Abstract
The fatigue behavior of a component is strongly dependent on the material and its surface condition (surface roughness, residual stresses etc.). The paper presents and discusses the influence of the surface finish on the fatigue behavior of nodular cast iron. The fatigue properties were investigated on specimens with as-cast, shot-blast, fine-ground and rough-ground surface conditions under reversed bending loading. Selected fracture surfaces were investigated to determine fracture micro mechanisms associated to the different fatigue lives. The results show a large fatigue life scatter for all the investigated stress amplitudes which can be associated with the features of the surface finish at the origin of the formation of the main fatigue crack.