Effect of Tensile Loading on the Residual Stress Relaxation Behavior of Induction Hardened SCM440 Steel with a Shallow Hardened Layer

Fatigue tests under axial loading were conducted on steel with a shallow hardened layer induced by induction hardening, and in situ X-ray stress measurements were performed to investigate the relaxation of residual stresses during fatigue. The residual stresses were relaxed owing to tensile loading and not compressive loading. The two conditions that bring about this phenomenon are (i) a high peak of tensile residual stress just below the hardened layer, and (ii) the hardened layer coinciding with the compressive residual stress field that prevents the yielding of the compressive residual stress field under compressive loading. In this case, tensile yielding occurred just below the hardened layer under tensile loading, the residual stresses are redistributed, and the compressive residual stress on the material surface is relaxed. The experimental results also showed that the fatigue fracture morphology changed depending on the residual stress relaxation behavior.