Effects of Coatings on the High-Cycle Fatigue Life of Threaded Steel Samples

In this work, high-cycle fatigue is studied for threaded cylindrical high-strength steel samples coated using three different industrial processes: black oxidation, normal-temperature galvanization and high-temperature galvanization. The fatigue performance in air is compared with that of uncoated samples. Microstructural characterization revealed the abundant presence of small cracks in the zinc coating partially penetrating into the steel. This is consistent with the observation of multiple crack initiation sites along the thread in the galvanized samples, which led to crescent type fracture surfaces governed by circumferential growth. In contrast, the black oxidized and uncoated samples exhibited a semicircular segment type fracture surface governed by single-sided growth with a significantly longer fatigue life. Numerical fatigue life prediction based on an extended Paris-law formulation has been conducted on two different fracture cases: 2D axisymmetric multisided crack growth and 3D single-sided crack growth. The results of this upper-bound and lower-bound approach are in good agreement with experimental data and can potentially be used to predict the lifetime of bolted components.