FATIGUE

G.Gopinath
Assistant Prof - Mechanical
 FATIGUE
Progressive, localized and permanent damage that
occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic or
repeated or fluctuating strains at nominal stresses
that have maximum values less than the static yield
strength of the material

Failure occurring under conditions of dynamic loading

 Characterization of Fatigue
1
• σ fatigue failure = σ
2 static failure

• Apparently brittle even in ductile materials

• Fracture surface is normal to the principle tensile stress

• Sudden and catastrophic – No prior warning

• Result of initiation and propagation of a crack

• Fatigue is failure due to time-varying stresses

• Accounts for about 90% of industrial failure

 Characterization of Fatigue
• Initiates from the surface irregularities, stress
raisers like
– Key holes
– Notches
– Slag inclusions
– Just under a surface coating

• Fracture appearance is mix of smooth (Brittle) and

Rough (Ductile)
 Fatigue Fracture

• Beach marks
Rubbing – Brittle propagation

Final ductile fracture

 Factors required to cause fatigue
Three basic factors

1. Max tensile stress (S) of sufficiently high value

2. A large enough variations or fluctuations in

the applied stress

3. A sufficiently large number of cycles (N) of

applied stress
Other factors..
 Stress cycles

Com
 Stages
Occurs in Five stages

1. Cyclic plastic deformation prior to fatigue crack initiation

2. Initiation of one (or) more micro cracks

3. Propagation (or) Coalescence of micro cracks to form one (or)

more macro cracks

4. Propagation of macro cracks

5. Final Fracture – Ductile manner

SEM image of fatigue striations
 S-N Curve
• Method of presenting the fatigue data

• S = Stress  σ a, σ max, σ min

• N = No of Cycles, Life

• Strength (S) vs Log of No of Cycles (N)

• Log of strength (S) vs Log of life (N)

• Each curve is for a constant probability (p) of failure

S-N Curve

Nσ ap = C

Basquin equation
 Endurance limit for some NF alloys

Endurance limit (S) @ N = 108 or 5 x 108 Cycles

 Types of Fatigue
• High-cycle fatigue (HCF)
– Stress controlled, >104cycles
• Low cycle fatigue (LCF)
– Strain controlled, <104 cycles
• Thermal fatigue
• Surface fatigue
– Rolling contact
– Pitting, spalling, cracking (wear)
• Impact fatigue
• Corrosion fatigue
• Fretting fatigue
 Fatigue Design Approaches
1. Infinite life design
– Very old design type
– Based of fatigue limit
– Stress are some fractions (or) well below the
endurance limit

2. Safe life design

– Finite life design – Life is fixed
– Implies life can be predicted
– Need safety margin to account for
uncertainties
3. Fail-safe design
– Recognizes some structural damage is inevitable --
Relies on detection and repair of cracks before
failure

4. Damage-tolerant design
– Is and extension of fail safe design incorporating
materials that have slow crack growth - high
fracture toughness
– Fracture mechanics approach

– Example pressure vessel “leak before burst”

R.R.Moore Rotating Beam Test (HCF)
Load = 5 Kg, 2 Kg, 1 Kg, 0.5 Kg …

RPM = 500 – 10,000

600,000 Cycles / hour

14,400,000 Cycles / day
 PROCEDURE
• Most methods for completely reversed cycles
σ mean = 0

• S = Stress  σ a, σ max, σ min

• Determined for a specific value of σ mean, R or A

• Take 8 – 10 specimens

• Test the first specimen at higher stress (2/3 of Su)

• Find out the N value at failure

• Then reduce the stress gradually for succeeding samples

• Again find out the corresponding N values

• Further reduce the stress until one or two samples do not fail in the
specified no of cycles
• Usually 107 cycles

• The highest stress at which a non failure is obtained taken as

fatigue or endurance limit

• For materials without a clear fatigue limit, test is usually terminated

at N = 108 OR 5 x 108 cycles

• Finally plot a graph between Strength (S) vs Log of No of Cycles (N)

Fatigue Limit
 Factors affecting S-N diagrams
• Material composition

• Grain size

– Fine-grained are superior at room temp

– At high temperature coarse grained superior

• Grain direction
• Residual stresses
• Environment
• Heat treatment (material condition)
• Welding
• Geometrical discontinuities
• Surface finish and surface treatment
• Size
• Mean stress