International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Fatigue life of laser clad hardfacing alloys on AISI 4130 steel under rotary
bending fatigue test
Novana Hutasoit a,, Vladimir Luzin b, Aaron Blicblau a, Wenyi Yan c, Milan Brandt d, Ryan Cottam a
a

Industrial Research Institute Swinburne, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, New South Wales 2234, Australia
c
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
d
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC 3083, Australia
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 28 September 2013
Received in revised form 25 October 2014
Accepted 2 November 2014
Available online 13 November 2014
Keywords:
Laser cladding
Hardfacing coatings
Fatigue life
Neutron diffraction
Residual stresses

a b s t r a c t
Fatigue life study of structures constructed by laser cladding using two types of hardfacing alloy, Stellite 6
(Co base) and Deloro 40G (Ni base) on AISI 4130 steel substrate was conducted using rotary bending fatigue test at ambient temperature 20 C. The laser clad specimens showed a reduced fatigue life compared
to the specimen without cladding but of the same size due to the presence of residual stresses in
substrate and coating regions. The presence of higher compressive residual stresses in substrate region
and lower tensile residual stress in coating region of specimen laser clad with Stellite 6 generated longer
fatigue life compared to the specimens laser clad with Deloro 40G, at a similar coating thickness level.
With the same nal structure size, coating thickness produced an inversely proportional effect on fatigue
life where thinner coatings result in less reduction of fatigue life compared to thicker coating. The
analytical model employed in this study demonstrated that thinner coatings alters axial residual stress
by generating lower tensile residual stress in coating region which enhance fatigue life, compared to
thicker coatings. This work has demonstrated the inuence of coating type, coating thickness and load
level on the fatigue life of the laser clad structures.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Laser cladding is a laser surfacing technique that can enhance
the properties and/or regenerate the surface of a component. In
laser cladding, laser radiation is absorbed and melts a small region
of the substrate into which the coating material is injected and
fuses the coating material to the substrate, thus producing a new
layer (Fig. 1). Compared to other thermo-mechanical processes,
laser cladding is identied to be superior in terms of its capability
to produce lower dilution levels [13] and ner microstructure in
clad layer [2,4], thus this technique has been implemented to
enhance surface properties, i.e. increases surface hardness [5,6],
wear resistance [3,7,8] and corrosion resistance [9,10]; refurbish
deteriorated engineering component across different industries
[4,1116]; and perform rapid prototyping with the aid of numerically controlled equipment (CNC) [17]. Despite the extensive
research on laser cladding for re-surfacing or rapid prototyping,
little information can be found on fatigue life of structure constructed by laser cladding, a type of loading that many engineering
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9214343; fax: +61 3 92145050.
E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Hutasoit).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2014.11.001
0142-1123/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

components are exposed in service. Several studies have addressed

fatigue life of structure constructed by laser cladding using uniaxial
tensile-compression fatigue load [18] and bending fatigue load [19]
which represent two of the types of loading applications for fatigue.
However, the fatigue life behavior based on rotary bending loading,
in particularly simulating a shaft refurbished by laser clad hardfacing alloys on its surface, has not been extensively investigated. The
analysis of fatigue life is based on the alteration in residual stresses
generated by laser cladding processes.
2. Experimental and numerical simulation
2.1. Laser cladding
The substrate and coating materials used in this experiment
were AISI 4130 steel, Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G, respectively, with
chemical composition shown in Table 1. Laser cladding was performed with a ber delivered Nd:YAG Ron Sinar laser, using a
power of 550 W, a spot size 3 mm with a Gaussian beam prole
and was shielded by Argon gas, with a scan speed of 500 mm/
min. Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G powder was injected using an
off-axis nozzle inclined at 60 to the substrate surface with powder

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N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of single track and multi tracks laser cladding process
[5].

