Fatigue Failure

• Fatigue
• Time Varying Stresses
• Major causes of machine component
mechanical failures???
Mechanism of Fatigue Failure
• Crack development
• Loading (fatigue) Regimes
– Low cycle fatigue
Total number of stress cycles are less than 1000 over
entire life
– High cycle fatigue
Number of cycles in millions or more
 Factors influencing Fatigue Failures

Fatigue failures are influenced by

1. Load-Stress pattern (Nature and magnitude
of the stress cycle)
2. Endurance limit/strength
3. Stress concentration.
4. Surface characteristics.
Load-Stress Pattern (Nature of Stress
Cycle)
• Fatigue limit/Endurance limit
– R.R Moore high-speed rotating-beam machine
• S-N Diagram for non-ferrous materials
Variation of endurance limit
Modified endurance limit
Stress Concentration (Art. 4.15)

Common stress raisers

– Varying cross sections
• Stepped shafts
• Grooves for Snap-rings or O-rings
• Keyways and holes
Stress Concentration
(Photoelastic model)
 Design against Fluctuating
Load/Stresses
• Effect of mean stress component on failure
• Combined mean and alternating stresses
Gerber, Goodman and Soderberg Criteria for
fluctuating stresses
• Soderberg Equation

• Goodman Equation

• Gerber Equation
• Modified Goodman