FATIGUE PROCESS STAGES

o From the design applications point of view,

the main engineering interest in the
fatigue properties lies in the "high-cycle"
region.
o However, there are many instances where
the so-called load cycle" is very slow;
which makes the employment of fatigue
properties in the low cycle region feasible
to achieve the desired design efficiency.
o When only a short service life is required,
the low-cycle fatigue data can
advantageously be employed

UNIAXIAL FATIGUE STRENGTH UNDER

ALTERNATING STRESS
The failure of the railway axles initiated the first orderly approach
to the nature of such fatigue failures with alternating stress
form.
Seeing the inadequancy of the classical approaches, Whler
designed the first rotating bending fatigue tester to determine
the fatigue strength of the axles of the railway cars.

There are different types of fatigue

testing methods/machines
regarding the analysis of the
fatigue properties of materials
1. rotating bending is the most widely
used method of testing
2. alternating bending is another type
of testing method
3. axial loading (or push-pull) is the
other testing method

rotating bending fatigue tester

In this method of testing, a specimen, subjected to a constant bending
moment or a constant bending stress by shaping the specimen
accordingly is rotated until fracture.
Two types of Rotating bending fatigue testers are:
o Constant bending moment type (4-Point Bending tester) (fig.a)
o Cantilever type (Constant Bending Stress) (fig.b)

Constant bending
(4-Point Bending) fatigue tester

cantilever type rotating bending fatigue

tester
In cantilever type rotating bending fatigue testing machines,

the bending moment varies along the gauge length of the

specimen.
o Condition of constant stress along the gauge length is satisfied
by tapering the specimen.

alternating bending type fatigue

tester
Other standart method of uniaxial fatigue testing is the
alternating bending type fatigue testing, where the
bending load itself alternates but the specimen is
stationary.

o The axial loading (push-pull) type fatigue tester is the other machine where specimen is
not exposed to bending but to pure axial (tensile or copmressive) loading. Specimen is
held at two ends and loaded cyclically between two extreme (max. & min.) values.

The axial loading (push-pull) type fatigue

tester
The advantage of

these fatigue testers is

that they can also be
used to apply a mean
stress, whereas the
rotating bending type
fatigue testers are
exclusively for
applying alternating
stress.
The axial loading (pushpull) testers,
employing conversion
attachments are also
capable of bending
and torsion fatigue
testing when
necessary.

Standart fatigue test specimens for different

fatigue tester machines

FATIGUE TEST
The main aim of the fatigue testing is the
determination of some mechanical properties of the
material as in other types of tests like tension, torsion
etc .
Similar to stress-strain curve of tensile test , another
curve is constructed for the fatigue test of materials
and this curve is called the S-N curve.
On the S-N curve, mechanical properties like fatigue
strength, endurance strength, etc are determined.

 S-N curve of a material is usually constructed by

doing multiples of rotating bending fatigue tests of
the material.
Each test is represented by a point on the S-N curve.
In each test,
a specimen is loaded to create a certain level of
stress amplitude (Sa) within the material and then
the specimen is rotated until it fractures.
When the specimen fractures, both the level of
stress applied (Sa) and the number of revolutions
(cycles, N) to fracture are noted.
Multiples of tests at different stress levels (from Su
down to very low stress values) with corresponding
cycles to fracture will create multiples of test points
for the construction of S-N curve

S-N Curve
o For certain metals and
alloys, the S-N curve
becomes asymptotic to
the horizontal line. This
mean that the
specimen will not fail
for an infinite number
of cycles.
o The stress level
corresponding to this
asymptote is called the,
endurance strength or
the fatigue limit of a
metal.
o Se is the symbol for
endurance strength.

Here is the graph obtained by plotting the values of S a and

N (life) called S-N curve or Whler diagram.