feed rate of 4 g/min. Multiple tracks and multiple layers of Stellite

6 and Deloro 40G, each with powder size of 45150 lm, were circumferentially deposited onto the surface of the grooved part of
round bar AISI 4130 steel (Fig. 2).
2.2. Laser clad and fatigue test specimens manufacturing
The manufacturing of laser clad specimens were initiated by
cutting a 12 mm diameter 4130 steel rod into 146 mm sections
and followed by created groove at the middle of each section
(Fig. 2). The diameter of grooved sections was set to three different
size 5.5 mm, 6 mm and 6.5 mm that after laser cladding will create
three different thickness of coating layer when cladding of the
grooved section reaches the target diameter of minimum
8.3 mm. Smallest grooved section diameter (5.5 mm) is expected
to generate the thickest coating layer (1.4 mm) while the largest
grooved section diameter (6.5 mm) generate the thinnest coating
layer (0.9 mm). Following the manufacturing of grooved section,
multiple tracks with 70% overlap between track and multiple layers with 0.25 mm increment between each layer of Stellite 6 hardfacing alloy was laser clad onto the grooved section until the nal
grooved section diameter reached the minimum 8.3 mm, measured using Vernier caliper. Using the similar specimen geometry
and laser processing parameters, sets of specimens were manufactured by deposited Deloro 40G hardfacing alloy on the grooved
section of the specimens. This combination of initial groove diameters and laser cladding process parameters generated cladding
layers with average thicknesses ranging from 1.06 to 1.82 mm in
the machined fatigue samples.

Following the manufacturing of laser clad specimens, one

specimen with grooved section diameter of 5.5 mm laser clad with
Stellite 6 (specimen code STS) and one specimen laser clad with
Deloro 40G (specimen code DS) were separated for residual stress
measurement using neutron diffraction while others underwent a
machining process to convert laser clad specimens to fatigue test
specimens (Fig. 3). Along with laser clad specimens, substrate only
(uncoated 4130 steel) also machined in order to manufacture fatigue
test specimens (Fig. 3). All laser clad specimens that were machined
down to fatigue test specimens geometry showed that coated region
fully covered by coating material and no undercut was observed.
This implied that the addition of 0.15 mm thick of coating layer that
yielded 8.3 mm diameter on grooved section was sufcient to compensate dimensional distortion (e.g. bent) that occur during laser
cladding process. Fatigue test specimens manufacturing was nalized by applying surface notch on the surface of substrate only
(Fig. 4a) and on the surface coated specimen (Fig. 4b). The surface
notch was made using wire cut method with a wire diameter of
0.25 mm, the depth of notch was 0.5 mm.

2.3. Metallography and hardness

The laser clad specimens were cut perpendicular to the laser
clad track direction and ground-polished down to 1 lm. The
samples were then etched in 2% Nital solution to reveal the microstructure of coating and heat affected zone at the vicinity of interface (location C and H in Fig. 4b). The Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G
were electrolytically etched in 2% Nital solution using a circuit
voltage of 810 mV. Micro-Vickers hardness measurements were
performed using Buehler Micro Hardness Tester unit under 100 g
load to measure the hardness of the coating and the substrate.

2.4. Residual stress measurement

Considering the fact that bending of a solid cylindrical object
generates tension and compression along its axial direction, therefore the main interest of this research is to measure the axial residual stress that affecting the tension and compression stresses in
axial direction of the specimen.

Table 1
Chemical composition of AISI 4130 steel, Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G.
Composition (wt%)

AISI 4130 [47]

Fe

Mn

Si

Cr

Mo

Bal

0.280.33

0.400.60

0.035 max

0.04 max

0.150.30

0.801.10

0.150.25

1.5

29

1.5

3.5

7.5

Chemical composition Stellite 6

Stellite 6 [48]
3
1.2
Deloro 40Ga
a

1.5

0.35

Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of Deloro 40G.

Fig. 2. Laser cladding specimen geometry. Diameter of grooved section (d) are 5.5 mm (S), 6 mm (M) and 6.5 mm (B).

