Abstract
The relationship between fatigue life and inclusions and the defect sensitivity of oiltempered Si-Cr steel wire have been investigated by rotating-bending fatigue tests and observations of fracture surfaces. The results show that fatigue failure occurs at the number of respetitive test cycles of 108 despite no failure occurs at the 107 cycles, fatigue failure progresses in the perpendicular direction to the principal stress after microcracks appear along the plane of shearing stress in the case that the tested wire has relatively long fatigue life, and smaller inclusions can more lengthen fatigue life of the wire.
