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
fatigue

1
failure static failure
2
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 a, max, 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

N 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
mean = 0

S = Stress a, max, min

Determined for a specific value of mean, R or A

Take 8 10 specimens

Test the first specimen at higher stress (2/3 of S u)

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