Solid Mechanics EMM331

Ir. Dr. Feizal Yusof

Fatigue Lecture 2
Week 13-14 (6 hrs)

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 Topics for today
1. Safety factors for S-N curve
2. Mean stress effect on fatigue
3. Complex loading

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 Safety factors for S-N curve
1. Consider a stress level 𝑆! and a 4. Alternatively, to use Point (2), where
number of cycles 𝑁 that are expected the failure life 𝑁"% corresponds to the
to occur in actual service. service stress 𝑆! .
2. As illustrated in Fig. 8, this 5. Comparing 𝑁"% with the service life 𝑁
combination must fall below the gives the safety factor in life:
stress–life curve 𝑆! = 𝑓(𝑁" ) that &#$
corresponds to failure, so that there 𝑋& = &
---(12)
is an adequate safety factor. For 𝑆! = 𝑆
3. At Point (1), the stress amplitude 𝑆!#
corresponds to failure at the desired
service life 𝑁. Comparing 𝑆!# with
the nominal service stress 𝑆!
provides the safety factor in stress:
$!"
𝑋$ = $!
---(11)
For 𝑁" = 𝑁
S

Fig. 8 3
 Safety factors for S-N curve
6. Safety factors in stress for fatigue 8. For example, consider stress–life
should be similar in magnitude to curves of the form of Eq. 8, and apply
other stress-based safety factors, this relationship to points analogous
typically in the range 𝑋$ = 1.5 to 3.0, to (1) and (2) in Fig. 8:
depending on the consequences of 𝑆!# = 𝐴𝑁 ' ---(13a)
failure and whether or not the values '
𝑆! = 𝐴𝑁"% ---(13b)
of 𝑆! and 𝑁 are well known.
7. However, fatigue lives are quite 9. Substituting Eqs. 13(a and b) and
sensitive to the value of stress, so noting Eq. 12 allows 𝑋$ and 𝑋& to be
related:
relatively large safety factors in life
are needed to achieve reasonable (&% # '
𝑋$ = % = ---(14a)
safety factors in stress. Hence, safety (&#$ )&
factors in life need to be in the range # '
𝑋& = 5 to 20 or more. 𝑋& = ---(14b)
)'

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 Safety factors for S-N curve
10. Hence, for the Eq. 8 form of stress–
life curve, a given safety factor in
stress corresponds to a particular
safety factor in life, and vice versa.
The same relationship applies for the
alternative form of Eq. 9 by
substituting 𝑏 = 𝐵. For other forms
of stress–life curve that do not form a
straight line on a log–log plot, the 𝑋&
that corresponds to a given 𝑋$ will
vary with life.

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 Example 1
For the AISI 4340 steel of Table 1 (see lecture slide 9), a stress amplitude of 𝑆! = 500
MPa will be applied in service for 𝑁 = 2000 cycles. What are the safety factors in life
and in stress?
Solution: Using Eq. 8 the safety The safety factor in stress is:
factor in life is: 𝑆!# = 𝐴𝑁"'
'
𝑆! = 𝐴𝑁"% = 1643 2000 1,.,344
$! #/' +,, #/(1,.,344) = 782 𝑀𝑃𝑎
𝑁"% = =
( #-./
+
= 1.942×10 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 Hence, the safety factor in stress is:

𝑁"% 1.942×10+ 𝑆!# 782

𝑋& = = = 97.1 𝑋$ = = = 1.564
𝑁 2000 𝑆! 500

But we can also calculate from Eq.

14a:
𝑋$ = 𝑋&1'
𝑋$ = 97.11 1,.,344 = 1.564
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 Mean stress effect of fatigue life
1. The aforementioned empirical
descriptions of fatigue life pertain to
fully reversed fatigue loads where the
mean stress of the fatigue cycle 𝑆6 is
zero (Fig 4a) and re-depicted again at
not zero mean stress in Fig 9. Fig. 9
2. However, fully reversed stress cycles
with a zero mean stress are not 4. In this case, the stress range, the
always representative of many stress amplitude and the mean
applications. stress, respectively, are defined as
3. The mean level of the imposed Δ𝑆 = 𝑆6!7 − 𝑆689 ---(15)
fatigue cycle is known to play an $(!) 1$(*+
important role in influencing the 𝑆! = ---(16)
%
fatigue behavior of engineering 𝑆6 =
$(!) :$(*+
---(17)
materials. %

