Fatigue is a kind of failure that occurs in structures subject to dynamic and

fluctuating stresses and is the largest cause of failure in metals (about 90%). It is a
failure very dependent on the stress amplitudes, but also a time dependent one, that is,
the number of cycles to which the component is subject may lead to failure if it is above
a certain value. This mechanism reduces the maximum stress that the component can
handle, because of that, the design of pieces subject to cyclic loads must be even more
carefully done. One of the criterium for designing those components is to choose the
proper material, which must be previously subject to fatigue tests.

The fatigue test consists in applying compressive and tensile stresses to a

specimen in an alternate way, by simultaneously bending and rotating the body until the
rupture, after which the number of cycles required for the failure. This procedure is
repeated for different values of loads, so that a graphic of stress (S) against number of
cycles till rupture (N) can be plotted. The higher the magnitude of the load, the lower
will be the number of cycles, however, for some materials (like iron and titanium
alloys), this curve must become horizontal for stresses below a certain value, which is
called endurance limit. The mentioned graphic can be seen in the following, both for
materials with and without the endurance limit. However, as most of things in
engineering, there are uncertainties related to the data obtained, in this case due to high
sensitivity of the test to the specimen fabrication, mean stress, test frequency,
metallurgical variables, alignment of the specimen, etc. Because of that, curves that are
almost parallel are introduced in the graphic S x N, each one indicating the probability
of failure after a number of cycles for a given stress.
 There are three stages of fatigue failure: fatigue crack nucleation, fatigue crack
growth and fast fracture. The first one consists in the nucleation of a tiny crack usually
near the surface, where the stress reaches its maximum, and it is most likely to happen
in surface defects or corners, where the stresses are amplified. These defects can be
avoided by realizing an adequate design and manufacture of the component. However,
even if no defects are present, fatigue can still occur, by the formation of persistent slip
bands, which is an extrusions and intrusions phenomenon.

The fatigue crack growth consists in a gradual propagation of the crack until the
remaining cross section of the material cannot handle anymore the applied load. Two
characteristic marks are formed in this stage: a macroscopic one (beach marks) and a
microscopic one (striations). The beach marks are formed when load is changed during
service or when it is intermittent, because during the breaks, oxidation can occur inside
the crack, leaving a trace on it. The striations show the position of the crack tip after
each cycle. As the number of cycles increase and the crack propagates, the stress
intensify factor (ΔK) increases, which is given by the equation 1, where Δσ is the
difference between the maximum and the minimum stresses and a is the size of the
crack. There are four stages of the crack growth: in the first one, there is no growth,
because ΔK is not high enough; in the second one the crack grows slowly; in the third
one, the growth of the crack is dictated by the Paris Law (equation 2), where C and m
are material constants; and in the last one, the growth rate of the crack increases a lot in
an unstable way. The four stages can be seen in the graphic 2.

The fast fracture occurs when the fatigue crack has grown so much that the
remaining cross section cannot support the applied load anymore.