Co

Ni

Bal

4.5

Bal

1.7

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N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

Fig. 3. Fatigue test specimen geometry for substrate only and laser clad. Articial surface notch was applied on the surface of uncoated substrate AISI 4130 steel and on the
surface of laser clad region of specimens laser clad with Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G.

Upon specimen installation on the sample table, a series of

intensity scan to measure the neutron counts by changing scan
time with a given gauge volume, were performed to obtain statistically relevant neutron counts, where higher neutron counts yield
a better accuracy and resolution. After a series of intensity scans, a
program code was set up for strain scanner to automatically perform inter planar spacing (d-spacing) in substrate and coating
region (Fig. 6). With reference to measured d-spacing obtained
from strain scan, each component strain (eA, eR, eH) were calculated
using equations

eA

dA  do
Axial
do

eR

dR  do
Radial
do

eH

dH  do
Hoop
do

Then using of Poissons ratio and elastic modulus with strain

information, the stress in the three directions was calculated using
the following equations [20]

Fig. 4. Longitudinal cross section area at the vicinity of surface notch region in (a)
substrate only specimen; (b) laser clad specimen, d indicate initial grooved section
diameter (5.5 mm, 6 mm and 6.5 mm). Microstructure observation was performed
at location C (in coating region) and H (in heat affected zone).

2.4.1. Residual stress measurement using neutron diffraction strain

scanner
Strain scanning using neutron diffraction technique was
performed on one specimen with grooved section diameter of
5.5 mm (coating thickness target 1.4 mm) laser clad with Stellite
6 (specimen code STS) and one specimen laser clad with Deloro
40G (specimen code DS). These two laser clad specimens were
not undergone machining process. Due to the cylindrical geometry
of the specimen used in this study, the residual stresses generated
due to laser cladding were decomposed into radial stress (rR), hoop
stress (rH) and axial stress (rA) (Fig. 5). Prior to residual stress
calculation, strain scanning to measure the magnitude of strain
generated inside the specimen was performed in three different
direction, strain in radial (eR), hoop (eH) and axial (eA), according
to these stress directions.

rR

E
feR 1  m meH eA g Radial direction
1 m1  2m

rH

E
feH 1  m meA eR g Hoop direction
1 m1  2m

rA

E
feA 1  m meR eH g Axial direction
1 m1  2m

Since a high neutron count was only observed in the 4130 steel
substrate region during intensity scan stage, accuracy of residual
measurement is only available for this region. The parameters of
do, E and m of 1.731 , 224 GPa and 0.289 respectively, calculated
from the data obtained in strain scanning stage were used to estimate the magnitude of the residual stresses in substrate region. As
for the residual stresses measurement in Stellite 6 coating, the
parameter of do, E and m of 1.089 , 214.38 GPa and 0.302 respectively, were employed. In order to measure the residual stress in
Deloro 40G coating, the parameter of do, E and m of 1.075 ,
214.38 GPa and 0.302 respectively, were employed. Following the
measurement of residual stress using neutron diffraction technique, an analytical model was also employed to estimate the magnitude of the residual stresses, elucidated in Section 2.4.2.
Residual stress measurements using neutron diffraction technique in this research was performed on KOWARI neutron diffraction strain scanner at Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organization (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia.

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N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

Fig. 5. Stresses in solid cylindrical object.

Table 2
Coefcient of thermal expansion (CTE) of selected materials.
Material

Coefcient of thermal
expansion (CTE) (l/K)

Temperature
range (C)

AISI 4130 [49]

Stellite 6 [50]

12.2 (at 20 C), 14.2 (at 600 C)

11.35, 12.95, 13.6, 13.9, 14.2,
14.5, 14.7, 15.05, 15.5, 17.5
11.14, 12.49, 13.05, 13.56, 14.15,
14.70, 15.24, 16.22

20600
1001000

Deloro 40Ga [51]

a

Fig. 6. Schematic layout of strain scan location in specimen, refer to longitudinal (yaxis) cross section cut at the center of laser clad specimen (Fig. 2). Red dots
represent strain scan location in coating region while blue dots represent strain
scan in substrate region. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

