Fatigue crack growth rate of AISI 4140 low alloy steel treated via shot peening and plasma nitriding

In this study, the effects of conventional shot peening (CSP), severe shot peening (SSP), and plasma nitriding (PN) on the fatigue crack growth (FCGR) of AISI 4140 low alloy steel were investigated. FCGR tests were performed on axial fatigue equipment, associated with slow-motion camera and COD gauge. As a result of the experiments, an improvement of 8% in CSP, 15% in SSP, and 5,5% in the PN operations were observed on the number of cycles of all specimens at 30 mm crack length. Particularly for SSP treatments, hardness, compressive stresses, and the creation of nano-crystallization on the surface provide the most effective improvement in FCGR behavior. Additionally, for PN, formation of nitrogen diffusion and effective hardness improvement showed positive results in FCGR behavior. CSP and SSP (particularly SSP) behaved dominant on the improvement of FCGR performance compared to PN treatment. The formation of two-phase brittle structural white layer on the surface prevented the effective FCGR improvement.