14/10/2010 Pressing & Sintering

Linking pore size and structure to the fatigue performance of sintered steels

In this paper it is demonstrated how fine powder based materials can be used to improve fatigue strength. The increase in strength is accomplished by the smaller pores in the fine powder based materials. Also, a model linking pore size to fatigue strength is presented. This model is based on fracture mechanics in combination with an estimate of the largest pore sizes using extreme value statistics. Such a model can be used both to investigate the influence of different parameters on PM fatigue and to predict the fatigue strength of a material.