2.4.2. Residual stress numerical modeling

Numerical modeling of residual stress formation in laser clad
specimens was performed using a model developed by Tsui and
Clyne [21] which analytically models residual stress formation in
coated cylindrical geometry specimens. This analytical model not
only took into account the dimension of coating and the substrate,
but also the deposition stress of coating material; and coefcient of
thermal expansion (CTE) of the coating and the substrate in calculating the magnitude and sign of the residual stresses. The deposition stress is dened as the unbalanced stress in the layer before it
comes into equilibrium with the underlying material, at a particular substrate temperature [21], in which this unbalance stress
causes mist strains that for a coated specimen, is expressed as

De

rd
Ed

where De is the mist strain, rd is the deposition stress and Ed is the

elastic modulus of the coating. The denition of deposition stress
also implies that the deposition of consecutive layer(s) affects the
mist strain and in turn affects the stress generated in the substrate
and in the subsequent layer in the three directions, axial, radial and
hoop. The elastic modulus of Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G employed in

100800

Based on Inconel 617 material.

this study are considered as isotropic with value of 213 GPa [22]
and 206.9 GPa [22], respectively. The other factor accounts for the
formation of residual stress is the thermal contraction effect that
causes mist strain between deposited layers with the underlying
material. In the case of coated substrate, mist strain due to thermal
contraction effect is expressed as [21]

De as  ad DT

where as is the substrates CTE, ad is the coatings CTE, DT is the

temperature difference between initial temperature and nal
temperature. The initial temperature can be the deposition temperature while the nal temperature is the temperature when the
specimen has undergone cooling process down to ambient temperature. As in residual stress formation due to deposition stress, the
deposition of consecutive layer(s) affects the residual stress formation in substrate and in subsequent layer(s) that in turn affects the
total residual stresses formed in the coated specimen. Coefcient of
thermal expansion of different material employed in this study is
presented in Table 2.
The detail derived equations, constants and assumptions of the
residual stress analytical model are presented in [21]. Considering
the concepts employed in the model developed by Tsui and Clyne
[21], this analytical model is capable to predict the magnitude and
the sign of the residual stresses in coating region, after laser cladding process and furthermore capable to predict the change of the
magnitude of residual stresses when incorporating changes in the
dimension of substrate and coating.
2.5. Fatigue test
Fatigue tests were performed on cantilever type rotary bending
test rig (Fig. 7), under load of 100 N, 150 N and 200 N, with loading

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N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Microstructure and micro Vickers hardness

Fig. 7. Schematic of cantilever type rotary bending fatigue test rig.

ratio (R) of 1. Fatigue test rig was driven by electric motor operating in 2850 rpm.
In this study, the presence of articial notch on the surface of
uncoated substrate and on the laser clad region of fatigue test
specimen (Fig. 3) provide the crack initiation site for further crack
propagation during fatigue loading, therefore fatigue life investigation was based on crack propagation stage until the specimens
fractured. Uncoated substrate AISI 4130 steel specimens were
employed as the reference in studying the effect of different type
of coating materials and thicknesses on fatigue life of laser clad
specimens. The actual coating thickness was measured on the
surface of fractured specimen after fatigue test (Fig. 8).
Fatigue life analysis was performed using Weibull distribution
analysis due to its ability to be used with small sample sizes when
tting the data [23]. Prior to implementing the Weibull distribution in fatigue life analysis, the relationship between load amplitude and fatigue life of, is presented as an SN diagram which is
implemented in rotary bending fatigue test of uniform material
and surface treated material [2429], which can be presented in
an equation that follow power law function

