FATIGUE (Dynamic Loading)

FATIGUE
 Fatigue Failure: Failure of materials under dynamic
loading.

 Mechanical Fatigue
 Thermal Fatigue
 Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue
 Corrosion Fatigue
 Contact Fatigue

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Pressure Vessel

Pressure vessel is filled

with gas each day

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FATIGUE
 How?
 Under fluctuating / cyclic stresses, failure can occur
at loads considerably lower than tensile or yield
strengths of material under a static load.

 Important?
 Estimated to cause 90% of all failures of metallic
structures (bridges, aircraft, machine components,
etc.)

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 FATIGUE
 What is the failure type?
 Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic
deformation) - even in normally ductile materials.
Thus it is sudden and catastrophic!

 Applied stresses causing fatigue may be axial

(pure tension or tension-compression), flexural
(bending) or torsional (twisting).

FATIGUE

 Fatigue failure proceeds in three distinct

stages:
1. Crack initiation in the areas of stress
concentration (near stress raisers),
2. Incremental crack propagation,
3. Final catastrophic failure.

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 Fatigue Crack Initiation and Propogation

 For brittle materials, the crack initiation number

is high.
 For ductile materials, the crack initiation number
is low.
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Crack Initiation
Surface
 During dynamic loading, slip
bands start to move.
Slip bands
 Due to this movement,
microcracks occur at the surface. Bands are moving

 These microcracks cause notch

effect and an increase in stress. Microcracks

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 Crack Initiation
 These microcracks grow by
each loading and form
macrocracks.
Crystal
Surface  By each loading, fatigue
Slip striations are formed and
bands
fatigue crack moves forward.
Slip
bands
Crystal
Surface

Slip
bands

Static loading

Dynamic loading 11

Incremental Crack Propagation

•By fatigue, first slip bands move 450
to stress direction.
•After this movement (about 3-4
grain size), the crack propagation
direction moves perpendicular to
applied stress.

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Incremental Crack Propagation

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 One Side Bending:
crack propagation and
rapture

Schematic representation of a fatigue fracture surface

in a steel shaft, showing the initiation region, the
propagation of fatigue crack (with beach markings),
and catastrophic rupture when the crack length
exceeds a critical value at the applied stress.
(c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used
herein under license.

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Fatigue Surface (One Side Bending)

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 Fatigue Striations

(a) At low magnifications, the beach mark pattern indicates fatigue as the
fracture mechanism. The arrows show the direction of growth of the crack
front, whose origin is at the bottom of the photograph. (b) At very high
magnifications, closely spaced striations formed during fatigue are
observed.
 Beach or clamshell marks - Patterns often seen on a
component subjected to fatigue.
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Fatigue Striations

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 Bending (Both Sides)

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Bending Failure (Two Sides)

Sudden Fracture
Fatigue-2

Fatigue-1

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Fatigue Fracture at a Crankshaft

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Rotating – Bending Fatigue Failure

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 Rotating – Bending Fatigue Failure,
low sudden brittle area – low nominal stresses

Strong circumference notch effect

Crack nucleation
Brittle fracture

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FATIGUE TEST
• Fatigue = failure under cyclic stress.
Explain!
specimen compression on top

bearing motor counter

bearing
flex coupling
tension on bottom
Load
s
smax
• Stress varies with time. S
--key parameters are S and sm sm
smin time

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17

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 FATIGUE TEST
Rotating cantilever beam test - An older test for fatigue testing

(c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

Geometry for the rotating cantilever beam specimen setup

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Application of Fatigue Testing

sg
smax
Tensile

sg
sort=0
Time
Compression

smin
s max  s min
sg  σg = Stress amplitude s min
2 σm = Mean stress StressRatio 
s  s min s max
s m  max
2 26

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S-N Fatigue Diagram

(Wöhler Diagram)
 Wöhler analyzed the effect of dynamic loading on fatigue life.
 Mean stress value was zero (σm= 0).
 He plotted his values on a stress – cycle diagram.

Stress
sy: Fatigue
(Endurance) limit

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cycle

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 sg
Tensile strength (N=0)

x x
x
x
x
x
x x x x x

Failure occurs at sy: Fatigue

stress value 90 MPa (Endurance) limit
by N= 105 cycles

cycle 29

Fatigue (Endurance) Limit - I

• In BCC metals (Fe, ...) there is a fatigue limit.
• In FCC metals (Ni, Cu ...) there is no fatigue limit. Therefore fatigue
strength is described as the stress value of 107 or 108 cycles.

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 Fatigue (Endurance) Limit - II
• In BCC metals (Fe, ...) there is a fatigue limit.
• In FCC metals (Ni, Cu ...) there is no fatigue limit. Therefore fatigue strength is
described as the stress value of 107 or 108 cycles.
• Why?
o Dislocation pinning by C and N atoms in BCC steels. Min. stress needed to
start dislocation motion again. Similar to Cottrell atmosphere concept.
o Cross-slip is difficult in BCC metals but easier in FCC and HCP.
o In general, anything that pins dislocations leads to a fatigue limit.
Refs.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_Steels_and_Ti_Alloys_have_Fatigue_Limit
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2lqthg/why_do_some_materials_exhibit_an_endura
nce_limit/

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FATIGUE DESIGN PARAMETERS

S = stress amplitude

• Fatigue limit, Sfat :

case for
--no fatigue if S < Sfat unsafe Steel
Endurance Limit
Sfat
• For steels Sfat = 35%-60%
safe Adapted from Fig.
of YS 8.17(a), Callister 6e.
• Think about design criteria
factor, N in chapter 6 103 105 107 109
N = Cycles to failure
• Sometimes, the
S = stress amplitude

fatigue limit is zero!

case for
unsafe Al (typ.)

safe Adapted from Fig.

