Zbigniew Stanislaw Basinski's fundamental contributions to the understanding of metal fatigue

Abstract

Beginning with a fundamental study of the early stages of low-amplitude fatigue of copper single crystals in 1969, Zbigniew Stanislaw Basinski with his wife Sylvia and some research associates made many significant contributions in the field of metal fatigue over a period of two and a half decades. The present article which is dedicated to Bas, as Basinski's friends called him, reviews some of the highlights of the fatigue studies of the Basinskis, emphasizing their novel and original experimental approaches and their critical evaluation of their (and others’) experimental observations. The work reviewed includes the study of the dislocation mechanisms in the early stages of fatigue and in the cyclic saturation stage (including the temperature and strain-rate dependences) and the direct observations of the evolution of the surface morphology of persistent slip bands and of the initiation and early growth of fatigue cracks.

Acknowledgements

The author considers himself fortunate to have been in scientific contact with Bas and his wife Sylvia for a period of more than 25 years. At the heart of these contacts were the common interests in the fields of crystal plasticity and metal fatigue. During this time, the author has become an admirer of the work of the Basinskis, with whose conclusions he, as a colleague but also as a rival, did not necessarily always agree. Nonetheless, he feels honoured to have been given this opportunity to write an appraisal of the work of Bas and his wife Sylvia in the field of metal fatigue. He wishes to thank Professor Marek Szczerba sincerely for having invited him to present this contribution, and he hopes that he has been able to do this in a neutral and unbiased way. The valuable support of Frau Waltraud Kränzlein and Dr Heinz Werner Höppel during the preparation of this manuscript is acknowledged gratefully.

Notes

† E-mail: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Haël Mughrabi †

† E-mail: [email protected]