ra aNf b

The microstructure of Stellite 6 coating obtained in this experiment is a mixture of dendrites (bright color) structure that is rich
with Co [3032] and inter-dendritic structure (dark color) (Fig. 9)
rich with eutectic carbide [3135] formed by a eutectic reaction.
Microstructure of heat affected zone (HAZ) for the specimen coated
with Stellite 6, shown in Fig. 10, consists of ferrite (white color
phase), pearlite (dark color phase) and tempered martensite or bainite (gray color phase). The microstructure in the coating area and
the heat affected zone of the specimen coated with Deloro 40G is
shown in Figs. 11 and 12 respectively. The microstructure of Deloro
40G coating obtained in this experiment is a mixture of dendritic
(bright color) structure rich in Ni [36] and inter-dendritic structure
(dark color) (Fig. 10) rich with carbide [36,37].
Form Fig. 13, it can be observed that coating region is harder
than substrate region. This higher hardness level is contributed
by the presence of carbides in dendritic and inter dendritic structure (Figs. 8 and 10) as the result of higher content of strong carbide forming elements (Co, Cr, W) in Stellite 6 and mainly Cr
element in Deloro 40G compared to the ones in AISI 4130 (Table 1).
As for coating region, Stellite 6 coating shows a higher hardness
level than Deloro 40G coating due to the presence of a larger
amount of hard carbides as result of more carbide forming elements (Table 1).

where ra is the load amplitude, Nf is fatigue life and a, b are the

power equation constants. Due to small number of specimens
tested (3 specimens per condition), fatigue life is analyzed by
calculating the mean fatigue life of each condition using maximum
likelihood estimation (MLE) approach.

Fig. 8. Fracture surface of laser clad specimen.

Fig. 9. Microstructure of coating at the vicinity of interface in specimen laser clad

with Stellite 6 (specimen code STS).

Fig. 10. Microstructure of HAZ in specimen laser clad with Stellite 6 (specimen
code STS).

N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

Fig. 11. Microstructure of coating at the vicinity of interface in specimen laser clad
with Deloro 40G (specimen code DS).

47

in half geometry at different radial distances from center of

specimen toward outer surface of specimen, as shown in Fig. 14.
Residual stresses in substrate region of the specimens laser clad
with thick Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G were found in compressive
type, in axial direction. In addition, higher compressive residual
stresses were formed in substrate region in specimen coated with
Stellite 6 compared to the specimens coated with Deloro 40G
(Fig. 14). Contrary to a small uctuation of axial residual stress in
substrate region, coating region exhibited a large deviation of
residual stress that distributed from +610 MPa to 538 MPa in
Stellite 6 coating and from +359 MPa to 539 MPa in Deloro 40G
coating (Fig. 14). In addition to the effect of the multiple layers
of coating material laser clad onto steel substrate, it was also
expected that the presence of Cobalt element in Stellite 6 and
Boron element in Deloro 40G (Table 1), inuenced the large deviation of residual stress measured in coating region. As indicated by
low neutron count during intensity scan in coating region, Cobalt
and Boron tend to absorb rather than diffracting the incoming
neutron which is required in order to obtain more accurately
measurement. Therefore, the measurement of strain changes in
coating region was expected to yield a less accurate result.

3.3. Residual stresses from numerical modeling

Fig. 12. Microstructure of HAZ in specimen laser clad with Deloro 40G (specimen
code DS).

3.3.1. Numerical modeling validation

Numerical modeling was performed by adjusting deposition
stress value for each type of coating material in conjunction with
coefcient of thermal expansion value of substrate and coating
material (Table 2) until the calculated residual stress in axial direction is coincident with average value measured by using neutron
diffraction. In addition, by taking into account the deviation of
residual stresses measured by neutron diffraction at radial distance
0 mm, 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm in substrate region (Fig. 14), the prole
of residual stress was found to be closer to a linear line that is used
as the reference in validating the numerical modeling. The locations indicated by radial distance of 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm (Fig. 14)
are located closer to interface between substrate and coating
region where dilution takes place [38], which causes larger
deviation of residual stresses compared to the regions closer to

Fig. 13. Hardness prole of Stellite 6/AISI 4130 structure (specimen code STS) and
Deloro 40G/AISI 4130 structure (specimen code DS).

