Fatigue Properties of Nonferrous Alloys for Heat Exchangers, Pumps, and Piping

Abstract

The fatigue behavior of 13 nonferrous alloys used for corrosion-resistant heat exchangers, pumps, and piping systems was investigated over a broad life spectrum of 100 to 100 million cycles. Both cast and wrought copper-base and nickel-base alloys were studied. It is concluded that wrought Monel and forged Ni-Al bronze have the highest fatigue strengths, whereas gun metal and valve bronze have the lowest. The effect of salt water on fatigue performance was not found to be highly significant. The use of Langer’s equation to predict stress-cycle relationships gave satisfactory results for wrought alloys but appeared to be overly conservative for cast alloys.