8.17(b), Callister 6e.

103 105 107 109

N = Cycles to failure 32

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S-N Curves for HCP Materials

Ref. http://www.lm-foundation.or.jp/english/abstract-
vol42/abstract/57.html

Ref. http://www.lm-
foundation.or.jp/english/ab
stract-
vol39/abstract/11.html

Ref.
https://www.intechopen.com/bo
oks/howtoreference/plasma-
science-and-technology-
progress-in-physical-states-and-
chemical-reactions/plasma-
nitriding-of-titanium-alloys 34

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 Fatigue (Endurance) Limit

sy : Material property (fatigue strength)

sg : Stress (amplitude)
sg < sy  No fatigue
sg > sy  Fatigue

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Fatigue (Endurance) Limit

Low cycle fatigue: high loads, plastic and elastic

deformation (N < 104)

High cycle fatigue: low loads, elastic deformation

(N > 104)

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 FATIGUE TEST DATA

Stress amplitude below which a material can endure infinite number of cycles.
'infinite' life > 107 cycles 37

Empirical Drawing of a Wöhler (S-N) Diagram

σC = tensile strength

Fatigue limit

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Graph of endurance limit versus tensile strength
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What if average stress is not zero

sort 0 (R 0)

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The Effect of Average Stress and
Application of Fatigue Testing

Examples of stress cycles:

a) Equal stress in tension and
compression,
b) Greater tensile stress than
compressive stress, and
c) All of the stress is tensile.

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sort≠0

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 The Effect of Average Stress and
Application of Fatigue Testing
 Increasing the mean stress leads to a decrease in
fatigue life

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What if average stress is not zero

sort 0
•Sodergerg
•Goodmann
•Gerber
•Smith diagrams
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 sg Soderberg
sendu
Unsafe
x
x
Safe

0 sYield s
ort

sort≠0
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 Example:
Design of a Rotating Shaft
•A solid shaft for a cement kiln produced from tool steel must
be 96 in. long and must survive continuous operation for one
year with an applied load of 12 500 lb.
•The shaft makes one revolution per minute during operation.
•Design a shaft that will satisfy these requirements.

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(c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

The stress-number of cycles to failure (S-N) curves for a

tool steel and an aluminum alloy
N=525 600 cycles 48

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Example SOLUTION

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Factors Affecting Endurance Limit

 Loading Conditions
-Average stress level
-Impact factor
 Ambient Conditions • Corrosive environment
-Temperature • Increasing temperature
-Corrosive environment • Increasing surface roughness

 Component Geometry
-Thickness
-Cross section shape
(square, circle ...)
-Notch effect
• Increasing tensile strength
 Tensile Strength • Surface hardening
• Increasing surface smoothness 50

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Endurance (Fatigue) Limit Modifying Factors

σFI = σF x KS x KN x KZ x KL x KT

σFI = Endurance limit of test specimen

σF = Endurance limit of element (average stress = 0)
KS = Surface factor
KN = Notch effect
KZ = Size factor
KL = Load factor
KT = Loading type

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Size (thickness) effect on fatigue strength

to
+
do
- 0,95σmax σmax

t1
+

d1

d1 > do
-

t1 > t o
Eğilmede gerilme dağılımı 52

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Size (thickness) effect on fatigue strength

Diameter [mm] Size factor (Kb)

8 0.91

30 0.78

50 0.68

100 0.61

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Effect of Loading Type on Fatigue Limit

Bending

Tensile

Torsion

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 Effect Surface on Fatigue Limit

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Effect of Crosssection Type on Fatigue Limit

 Size factor KS:

 KS= 1

 KS= 0.8

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Effect of Loading Type on Fatigue Limit

 Loading Type Factor, KT

 KT= 1.25: Light loading

 KT= 1.5: Light – medium loading
 KT= 2: Medium loading
 KT= 2.5: High loading

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Effect of Notch (Stress Concentration)

on Fatigue Limit
 The great majority of machine parts and structural members contain
notches and stress concentrations of one sort or another.

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 Engineering Fracture Design
• Avoid sharp corners!
s
max
Stress Conc. Factor, K t = s
o
so 2.5

w
smax 2.0 increasing w/h
r, h
fillet 1.5
radius
1.0 r/h
0 0.5 1.0
sharper fillet radius
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60

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Effect of Notch (Stress Concentration) on
Fatigue Limit
 Kf = fatigue strength reduction factor,
 KT = local stress concentration factor
 q = notch sensitivity factor
 when q = 0 the notch has no effect and
 when q = 1 the notch exerts its full effect.

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Notch effect

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 Effect of Grain Size on Fatigue Strength

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IMPROVING FATIGUE LIFE

1. Impose a compressive
surface stress
(to suppress surface cracks from
growing)
S = stress amplitude
near zero or compressive sm
moderate tensile sm
larger tensile sm

POLISH THE SURFACE ! N = Cycles to failure

--Method 1: shot peening --Method 2: carburizing

shot
C-rich gas
put
surface
into
compression

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IMPROVING FATIGUE LIFE

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 Shot Peening
 Shot peening - A process in which metal spheres are shot at a
component to produce compressive stress at the surface.

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Cold Deformation of Surface

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 Cold Deformation of Surface

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Effect of Environment on Fatigue Strength

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