3.2. Residual stress measured by neutron diffraction method

Due to its symmetrical geometry in the form of solid cylinder,
residual stress data obtained in the measurement were presented

Fig. 14. Axial residual stresses in substrate and coating region of specimen coated
with Stellite 6 (specimen code STS) and Deloro 40G (specimen code DS).

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N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

substrate region and lower tensile residual stresses in coating

region, in axial direction when compared to specimen laser clad
with Deloro 40G. This can be contributed to the difference of coefcient of thermal expansion (CTE) at high temperature of Stellite 6
and Deloro 40G compared to AISI 4130 substrate (Table 2). The difference in CTE between AISI 4130 and Stellite 6 is lower than
between AISI 4130 and Deloro 40G, thus a lower strain mist
between occurs between the two material (Eq. (8)) that leads to
a lower level of residual stresses formed (Fig. 15). Whereas for
the Deloro 40G there is a larger difference in CTE between AISI
4130 and Deloro 40G structure which forms a larger strain mist
that leads to higher residual stresses generated in the structure.

Fig. 15. Axial residual stresses in specimen laser clad with Stellite 6 and Deloro
40G, based on 1.5 mm coating thickness.

the center of the substrate. Therefore measured residual stresses at

locations close to interface were not referred to validate numerical
modeling approach.
Numerical modeling of axial residual stress in substrate region
that was calibrated by the result obtained by neutron diffraction
method is contained in Fig. 15. From this gure, it can be observed
that calculated axial residual stress in substrate region of specimen
laser clad with Stellite 6 is in good agreement with the result
obtained through neutron diffraction method. In the case of
specimen laser clad with Deloro 40G, calculated axial residual in
substrate region was found approximately 7% differ from the result
obtained through neutron diffraction. This implied that after calibration, the analytical model employed in this study is found adequate to estimate the magnitude of residual stress in the substrate
region and provided a reasonable estimation of the magnitude of
residual stress in coating region. Analytical model employed in this
study estimated the magnitude of axial residual stress generated in
Stellite 6 coating region was +380 MPa (Fig. 15), lies in the upper
portion of residual stress range measured by neutron diffraction
method (Fig. 14). For comparison purpose, this magnitude of axial
residual stress was found lower than tensile residual stress in
Stellite 6 laser clad on tool steel, around +450 MPa that was measured using X-ray diffraction method [39]. This discrepancy is
expected to contribute by different type of steel substrate used
in the experiment that lead to different CTE; and different geometry of laser clad specimen employed in each study where these two
factors inuence the formation of residual stress. In addition, since
X-ray diffraction method tends to estimate the residual stress higher
than estimated by neutron diffraction method [4042], the numerical modeling employed in this study that was calibrated by neutron
diffraction result, provided a reasonable estimate of the magnitude
of residual stress in coating region. As for the other type of coating
material, the analytical model employed in this study estimated
the magnitude of axial residual stress generated in Deloro 40G coating was +565 MPa (Fig. 15), higher than the maximum axial tensile
residual stress measured by neutron diffraction method (Fig. 14).
3.3.2. Effect of coating material
From Fig. 15, it can be observed that specimens laser clad with
Stellite 6 tend to generate higher compressive residual stress in

3.3.3. Effect of coating thickness

In this study, coating thickness was varied by a combination of
the specimens initial diameter and number of coating layers applied
so that the outer diameter of the clad specimens was consistent.
Specimens initial diameter is the diameter of region in the specimen
that is laser clad with coating materials (Fig. 2), in this experiment,
three groups of specimens prepared where different initial diameters were assigned, 5.5 mm, 6.0 mm and 6.5 mm. Number of coating
layers applied is the total number of coating layer applied in the
manufacturing of laser clad specimen before being machined down
to manufacture the fatigue test specimens. Therefore, in order to
manufacture the laser clad specimen, 8 layers of coating laser clad
on specimen with small diameter (5.5 mm) and a less number of
coating layers on specimen with a larger diameter (6.5 mm).
Parametric study on residual stress formation in laser clad specimen revealed that the magnitude of axial residual stress in sub-

Fig. 16. Effect of initial radii (b) and number of layers (n) on axial residual stress
formation based on laser clad Deloro40G on AISI 4130 structure.