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 Mean stress effect of fatigue life
5. The mean stress is also characterized
in terms of the load ratio, 𝑅 =
𝑆;<= /𝑆;>? . With this definition,
𝑅 = — 1 for fully reversed loading,
R = 0 for zero-tension fatigue, and R =
1 for a static load.
6. When the stress amplitude from a
uniaxial fatigue test is plotted as a
function of the number of cycles to
failure, the resultant S-N curve is
generally a strong function of the
applied mean stress level. (Fig 10)
Fig. 10
7. Fig. 10 shows the typical S-N plots for
metallic materials as a function of
four different mean stress levels,
𝑆6# , 𝑆6% , 𝑆6/ and 𝑆6. . One
observes a decreasing fatigue life
with increasing mean stress value
8. Mean stress effects in fatigue can
also be represented in terms of
constant-life diagrams, as shown in
Fig. 11.
Fig. 11
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 Mean stress effect of fatigue life
9. Let the stress amplitude for the
particular case of zero mean stress be
designated 𝑆!@ where subscript 𝑎 =
amplitude, r = reverse cycle
10. On a constant-life diagram (Fig 12),
𝑆!@ is thus the intercept at 𝑆6 = 0 of
the curve for any particular life.
Fig. 12
11. The graph can then be normalized in
a useful way by plotting values of the
ratio 𝑆! /𝑆!@ versus the mean stress
𝑆6 .
12. This provides an opportunity to fit a
single curve that gives an equation
representing the data (Fig. 13).
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Fig. 13
 Mean stress Equations
14. The Goodman line equation is:
$! $(
+ = 1 ---(18)
$!, $-./
15. The Soderberg line equation is:
$! $(
+ = 1 ---(19)
$!, $#0

16. The Gerber curve equation is:

$! $( %
+ = 1 ---(20)
$!, $-./

13. Notice the straight line is the

Goodman line.
14. The long dash is the Soderberg line.
15. The short dash is the Gerber curve.

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 Mean stress Equations
As a general rule-of-thumb, the following
observations can be made about the
foregoing models for the effects of mean
stress on fatigue life.
Eq. 18 provides a conservative estimate
of fatigue life for most engineering alloys.
Eq. 20 is generally good for ductile alloys
for tensile mean stresses. It clearly does
not distinguish, however, between the
differences in fatigue life due to tensile
and compressive mean stresses.

Eq. 19 matches experimental

observations quite closely for brittle
metals, but is conservative for ductile
alloys. For compressive mean stresses,
however, it is generally nonconservative.
To circumvent this problem, one may
assume that compressive mean stresses
provide no beneficial effect on fatigue
life.
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 Life estimates with Mean stress
1. Let the equation representing the
amplitude-mean behavior, such as
Eq. 19, be solved for the completely
reversed stress 𝑆!@ :
$!
𝑆!@ = ---(21)
'
#1 (
'0#
2. Substituting values of stress
amplitude 𝑆! and mean stress 𝑆6
gives a stress amplitude 𝑆!@ that is
expected to produce the same life at
zero mean stress as the (𝑆! , 𝑆6 )
combination. Hence, 𝑆!@ can be
thought of as an equivalent
completely reversed stress
amplitude.
3. Substituting 𝑆!@ into a stress–life
curve for zero mean stress thus
provides a life estimate for the (𝑆! ,
𝑆6 ) combination.
4. Assume that the S-N curve for
completely reversed loading is known
and has the form of Eq. 9. Since tests
at 𝑆6 = 0 are employed to obtain
the constants 𝑆’" and 𝑏, the stress
amplitude 𝑆! corresponds to the
special case denoted 𝑆!@ , so that, for
our present purposes, the equation
needs to be written as:
B
𝑆!@ = 𝑆"A 2𝑁" ---(22)
5. Combining with Eq. (21) then:
B
𝑆! = 𝑆"A − 𝑆6 2𝑁" ---(23)
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 Life estimates with Mean stress
6. Note that this reduces to Eq. 9 for the 𝑁" = ∞; (𝑆6!7 ≤ 0) ---(26)
special case of 𝑆6 = 0. On a log–log plot,
Eq. 23 produces a family of 𝑆! − 𝑁" curves
for different values of mean stress, which
are all parallel straight line.
7. Combining Eq. 23 with Smith, Watson and
Topper (SWT) equation:
𝑆!@ = 𝑆6!7 𝑆!
1−𝑅
𝑆!@ = 𝑆6!7
2
produces
B
𝑆6!7 𝑆! = 𝑆"A 2𝑁" ; (𝑆6!7 > 0)---(24)
and
#1C B
𝑆6!7 = 𝑆"A 2𝑁" ; (𝑆6!7 > 0)---(25)
% 13
 Example 2 and solution
The AISI 4340 steel of Table 1 is subjected to cyclic loading with a tensile mean stress
of 𝑆6 = 200𝑀𝑃𝑎.
(a) What life is expected if the stress amplitude is 𝑆! = 450𝑀𝑃𝑎?
(b) Also estimate the 𝑆! versus 𝑁" curve for this 𝑆6 value.

