This work is an attempt towards a better understanding of the high cycle and very high cycle fatigue behaviors of a ferritic-martensitic dual-phase steel, with a regard to temperature and strain rate effects, resulting from accelerated fatigue loading frequencies. The influence of frequency on fatigue response of DP600 steel was investigated by conducting ultrasonic and conventional low frequency fatigue tests. Fractography studies and microscopic observations on the surface of specimens were carried out to study the deformation and fracture mechanisms under low and ultrasonic frequencies. Moreover, in situ infrared thermography was carried out to investigate the thermal response and dissipative mechanisms of the material under fatigue tests. The S-N curves were determined from ultrasonic 20-kHz fatigue loadings and conventional tests at 30 Hz. Fatigue life for a given stress amplitude was found to be higher in the case of ultrasonic fatigue whereas the fatigue limit was the same for both cases. Moreover, crack initiation was always inclusion-induced under ultrasonic loading while under conventional tests it occurred at slip bands or defects on the surface. The inevitable temperature increase under ultrasonic fatigue at high stress amplitudes along with the rate dependent deformation behavior of ferrite, as a body centered cubic (BCC) structure, were found as the key parameters explaining the observed fatigue behavior and thermal response under low and ultrasonic frequencies. The discrepancies observed between conventional and ultrasonic fatigue tests were assessed through the mechanisms of screw dislocation mobility in the ferrite phase as a BCC structure. The higher fatigue life and inclusion-induced crack initiations in the case of ultrasonic loading were attributed to the dynamic strain aging, which resulted from the high temperature increases at high stress amplitudes. The existence of a transition in deformation regime from thermally-activated to athermal regime under ultrasonic fatigue loading by increasing the stress amplitude was confirmed. Below the fatigue limit, deformation occurred in thermally-activated regime while it was in athermal regime above the fatigue limit. Under conventional loading deformation occurred in athermal regime for all stress amplitudes. From the analysis of the experimental data gathered in this work, guidelines were given regarding the comparison and interpretation of S-N curves obtained from conventional and ultrasonic fatigue testing. A transition map was produced using the experimental results for DP600 steel as well as data available in the literature for other ferrite based steels, showing the correlation between thermally-activated screw dislocation movement and the absence of failure in very high cycle fatigue. Keywords: Very high cycle fatigue, Ultrasonic fatigue, Dual-phase steel, Frequency effect, Infrared thermography, BCC structure, Dislocations, Strain ageing.