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE
Fatigue is a very complicated phenomenon.
It is subjected to many variables and is easily
influenced by many factors.
Because, S-N curves are only approximations
and represent the fatigue behaviour of
laboratory specimens the fatigue life of an
actual part may vary considerably from the
laboratory results.
The important points about S-N curve are:
o
o
o
o

Statical Nature of Fatigue

Effect of Surface Quality & Treatment
Size Effects
Method of Testing

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE

o Statical Nature of Fatigue:

When identical specimens are fatigue tested at same
stress level , their fatigue lives are generally not the
same , but may vary or scatter a great deal.
Because of the fact that the fatigue life is easily influenced
by many variables, the S-N curve represents a statical
average of the test results.
In other words, the meaning of the S-N curve, as drawn, is
that 50% specimens are expected to fail above this
curve and the other 50% below it. We can see this
differences on P-S-N curve on next page.
For different probabilities of failure (or for different
reliabilities) a modifying factor Mr is used to modify the
S-N curve
Mr=1-0.08.P

(see related tables and figures in textbook)

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE

o Effect of Surface Quality:

This factor is very important for fatigue failure.
In fatigue, crack may start due to microscopic surface
irregularties not easly visible to naked eye.
General rule is that:
surface roughness decreases, fatigue life increases,
Or surface rougness increases, fatigue life decreases

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE
The modifying factor Ms is used to modify the fatigue
strength of parts machined with different methods.
The surface irregularties are effected by cold working the
specimen with more plastic flow. This then relaxes the
stress concentration produced by surface irregularies.

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE
The residual surface compression produced by some
mechanical finishes is known to improve the fatigue life
because of its retarding effect on crack propogation.
Thus operations like
o Sandblasting
o Shot peening
o Burnishing & alike
generally improve the fatigue life.
On the other hand, the processes like
o Electro polishing
o Chem-milling & alike

which do not produce a compressive layer may reduce the

fatigue life.

INTERPRETATION OF FATIGUE
Grinding like EDM (electrical discharge
machinig) is capable of producing high
localized surface temperatures. During a
process of severe grinding very high
localized surface temperatures are
generated.
These hot spots are rapidly quenched by
either the bulk of material or cooling fluid
thus producing an unintentional heat
treated layer of non-uniform properties or
even cracking.

Like machining, surface treatments which produce a

high strength layer with favourable compressive
residual stresses improve the fatigue properties.
Surface compressive stress may be obtained by;
Nitriding
Carburizing
Flame or induction hardening (if properly done)
Drastic quenhing of shallow hardening steel

Size Effects
Fatigue properties (or results) will vary with the
size of the material and this has been proven by
experiments (as mentioned in tension tests).
The general observation being that the Fatigue
strength of large parts may be considerably
lower than that of the small specimens.
The phenomenon of the size dependency of the
test results is called the size effect and it is
one of the most important problems
encountered in fatigue applications.

 The materials (with larger sizes)

become more heterogeneous with
increasing size; which makes it all
together impossible to prepare
specimens which retain the nominal
properties of the specified material.
The usual capacities of the laboratory
type testing machines are also limited
to conduct experiments with large
specimens.

Method of Testing
The S-N curves obtained by three
methods of testing (altemating bending,
rotating bending, and push-pull) differ
appreciably
One can not therefore base the design
of a machine part on the fatigue data
which has not been obtained under the
similar loading conditions.

According to accumulated evidence on a specified

material
The alternating bending test yields the highest S-N
The rotating bending test produces the next highest
S-N
The push-pull test produces the lowest S-N curve
The push-pull type of test data produces the most
conservative design, the next conservative design is
based on the rotating bending test data.
Most of the S-N curves are produced by the rotating
bending test due to its simplicity.
Make sure that you use correct S-N curve when
designing your machine part.

