to restore the beam back to its original shape.

The stress developed in the material is related to the

deflection (or strain).
Now, if you apply the tip load in the opposite direction, the resultant stress in the structure also
changes direction to oppose the load. If you extend this to think about a load that keeps changing
direction, i.e., when the tip load is cyclic, the stress in the structure is also cyclic (and hence
called cyclic stress). Cyclic stress in the structure eventually causes the material to develop small
cracks, which then propagate through the entire structure resulting in complete failure. The
development of cracks is a random process. This means that every time you repeat the experiment,
you will get a slightly different result (i.e., different number of cycles when the fracture occurs).
The typical curve for the maximum number of cycles under a given stress level is shown in Figure 2.
Different materials have different levels of stress under which they can withstand cyclic loading of a
certain number of cycles.

Figure 2. Stress vs Fatigue Cycles

Since steel has a higher fatigue stress amplitude, it can last longer than aluminum at a given stress
level.
This relationship can be expressed in a simple power form as shown below:
Stress = K (2N)c
where, Stress corresponds to the stress amplitude, N is the number of reversals (so 2N is the
number of cycles), K is the fatigue strength coefficient (For most metals, K is equal to the true
fracture strength) and c is an fatigue strength exponent (typically between -0.5 and -0.12).

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we discussed the ideas of fatigue strength and fatigue life. Fatigue strength is defined
as the amplitude of cyclic stress that can be applied to a material without causing failure. Fatigue life
is the number of cycles of a given stress level that a material will survive. For example, a tip load on
a cantilever beam causes a reaction stress in the material. Cyclic stress in the structure eventually
causes the material to develop small cracks, which then propagate through the entire structure
resulting in complete failure. The relationship between stress amplitude and number of cycles to
failure can be expressed using a simple power formula with empirical coefficients.