Metal & Plastic Fatigue

Courtesy ASM International

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METAL & PLASTIC FATIGUE

PREVENTING METAL FATIGUE FAILURE..........

Engineering materials, component design configuration, operating temperature changes,

and static and cyclic stress loading play key roles in predicting fracture toughness of a
cast part in application.

When a load that is below the ultimate strength is applied repeatedly to a metal
component, localized hardening occurs. Then small cracks may appear and grow because
of stress concentration. Eventually component fracture - fatigue failure - occurs. Design
engineers must continually guard against this to avoid catastrophic failures of engineered
cast metal components.

Fatigue failure is a dangerous type of fracture that occurs in materials subjected to cyclic
or otherwise fluctuating loads, well below the tensile strength. The failure mode is
characterized by the development and aggressive growth of a crack without necessarily
giving any obvious external indication that a fracture is about to occur.

Fatigue behavior is definitely a function of engineered component design. Fatigue failure

starts on a microscopic scale as an extremely small defect in the material that grows
gradually under the action of stress fluctuations until complete material separation
(fracture) occurs.

More than 75% of all machine and structural component failures are caused by some form
of fatigue. Design engineers must design engineered components, such as cast parts, very
carefully to minimize the risk of this type of calamitous event. The effects of stress
concentrations at geometric irregularities (keyways, oil holes, tool marks, changes in cross
section, for example) are well documented. The careful and responsible casting designer
avoids repeating errors of the past.

It is astonishing how many structural component designs, even today, suggest that
warnings about possible fatigue failures ignored because geometric shapes causing stress
concentrations and eventually initiating fatigue failures are not avoided. Material
selection and part configuration design must be based on a clear understanding of the
characteristics of fatigue failure.

The micromechanism of metal fatigue involves initiation and propagation. Initiation of

fatigue cracks, according to currently accepted theory, is caused by cyrstalographic slip
and usually starts at, or very close to, the component’s surface.

Throughout the working life of a structural component or a mechanical power

transmission part that is subjected to cyclical stress, the magnitude of the upper and lower
limits of cycles can vary considerably. However, it has been general practice, when
considering fatigue behavior, to assume or employ a sinusoidal cycle having constant
upper and lower stress limits throughout a part’s life. The most readily obtainable
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information on fatigue behavior is the relationship between the applied cyclic stress (S)
and the number of cycles to failure (N). When plotted in graphical form, the result is
universally known as an S-N curve.

There are three ways of plotting the variables: S vs N (rarely used), S vs log10 (most
frequently used), and log10 S vs log10N (occasionally used). The number of cycles to
failure at any stress level is termed endurance limit, and this may vary between a few
cycles at very high stress and as much as 100 million cycles at low cyclic stresses for a
complete S-N curve. The stress range at which the curve becomes horizontal is termed
the fatigue limit. Below this value, ferrous materials, for example, cannot fracture by
fatigue.

The well known correlation between fatigue strength and tensile strength, called fatigue
ratio (FR = fatigue strength - tensile strength), fails as the strength increases above a
certain level.

Wherever there are unavoidable features such as fillets, changes in cross-section, oil
holes, keyways, and especially joints, strenuous efforts must be made by the design
engineer to minimize the inevitable stress concentrations. Among the factors influencing
fatigue in metals are mechanical joints and welded joints. Surface processing (case
hardening, shot peening, and other forms of cold working) can induce compressive
residual stresses acting to increase endurance by inhibiting the opening and propagation of
a fatigue crack.

FATIGUE DATA
Fatigue failure of engineering materials has long been recognized as a random
phenomenon. Thus, even in carefully controlled experiments, at any specific stress
amplitude, there often is a large scatter in the number of cycles to failure. There is a
metallurgical reason for this. Although fatigue data usually are presented as a single line
on the plotted S-N curve, it’s important to realize that the line does not predict the exact
fatigue life at a particular stress amplitude: S-N curves normally are plotted from a large
number of fatigue test results that have been analyzed by some statistical method. See
appendix.

The designer is cautioned against extrapolating fatigue data. In general engineering,

components subjected to cyclical stresses will be designed on an “infinite” life expectancy
basis. This means that the design stress range will be related to a choice of material
having a fatigue or endurance limit -- with a suitable safety factor -- in excess of the
working stress requirement.

Although a great deal of research time and effort has been devoted to a study of the
mechanism of fatigue, the phenomenon still is not completely understood because it
begins within the atomic structure of metal crystals and develops from the first few cycles
of stress and extends over many thousands or millions of subsequent cycles to eventual
failure. It cannot be overemphasized that the fatigue mechanism has two distinct phases,

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namely, 1) initiation of a crack and 2) propagation of that crack to final rupture of the
material.

New theories on the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks continue to be published.
Obviously, the propagation of a fatigue crack is a complex phenomenon depending on the
geometry of the component, the material, the type of stress, and the application
environment.

Investigations have shown, moreover, that there is a fatigue crack growth threshold below
which cracks can exist in a material but will not propagate. That phenomenon can be
explained in terms of the concept of the stress intensity factor K and the emergence of
fracture mechanics that has shed new light on fatigue crack growth behavior. Fracture
mechanics also makes it possible to predict life expectancy for a material or structure
containing a cracklike defect of known size. That is not possible using the standard S-N
curve approach, because it does not separate out the initiation and propagation phases.

Observation of the fracture faces of a part that has failed in fatigue generally exhibits two
quite distinct zones. One is velvety smooth, frequently characterized by a series of more
of less concentric rings or bands of different color or surface texture. The other is rough
and coarse and “crystalline” looking. The velvety zone on the fracture face is the trace of
the fatigue crack growth, and the coarsely textured zone represents the area that failed
“catastrophically” (instantaneously) during the final load cycle.

The color bands and faint ridges in the velvety zone are analogous to growth rings in trees
and represent periods of faster or slower crack growth, caused by changing severity of the
service load. Interestingly, in most instances, the origin of the fatigue crack can be
pinpointed on the external boundary of the velvety zone.

THE BASICS OF FATIGUE FAILURES

• Fatigue is the progressive, localized permanent structural change occurring in

materials subjected to fluctuating stresses and strains that can result in cracks
or fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations.
• Fatigue fractures are caused by the simultaneous action of cyclic stress, tensile
stress, and plastic strain. If any of these three is not present, fatigue cracking
cannot be initiated and cannot propagate.
• The cyclic stress starts the crack; the tensile stress produces crack growth
(propagation).
• The process of fatigue failure has three distinct stages:
1. Initial fatigue damage leading to crack nucleation and crack initiation.
2. Progressive cyclic growth of a crack (crack propagation), until the
remaining uncracked cross section becomes too weak to sustain the
loads imposed.
3. Final, sudden fraction of the remaining cross section (catastrophic
failure).

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