Influence of residual stresses on fatigue crack propagation in pearlitic cold-drawn steel wires

The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the effect of residual stresses, due to colddrawing process, on the fatigue crack propagation in a pearlitic steel wire with a V-shaped circumferential notch. In order to analyse the effect of the notch severity on the residual stress distribution, three different values of the notch root radius are examined. The residual stress distributions in the reduced cross-section of such wires are numerically evaluated through FE analyses which simulate the material removing operation in the notched region. The stress-intensity factors (SIFs) related to tension loading and residual stresses are computed. Then, the crack propagation under cyclic tension combined with the residual stresses is analysed by taking into account the above SIF values and the actual stress ratio, which is different from that due to cyclic tension only.