Description

An elementary analysis of metal fatigue was the primary purpose of the experiment performed on November 18, 2004. The experiment involved bending paperclips at four different orientations, i.e., 45o, 90o, 135o and 180o. Four (4) brands of paperclips were used for the experiment, i.e., A, B, C and, D. Brand A were standard size silver paper clips, Brand B were the same size paperclips with colored stripes on it. Brand C were small gold-colored paperclips, and Brand D were jumbo size gold colored paperclips. Sixteen (16) paperclips of each brand were given to four (4) groups of approximately six (6) students to perform the in-class experiment. The experimental results showed that irrespective of the dimensions of the paperclips, the greater the angle through which the paperclip was bent, the fewer the cycles required for fracture.

The theory behind fatigue is quite complicated and hence most of the analysis in fatigue uses statistical methods. In general, the total number of cycles for a metal to fracture is inversely proportional to the stress acting on that metal. This can be seen graphically by plotting the data obtained from the experiments. Even though errors existed during experimentation, the data remained reasonable. However, the data should not be used for any future papers or analyses and should be used only for qualitative comparisons. The paper suffers from experimental errors and probably manufacturing errors. A more accurate paper could probably be obtained by ensuring consistency while fracturing the paperclip and operators ensuring they don’t compromise on accuracy due to time constraints.

This lab report contains an in-depth section on the theory behind metal fatigue, the procedures that were used during experimentation, the results obtained from the experimental data, and the conclusions that evaluate the extent to which this experiment is accurate.