Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2014
The feasibility of an accelerated test method on revealing the high cycle fatigue (HCF) limit stresses of a near alpha titanium alloy was successfully verified firstly during the rotary bending tests. The stress-controlled low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests at room temperature were then carried out over a range of maximum stresses and stress ratios to reveal the basic LCF strength. Finally, the core emphasis was focused on the influences of the predamage from LCF loadings on the subsequent HCF limit stresses corresponding to the life of 106 cycles. A total of eight levels of predamage from LCF with different stress levels, stress ratios, and proportions of LCF life were introduced, which resulted in obvious deterioration of the HCF stress limits (even under only 2% of expected LCF life). The fracture analysis exhibited that there were typical LCF failure characteristics in crack initiation regions of specimens under prior LCF loadings.