AS A RESULT
It can be said that since the fatigue
properties of a material is easily influenced by
many factors (size,surface,test method and
probability) the S-N curve obtained from
laboratory tests has to be related to real-life
design condition by modifiying it with some
factors and least the labrotary results should
not be used directly with no question.
Laboratory Endurance strength (Se) of the
materials are therefore corrected for actual
conditions by using correction factors like:
Se = ka*kb*kc*kd*ke*kf* Se

ka = surface (correction) factor

Kb = size (correction) factor
kc = reliability (correction) factor
kd= temperature (correction) factor
ke = stress concentration (correction) factor
kf= miscalleneous (correction) factor
Se= endurance strength of material
specimen under lab. conditions
Se= endurance strength of material under
actual running conditions (to be used in
design calculations)

Endurance limit/Fatigue strength

The endurance limit, or fatigue strength, of a
given material can usually be related to its
tensile strength, as shown in table next.
The endurance ratio, defined as (endurance
limit/ tensile strength), can be used to predict
fatigue behavior in the absence of endurance
limits results.
From the table shows, endurance ratio of most
ferrous alloys varies between 0.4 and 0.6

CUMULATIVE FATIGUE DAMAGE

In actual case the stress amplitute Sa of the machine
parts which are subjected to fatigue is not constant
for whole life and it varies as well.
It is practically inefficient to design these machine
parts in such a manner that all of the stresses
induced by the variable external loading are
accepted to be below the endurance strength/fatigue
limit of the material.
It is quite possible that machine part may be exposed
to different amplitudes of the stress (Sa1, Sa2, Sa3
etc) during its life.
What then will happen to this part in a certain time?
Will it fracture?
Or will it still have some time/life to carry more
stresses?

 When some of these stresses are above the fatigue

limit of the material it becomes necessary to consider
the fatigue damage accumulated at each step.
As the fatigue damage added or contributed at each
step, cumulative effect of the total damage is refered
to as the camulative fatigue damage
There are some different approaches developed to
deal with camulative fatigue damage concept
Not exact, yet the most widely employed damage
concept (on acount of its simplicity) is the Palmgren
-Miner lineer damage rule .

Selection of materials for fatigue resistance

In many application, the behavior of a component in
service is influence by several other factor besides
the properties of the material used in its
manufacture.
This is particularly true for the cases where the
component or structure is subjected to fatigue
loading.
The fatigue resistance can be greatly influenced by
the service environment, surface condition of the
part, method of fabrication and design details.
In some cases, the role of the material in achieving
satisfactory fatigue life is secondary to the above
parameters, as long as the material is free from
major flaws

Steel and cast iron

Steels are widely used as structural materials for
fatigue application as they offer high fatigue
strength and good processability at relatively low
cost.
The optimum steel structure for fatigue is tempered
martensite, since it provide max homogeneity
Steel with high hardenability give high strength with
relatively mild quenching and hence, low residual
stresses, which is desired in fatigue applications.
Normalized structure, with their finer structure give
better fatigue resistance than coarse pearlite
structure obtained by annealing.

Nonferrous alloys
Unlike ferrous alloy, the nonferrous alloys, with
the exception of titanium, do not normally
have clear endurance limit.
Aluminum alloys usually combine corrosion
resistance, light weight, and reasonable
fatigue resistance
Fine grained inclusion-free alloys are most
suited for fatigue applications.

Plastics
The viscoelasticity of plastics makes their fatigue
behavior more complex than that of metals.
Fatigue behavior of plastics is affected by the
type of loading, small changes in temperature
and environment and method of fabrication
Because of their low thermal conductivity,
hysteretic heating can build up in plastics
causing them to fail in thermal fatigue or to
function at reduces stiffness level.
The amount of heat generated increases with
increasing stress and test frequency.
This means that failure of plastics in fatigue may not
necessarily mean fracture

Composite materials
The failure modes of reinforced materials in
fatigue are complex and can be affected by the
fabrication process when difference in shrinkage
between fibers and matrix induce internal
stresses.
However from practical experiences, some fiber
reinforced plastics are known to perform better in
fatigue than some metal
The advantage of fiber-reinforced plastics is even
more apparent when compared on a per weight
basis.
As with static strength, fiber orientation affects
the fatigue strength of fiber reinforced composite

 In unidirectional composites, the fatigue

strength is significantly lower in directions
other than the fiber orientation.
Reinforcing with continuous unidirectional
fibers is more effective than reinforcing with
short random fibers.