Table 3
Thickness of coating.
Specimen code

Average thicknessa (mm)

STS
STM
STB
DS
DM
DB

1.46
1.29
1.06
1.82
1.58
1.30

a
Coating thickness was measured on actual specimens
fracture surface.

Table 4
Fatigue life calculation for uncoated substrate AISI 4130 steel specimens and specimens laser clad with Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G, using Weibull method.
Coating material/thickness
(mm)

Load
(N)

Fatigue life

Uncoated substrate AISI 4130

steel

200

55,729
53,523
51,336
105,901
120,444
120,588
500,645
424,412
412,589

150

100

Stellite 6/1.46

200

100

Stellite 6/1.29

200

150

100

Stellite 6/1.06

200

150

100

Deloro 40G/1.82

200

150

100

Deloro 40G/1.58

200

150

25,474
18,465
18,711
53,411
44,455
47,752
209,507
194,138
232,726
39,789
40,250
41,750
113,007
106,747
109,368
250,102
215,106
220,441
82,696
78,440
64,775
143,888
157,426
124,508
186,769
386,375
268,923
3,776
2894
3121
4927
5319
7725
58,847
53,459
41,764
8724
8171
8590
18,871
19,163

Scale parameter (g)

Mean

Standard
deviation

Expected

Lower 95% condence

limit

53,520

1970

54,400

52,820

116,100

5863

118,700

445,000

45,770

20,850

Shape parameter (b)

Upper 95% condence
limit

Expected

Lower 95% condence

limit

Upper 95% condence

limit

56,020

34.14

16.01

72.82

114,000

123,500

24.69

10.38

58.73

464,700

426,500

506,200

11.8

5.686

24.48

3641

22,340

19,220

25,960

6.715

3.241

13.91

48,490

4166

50,300

46,870

53,990

14.25

6.776

29.95

212,000

17,690

219,700

205,100

235,200

14.69

6.964

30.97

40,570

1028

41,030

40,200

41,860

49.9

23.98

103.9

109,100

2822

110,400

108,600

112,200

48.89

27.52

86.84

228,100

18,340

236,100

221,000

252,300

15.27

7.358

31.7

75,600

6975

78,620

72,920

84,760

13.23

5.806

30.13

142,100

13,610

148,000

136,800

160,100

12.72

5.843

27.68

279,400

83,970

309,600

236,100

406,000

3.707

1.733

7.928

3259

422

3437

3082

3833

9.25

4.434

19.29

5834

1128

6288

5317

7437

6.017

2.896

12.5

51,560

6724

54,390

48,790

60,640

9.179

4.107

20.52

8504

219

8602

8429

8779

48.94

21.61

110.8

17,910

1458

18,550

17,370

19,810

15.07

6.37

35.66

49

(continued on next page)

N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

150

Data

Upper 95% condence

limit

12.36

7.29

15.57

31.99

Lower 95% condence

limit

2.881

1.677

3.033

6.887

N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

14.84
220,600

3.4.1. Effect of type of coating material on fatigue life

Fatigue life comparative study between specimen laser clad
with Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G shows that for similar coating
thicknesses, specimen laser clad with Stellite 6 exhibited a longer
fatigue life compared to the specimen laser clad with Deloro 40G
(Fig. 17). This can be contributed to the difference of coefcient
of thermal expansion (CTE) at high temperature of Stellite 6 and
Deloro 40G compared to AISI 4130 substrate (Table 2) that yield
different level of residual stress generated in substrate and coating
region. Numerical simulation of residual stresses formation as the
result of different CTE (Table 2) has revealed that specimens laser
clad with Stellite 6 generated higher compressive residual stresses
in substrate region and lower tensile residual stresses in coating
region, in axial stress direction, compared to the specimen laser
clad with Deloro 40G (Fig. 15). The presence of tensile residual
stress is detrimental to fatigue life while compressive residual
stress enhances fatigue life [4346].

