Factors affecting High cycle

fatigue life
Mir Aamir Abbas
 Assumptions.
• Deterministic model of fatigue life is assumed.
• The stress induced as per macro-mechanical
modelling is lower than the yield stress.
• It is assumed that the reader is familiar with
stress analysis.
• There may be factors other than those
mentioned in this article that affect the fatigue
life.
• For each factor mentioned in a slide, the other
factors are assumed constant.
 S-N curve and stress amplitude
• The fatigue life depends on the S-N curve of
the material of which the structure is made.
• It depends on the stress/strain amplitude of
caused by the loading.
• A higher stress amplitude would give a lower
fatigue life all other factors remaining the
same.
• In the same way, a material with better S-N
curve would give a higher fatigue life.
 The mean stress
• The mean stress is equal to the average of
maximum and minimum stress.
• If the mean stress is positive, the fatigue life,
for the same stress amplitude would be lesser
than if it was negative.
• High mean stress is the reason bolts have
limited life even though the stress amplitude
is small compared to the fatigue strength.
 Prestress
• If the material is pre-stressed, the fatigue life
is affected by it.
• If the prestress is positive (or tensile), it
reduces fatigue life, if the prestress (or
compressive), it improves fatigue life.
 Stress concentration factor and notch
sensitivity
• The fatigue life is affected by stress concentration
factor. For the same maximum stress, higher
stress concentration factor gives higher life.
• Thus, a localised stress of some magnitude gives
a higher life than a uniform stress of the same
magnitude.
• Similarly, a material with low notch sensitivity is
relatively unaffected by localised stress but is
affected by nominal stress.
 Surface Finish.
• A higher surface roughness leads to lower
fatigue life as the surface asperities due to the
surface roughness act as micro-cracks.
• Thus it is desirable to have a smooth surface
finish to improve the fatigue life at the surface
as most fatigue cracks initiate at the surface.
 Ambient temperature
• The ambient temperature affects the material
properties and hence the fatigue life of
structures.
 Heat treatment
• With a suitable heat treatment of the metallic
structure, the grain structure can be refined
leading to better fatigue life.
 Surface treatment
• Surface treatment can increase the fatigue
life.
 Size effect
• The S-N curve is based on a test specimen but
the actual structure may be bigger or smaller
than the test specimen.
• At microscopic level all structures contain
flaws and a larger structure is likely to have
more flaws which can reduce the fatigue life.
• Thus larger structures have lower fatigue life.
 Order of loading.
• In the industry, the theory of linear damage is
used more often than not.
• This disregards the order of the stress events.
• In reality, if the higher stress cycles occur first
and lower stress cycles later, the fatigue life
would be greater than if the reverse happens.