induced microcracking in single crystal Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 journal June 2000
In-situ transmission electron microscopy study of electric-field-induced grain-boundary cracking in lead zirconate titanate journal May 2002
In situ TEM study of electric field-induced microcracking in piezoelectric single crystals journal May 2003
In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigation on Fatigue Behavior of Single ZnO Wires under High-Cycle Strain journal January 2014
Mechanics and Dynamics of the Strain-Induced M1–M2 Structural Phase Transition in Individual VO 2 Nanowires journal August 2011
Combination of in situ straining and ACOM TEM: A novel method for analysis of plastic deformation of nanocrystalline metals journal May 2013
A new view of the onset of plasticity during the nanoindentation of aluminium journal August 2006
Nanoindentation and contact stiffness measurement using force modulation with a capacitive load-displacement transducer journal May 1999
Quantitative imaging of nanoscale mechanical properties using hybrid nanoindentation and force modulation journal August 2001
Concurrent in situ ion irradiation transmission electron microscope journal November 2014
Automated nanocrystal orientation and phase mapping in the transmission electron microscope on the basis of precession electron diffraction journal January 2010
Unraveling irradiation induced grain growth with in situ transmission electron microscopy and coordinated modeling journal November 2015
Cyclic strain hardening of nanocrystalline nickel journal March 2006
Cyclic softening of ultrafine grain copper journal April 1998
Nanoindentation creep of single-crystal tungsten and gallium arsenide journal December 1997
ASTM paper STP44663S: Plane Strain Crack Toughness Testing of High Strength Metallic Materials report January 1966
Fracture Mechanics book June 2005
Size effect on fracture toughness of freestanding copper nano-films journal October 2011
Direct observation of the thickness effect on critical crack tip opening displacement in freestanding copper submicron-films by in situ electron microscopy fracture toughness testing journal February 2015
Effect of load ratio and maximum stress intensity on the fatigue threshold in Ti–6Al–4V journal February 2001
Atomic Radii in Crystals journal November 1964
An electron microscope study of crack tip deformation and its impact on the dislocation theory of fracture journal June 1985
Transmission electron microscopy observations of dislocation annihilation and storage in nanograins journal January 2011
Coupling grain boundary motion to shear deformation journal November 2006
Direct dynamic atomic mechanisms of strain-induced grain rotation in nanocrystalline, textured, columnar-structured thin gold films journal February 2011
Grain rotation mediated by grain boundary dislocations in nanocrystalline platinum journal July 2014

Cited By (5)

Progress toward autonomous experimental systems for alloy development journal April 2019
Direct Observation of Sink-Dependent Defect Evolution in Nanocrystalline Iron under Irradiation journal May 2017
Application of In Situ TEM to Investigate Irradiation Creep in Nanocrystalline Zirconium journal August 2019
Impact of uniaxial tensile fatigue on the evolution of microscopic and mesoscopic structure of carbon black filled natural rubber journal February 2019
Advanced microelectromechanical systems-based nanomechanical testing: Beyond stress and strain measurements journal June 2019

Similar Records

The onset and evolution of fatigue-induced abnormal grain growth in nanocrystalline Ni–Fe
Journal Article · Tue Oct 11 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Materials Science · OSTI ID:1271014

Microstructure Anisotropy Effects on Fracture and Fatigue Mechanisms in Shape Memory Alloy Martensites
Technical Report · Fri Dec 13 00:00:00 EST 2019 · OSTI ID:1271014

Low cycle fatigue behavior of AlSi10Mg(Cu) alloy at high temperature
Journal Article · Thu Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Materials Characterization · OSTI ID:1271014