Fatigue

• Failure under fluctuating stress

• Under fluctuating / cyclic stresses, failure can
occur at lower loads than under a static load.

• 90% of all failures of metallic structures (bridges,

aircraft, machine components, etc.)

• Fatigue failure is brittle-like –

• even in normally ductile materials. Thus sudden
and catastrophic!
 Fatigue behavior:
• Fatigue = failure under cyclic stress
specimen compression on top (Fig. 8.18 is from
Materials Science in
motor Engineering, 4/E by Carl.
bearing bearing counter
A. Keyser, Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper
flex coupling Saddle River, NJ.)
tension on bottom

• Stress varies with time. s

smax
-- key parameters are S (stress
S
amplitude), sm, and frequency sm
smin time

• Key points when designing in Fatigue inducing situations:

-- fatigue can cause part failure, even though smax < sc.
-- fatigue causes ~ 90% of mechanical engineering failures.
• Because of its importance, ASTM and ISO have developed many
special standards to assess Fatigue Strength of materials
 Cyclic Stresses
Characterized by maximum, minimum and mean
Range of stress, stress amplitude, and stress ratio

Mean stress sm = (smax + smin) / 2

Range of stress sr = (smax - smin)
Stress amplitude sa = sr/2 = (smax - smin) / 2
Stress ratio R = smin / smax
convention: tensile stresses  positive

compressive stresses  negative

 Some important Calculations in
Fatigue Testing
A Material 6.4 mm in  is subject to (fatiguing) loads:
5340 N - tensile then compressive
s max  5340  5340 5  165.99 MPa

  3.22 10
3 2
 6.4*10 2

s min  5340  5340 5  165.99 MPa

  3.22 10
3 2
 6.4*10 2

s max  s min 165.99   165.99  MPa

s m  mean stress   0
2 2
s r  stress range  s Max  s min  331.99MPa

s a  stress amplitude  S  s r 2  165.99MPa

 Fatigue Design Parameters
• Fatigue limit, Sfat: S = stress amplitude
case for
--no fatigue failure if unsafe steel (typ.)
S < Sfat
Sfat
Fatigue Limit is defined in: safe Adapted from Fig.
ASTM D671 8.19(a), Callister 7e.
3 5 7 9
10 10 10 10
N = Cycles to failure
• However, Sometimes, the
fatigue limit is zero! S = stress amplitude
case for
unsafe Al (typ.)

safe Adapted from Fig.

8.19(b), Callister 7e.
3 5 7 9
10 10 10 10
N = Cycles to failure
 Let’s look at an Example
Given: 2014-T6 Alum. Alloy bar (6.4 mm )
find its fatigue life if a part is subject to loads:
5340 N - tensile then compressive
s max  5340 2 
5340 5  165.99 MPa


 6.4*10 2
3
 3.22  10

s min  5340 2 
5340  165.99MPa
 
6.4*10 3

2  3.22 105

s max  s min 165.99   165.99  MPa

sm   0
2 2
s r  s Max  s min  331.99MPa

s a  S  s r 2  165.99MPa
Examining Fig (right) at S = 165.99
Fatigue Life = Cycles to Failure  7  106
For metals other than Ferrous alloys, F.S. is
taken as the stress that will cause failure
after 108 cycles
 Factors that affect Fatigue Life
1. Magnitude of stress
2. Quality of the Surface

Solutions
1. Polish the surface
2. Introduce Compressive Stress
3. Case Hardening
4. Optimize Geometry
 Improving Fatigue Life
1. Impose a compressive S = stress amplitude
Adapted from
surface stresses Fig. 8.24, Callister 7e.

Increasing
near zero or compressive sm
sm moderate tensile sm
Larger tensile sm

N = Cycles to failure

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

shot
C-rich gas
put
surface
into
compression

2. Remove stress bad better

concentrators. Adapted from
Fig. 8.25, Callister 7e.

bad better
 Factors affecting Fatigue Life
Environmental Effects
1. Thermal Fatigue

solutions:
- change design
- use materials with low thermal expansion coefficients

2. Corrosion Fatigue
 Fatigue Mechanism
• Cracks in Material grows incrementally
typ. 1 to 6
da
 K 
m

dN
~ s  a
increase in crack length per loading cycle
crack origin
• Failed rotating shaft
--crack grew even though
Kmax < Kc
--crack grows faster as
• s increases Adapted from
from D.J. Wulpi,
• crack gets longer Understanding How
• loading freq. increases. Components Fail,
American Society for
Metals, Materials Park,
OH, 1985.