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 Cumulative damage
1. The principles of stress-based
characterization of total fatigue life
are only relevant for constant
amplitude fatigue loading. In reality,
however, engineering components
are invariably subjected to varying
cyclic stress amplitudes, mean
stresses and loading frequencies.
2. A simple criterion for predicting the
extent of fatigue damage induced by
a particular block of constant
amplitude cyclic stresses, in a loading
sequence consisting of various blocks
of different stress amplitudes, is
provided by the so-called Palmgren-
Miner cumulative damage rule
(Palmgren, 1924; Miner, 1945).
Implicit in this linear damage rule are
the assumptions that:
a) The number of stress cycles imposed
on a component, expressed as a
percentage of the total number of
stress cycles of the same amplitude
necessary to cause failure, gives the
fraction of damage.
b) The order in which the stress blocks
of different amplitudes are imposed
does not affect the fatigue life.
c) Failure occurs when the linear sum of
the damage from each load level
reaches a critical value.
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 Cumulative damage
3. If 𝑛8 is the number of cycles corresponding to the 𝑖th block of constant stress
amplitude 𝑆!8 in a sequence of 𝑚 blocks, and if 𝑁"8 is the number of cycles to failure
at 𝑆!8 , then the Palmgren-Miner damage rule states that failure would occur when:
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𝑛# 𝑛% 𝑛/ 𝑛8
𝐷= + + +⋯=O ---(23)
𝑁# 𝑁% 𝑁/ 𝑁"8
8D#
Where 𝐷 = 1 means damage have occurred in the structure / member / components.

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Cumulative damage

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 Example 3
Consider a hypothetical material in which the S-N curve is linear from a value equal to the
fracture stress 𝑆! at one cycle (log N = 0), falling to a value of 𝑆! = 2 at log N = 7 as shown in Fig
below. This behavior can be described by the relation:
𝑆
log 𝑁 = 14 1 −
𝑆!

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 Example 3 solution
The material has been subjected to 𝑛# = 105 load cycles at a level S = 0.6𝑆" , and we
wish to estimate how many cycles 𝑛% the material can now withstand if we raise the
load to S = 0.7𝑆" . From the S-N relationship, we know the lifetime at S = 0.6𝑆" =
constant would be 𝑁# = 3.98×10+ and the lifetime at S = 0.7𝑆" = constant would be
𝑁% = 1.58×10. . Now applying Eqn. 23:
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𝑛# 𝑛% 𝑛/ 𝑛8
𝐷= + + +⋯=O
𝑁# 𝑁% 𝑁/ 𝑁"8
8D#
So
𝑛# 𝑛% 1×10+ 𝑛%
+ = + =1
𝑁# 𝑁% 3.98×10+ 1.58×10.

𝑛% = 1.18×10. cycles.

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 What we learn today?
1. Safety factors for S-N curve 3. Complex loading
a) S-N curve provides a method to estimate a) Fatigue loads for a structure can vary and this
fatigue life of structures variation can be quantified based on a
Palmgren-Miner rule and can also be dotted
b) Safety factors for S-N curve provide a to the popular Murphy’s Law.
conservative estimate to fatigue life and b) The possibility of damage is the accumulation
can be dependent on the sensitivity of of all combined damages experienced by the
the application. structure.
2. Mean stress effect on fatigue
a) Fatigue behaviour of materials are
dependent on the Mean stress.
b) There are 3 ways to quantify the effect
of mean stress under the severity of
deformation
i) Goodman line
ii) Soderberg line
iii) Gerber curve

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Check out Exercise 8 problems on e-learning at week 13
- You have to do within 45 mins
- You need to submit your solution on power point and
provide a recorded voice to explain your answers to the
questions.

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