Survey on fatigue strength of cast bronzes intended for marine propellers

The proper characterization of cast materials is rather challenging because of wide deviations of material features due to the fabrication process. In the frame of propeller design, a recently proposed fatigue assessment procedure highlighted the need of reliable fatigue strength characterization of cast bronzes. With the aim of obtaining reference S–N curves to support the fatigue assessment of propeller blades and to evaluate the effect on fatigue strength of the most influencing parameters, a comprehensive literature survey was carried out. It appeared that fatigue strength of cast bronzes is quite challenging to evaluate, firstly, because the properties may considerably differ from small specimens to real blades and, secondly, because relatively few experimental data are openly available.