Machine Design II Prof. K.Gopinath & Prof. M.M.

Mayuram










Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Stress Concentration Effect
Fatigue Stress Concentration
The existence of irregularities or discontinuities, such as holes, grooves, or
notches, in a part increase the magnitude of stresses significantly in the immediate vicinity
of the discontinuity. Fatigue failure mostly originates from such places. Hence its effect
must be accounted and normally a fatigue stress-concentration factor K
f
is applied when
designing against fatigue, even if the materials behavior is ductile.
Fatigue Stress Concentration Factor
Recall that a stress concentration factor need not be used with ductile materials
when they are subjected to only static loads, because (local) yielding will relieve the stress
concentration. However under fatigue loading, the response of material may not be
adequate to nullify the effect and hence has to be accounted. The factor K
f
commonly
called a fatigue stress concentration factor is used for this. Normally, this factor is used to
indicate the increase in the stress; hence this factor is defined in the following manner.
Fatigue stress concentration factor can be defined as
Fatigue strength (limit) of unnotched specimen
Fatigue strength (limit) of notched free specimen
k
f
=

The other form of use, where necessary is the miscellaneous-effects factor k
e
applied as a
strength reduction factor on the fatigue limit value. With this approach we define
e
f
1
k
K
=

Machine Design II Prof. K.Gopinath & Prof. M.M.Mayuram










Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Geometric stress concentration factor K
t
and Fatigue Stress
Concentration factor K
f
This form of definition needs that the fatigue stress concentration factor or the
endurance strength values for different notch geometries on each of the material to be used
should be evaluated. However once sufficient data was available a simple approach, useful
at preliminary design stages was evolved to determine the fatigue stress concentration
factor value from the geometrical (theoretical) stress concentration values, data charts for
which is readily available, using a notch sensitivity relation.
Notch Sensitivity
Notch sensitivity q is defined by the equation
f
t
K 1
q
K 1

Actual intensification of stresses over nominal stress
Theoretical intensifcation of stress over nominal stresses

The values of q are between zero and unity. It is evident that if q=0, then K
f
=1, and the
material has no sensitivity to notches at all. On the other hand if q=1, then K
f
=K
t
, and the
material has full notch sensitivity. In analysis or design work, find K
t
first, from geometry of
the part. Then select or specify the material, find q, and solve for K
f
from the equation
f t
K 1 q(K 1) = +
Machine Design II Prof. K.Gopinath & Prof. M.M.Mayuram










Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Notch sensitivity curves
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16
Notch radius r (in.)
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
3.0 3.5
4.0
Notch radius r (mm)
Aluminium alloy (based on 2024- T6 data)
use these values with bending and axial load
use these values with torsion
}
Steel
S ksi
and Bhn
as marked
u
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
q