Jordan University of Science and Technology

Faculty of Engineering
Industrial Engineering Department

Engineering Materials Laboratory

Exp. #4 Fatigue Test

Student's name: Mateel Yasser Hanna Haddad

Student's No.: 20130029011

Teacher: Dr. Omar Bataineh

Teacher assistant : Mo'men Rbabah

Date of the experiment : 9-3-2016

Due date :16-3-2016

section : 4

: Table Of Contents
Page number

Description

Page 1

Objective , introduction

Page 2

Setups

Page 3

procedure

Page 4

Calculations

Page 5
Page 6
Page 7

S-N curves for cold worked steel

and aluminum
Discussion
Conclusion and references

Objectives :
1-To understand the behavior of different materials under fluctuating
(cyclic or periodic) loads in service.
2-To differentiate the appearance of fatigue fracture from other types of
fractures.

: Introduction
Fatigue is is a progressive and localized structural damage occurs when
the components are subjected to fluctuating or cyclic loading such as
suspended bridges, rails, or airplane wings. Though the fluctuating load is
normally less than the yield strength of the materials, it results in fracture
behaviour which is more severe than that achieved from static loading.
Fatigue failures are therefore unpredictable, and provide high-risk
situations, if the operators are not aware of material behaviour when
subjected to fatigue loading.
Fatigue failures can be easily observed from its unique characteristics of
fracture surfaces, revealing as a beach mark pattern as shown in fig.1 (a),
fatigue failures are also driven by severe environment. For example,
corrosion fatigue is a combined situation of fatigue loading in a corrosive
environment as illustrated in fig 1 (b). Fatigue life is influenced by a
variety of factors, such as temperature, surface finish, microstructure,
presence of oxidizing or inert chemicals, residual stresses, contact
(fretting), etc.

Fig.1 : a) Fatigue surface b) corrosion

Fatigue surface

: Setups
: Fatigue testing machine-1
One of the machines used to determine the fatigue limit is the fatigue
testing machine. In this machine a standard specimen is used where it
is supported in a rotating chuck at one end and at the other end with a
load (p) applied through a ball race. In this type of cantilever loading each
point in the circumference of the specimen is subjected to alternate stress
between tension and compression. To find the fatigue limit, different
.specimens are tested at different loading till failure occurs

Fig.2: Fatigue testing

machine

2- Test specimens :
Two materials are tested , one shows a fatigue limit (ferrous metal, cold
work steel ) and the other does not show this limit (non-ferrous metal,
cold work Aluminum ).

Fig.3 cold work aluminum

Fig.2 cold work steel

:Procedure
1-Select two materials, one shows a fatigue limit (ferrous metal) and the
other does not show this limit (non-ferrous metal).
2-Take at least two standard specimens from each material.
3-Mount the specimen in the machine and fix it properly, then apply the
required load by the loading system.
4-Make sure, that the reading of the revolution counter is zero, and then
start the machine.
5-When the specimen is broken, read the number of revolutions (cycles),
as indicated by the revolution counter of the machine.
MY

I
6-Determine the applied stress from the relation
as explained
above.
7-Tabulate the obtained results, together with the given results from
previous tests.
8-From these results, plot the S-N diagram for each tested material, on
the same graph paper.
9-Compare the obtained S-N diagram with the diagram given in the lab
handout and
10-Examine the
appearance of
the fracture for
each sample
with
the
pictures also
provided in the
handout .

Fig4: Fatigue test procedure using

fatigue testing machine
5

: Calculation
After performing the fatigue test, maximum stress that was obtained that
:caused the sample to break will be calculated using the formula

y
I
Where M is the bending moment (N.m) and I is the second moment of
D 4
(m 4 )
64
inertia (I =
) and y half the thickness of the sample (y=D/2 (m))
After calculating the Max stress it is plotted against number of cycles till
failure occurred and S-N curve is obtained where the endurance limit
.(fatigue limit) is obtained

Fig.5 : S-N curve

Using Steel standard specimen with diameter

D = 9.57 mm. convert

this diameter to inches and convert all dimensions to inches because the
. .moment calculated in lb.in from the machine
.Converted t 9.57mm to inches is equal 0.38 in
y=

D 0.38
=
=0.19 :The distance from the neutral surface
2
2

D 4 (0.38 )
I=
=
=0.001023
64
64

:The second moment of area of the section

MC ( 240 ) (0.19)
=
=44574.78
I
0.001023

:The applied stress to the first moment

Same calculation are applied to all readings but change the value of
.moment

: S-N curves for cold worked steel and aluminum

Cold worked steel is a ferrous metal so we have a definite fatigue limit
.approximately in the upper graph

of evruC N-S
00008
00006

serts mumixaM

dekroW dloC rof evruC N-S

leets

00004
00002

0
4

selcyc fo rebmun gol

Fig.6 : S-N curve for cold worked

steel
Cold Worked Aluminum is a non-ferrous metal so, we note that we dont
have a definite fatigue limit, so the fatigue limit in this case specified by
10 106
cycle and the
SN

corresponding

evruC N-S

erts mumixaM

00004
00003
dekrow dloc roF evruC N-S
munimulA

00002
00001
0

45.4

55.5

65.6

selcyc fo rebmun gol

Fig.7 : S-N curve for cold worked

aluminum

10

Discussion :
The aim of this experiment is to understand the behavior of different
materials under alternating (cyclic) loading, plus to learn how to
differentiate the appearance of the fatigue fracture shape from other
types of fractures caused by other types of loadings. Moreover, we are
able to determine the brittleness and ductility of the material from the
shape of its fatigue fracture and learned how the Ductility and Brittleness
.are related to fatigue
We fined when we increase the moment on the specimen the stress on
the specimen increase and the number of cycles to failure occurs
decrease .we know that the stress is tension in top of the specimen and
compression in other side of the specimen the stress in both side is the
same value. This difference in tension and compression stress makes
.surface cracks and then the cracks propagate and failure occurs
And we can notice from the S-N curve that as we increase the stress, the
.number of cycles endured before failure will decrease
The fatigue test takes long time because we need to break different
specimen each time at different load and wait until fracture occur to get
one point on S-N diagram which is the main and the important result of
the fatigue test. To draw the S-N diagram minimum we need 50 points
.thus, 50 specimens and 50 fractures so it may take years to do that
The fatigue test is also expensive if we compare it with other destructive
tests that we did in the lab fatigue test need electrical power for long
time to achieve our goal (S-N diagram) but its an important test to know
the ability of the material in fatigue when we use it in a specific service
.work that may exposed to alternating loads
Also we noticed that the cold worked steel have a definite fatigue limit
.while the cold worked Aluminum dont have a definite fatigue limit
.

11

Conclusion :
1- Fatigue is a normal phenomenon that will cause a material to fail
eventually under alternate loading, regardless of the number of
cycles.
2- Fatigue is tested using the fatigue testing machine and its value is
obtained from plotting the S-N curve, where stress is calculated
MY

I
using the formula
3- Fatigue affected by design, surface quality, material type, grain
size, direction of loading, grain size and temperature and other
factors.
4- Cold working increases the fatigue strength.
5- Ductile materials have a lower fatigue limit than brittle materials.
6- Fatigue fracture shape differs in structure from other fractures used
from
other types of
failures,
as it consist of
three
zones ( initial
crack
zone,
propagation zone
and final
fracture zone)
7- In
ductile materials
the
propagation zone
is larger
than that of the
brittle
materials.

Fig.8: crack propagation

References :
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(material)
2. Draper, John (2008). Modern Metal Fatigue Analysis. EMAS
3. Experiment # 4 Lab handout.
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