199,000

16,440

206,200

192,700

6.871
65,780
53,180

9091

56,910

49,230

3.497
20,110

Coating thickness data is contained in Table 3 while fatigue life

calculation based on Weibull method of uncoated substrate AISI
4130 steel specimens and specimens laser clad with Stellite 6
and Deloro 40G is contained in Table 4; and presented in the form
of SN curve in Fig. 17.

Deloro 40G/1.30

100

150

200

9607
11,629
19,335
62,871
56,361
39,417
200,071
217,665
178,966

13,560

4295

15,070

11,290

5.969
154,100
100

15,420
105,583
106,024
150,834

120,700

23,490

130,100

109,800

Expected
Mean

Load
(N)
Coating material/thickness
(mm)

Table 4 (continued)

strate and coating region was altered by coating thickness while

maintaining constant deposition stress and coefcient of thermal
expansion of substrate and coating material. Thick coating was
produced by applying 8 layers of coating on the surface of grooved
section with diameter of 5.5 mm while thin coating was produced
by applying 6 layers of coating on the surface of grooved section
with diameter of 6.5 mm.
In the case of thinly coated specimens constructed by using a
larger initial diameter specimen and applying a less number of
coating layers, it was estimated that lower compressive residual
stresses in substrate region and lower tensile residual stress in
coating region, in axial stress direction, were generated (Fig. 16).
In contrary to thin coated specimen, the thick coated specimen
constructed by using small initial diameter and applying more
coating layers, exhibited the opposite trend (Fig. 16).

3.4. Fatigue life

Upper 95% condence

limit
Expected

Lower 95% condence

limit

Scale parameter (g)

Data

Standard
deviation
Fatigue life

Shape parameter (b)

50

Fig. 17. SN curves for uncoated substrate AISI 4130 steel specimens and
specimens laser clad with Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G coating material.

N. Hutasoit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 72 (2015) 4252

3.4.2. Effect of coating thickness on fatigue life

From the fatigue tests, it is evident that fatigue life of specimen
laser clad with Stellite 6 and Deloro 40G is inversely proportional
to coating thickness where fatigue life decreases when the coating
thickness increases (Fig. 17). This phenomenon is expected to be
contributed by the change in residual stress in the substrate and
coating region after laser cladding. As estimated by the analytical
model employed in this study, thin coated specimen showed larger
reduction of tensile residual stress in coating region than the
reduction of compressive residual stress in substrate region, in
axial stress direction (Fig. 16). Therefore, the presence of compressive residual stress in substrate region in conjunction with lower
tensile residual stress in coating region, in axial stress direction,
enhanced the fatigue life of thin coated specimens.

4. Conclusion
Fatigue behavior of laser clad hardfacing alloys on AISI 4130
steel has been examined, and the following conclusions can be
drawn from this study:
1. Specimen constructed by laser clad Stellite 6 (Co base) and Deloro 40G (Ni base) on AISI 4130 steel to a certain size showed
decrease in fatigue life compared to specimen of the same size
without cladding, due to the presence of tensile residual stress
in coating area of laser clad specimen.
2. The presence of higher compressive residual stress in substrate
region and lower tensile residual stresses in coating region in
specimen laser clad with Stellite 6 generated longer fatigue life
compared to the specimens laser clad with Deloro 40G, at similar coating thickness levels.
3. With the same nal structure size, increasing the coating thickness reduced the fatigue life of laser clad specimens as the
result of tendency toward the presence of higher tensile residual stress in axial stress direction in coating region.

Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges Mr. Brian Dempster and Mr.
Girish Thirreduperapa from Swinburne University of Technology
for conducting the laser cladding process using the ND:YAG laser;
and Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE)
for funding the neutron diffraction beam time under proposal number P2502.

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