Fatigue Failure

Baybora Tunahan Matur, Simon Arnoldi, Zhou Meng

Fatigue
…the process of progressive localized permanent structural change
occurring in a material subjected to conditions that produce
fluctuating stresses and strains at some point or points and that may
culminate in cracks or complete fracture after a sufficient number of
fluctuations.

(a) Reversed stress cycle of equal magnitude. (b) Repeated stress cycle, (c) Random stress cycle

There are different cyclic loading conditions for the given jacket
constructions:
• Wind loads trough turbine
• Waves
• Current
• Tide

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Fatigue Testing
It has been estimated that fatigue contributes to approximately 90%
of all mechanical service failures

Axial loading specimen

Schematic of the load train in an electrohydraulic axial fatigue machine

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Fatigue Testing

(a) Four-Point loading R.R. Moore testing machine. (b) Single-end rotating cantilever testing machine

Rotating cantilever beam specimen

Rotating beam specimen

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Fatigue Testing

Plate specimen for cantilever reverse bending

Schematic of a servo hydraulic torsional fatigue testing machine

Torsional specimen

Reciprocating Bending Testing Machine

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Boundary Conditions
• Mean Stress
• Surface Effects
• Design Factors
• Surface Treatments

Effect of geometrical stress concentrations on (a) Poor design: sharp corner. (b) Good
fatigue life design: rounded fillet

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Boundary Conditions
• Environmental Effects
• Temperature
• Corrosion
• Yield Stress
• Grain Size
• Defects, inclusions and
inhomogeneities The effect of temperature on the fatigue life of aluminium alloy AA6061

Relation between maximum stress at fatigue Relation between maximum stress at fatigue
Effect of corrosion on fatigue performance of limit and yield stress of low carbon (LC) and limit and grain diameters of low carbon (LC) and
steel stainless steel (S) specimens stainless steel (S) specimens

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Fatigue Measurements

• Fatigue Failure due to cyclic loads

• Fatigue cracks propagate beneath yield strength

• Fatigue states
• Crack Formation
• Crack Propagation
Stage I and II
Area A
• Residual Fracture Area B
Area C

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From single load to cyclic load

• Adaption of parameters
• σ  Δσ
• K  ΔK
• a  Δa

• New Parameters
• R:
• N: number of cycles

• Desired parameters
• da/dN
• ΔK

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What are we looking for?

• Area B: constant crack propagation

∆ 𝐾 =∆ σ √ π ∗ 𝑎∗𝑄
𝑑𝑎 𝑚
=𝐶 ∗ ( ∆ 𝐾 )
𝑑𝑁
𝑚2
𝑑𝑎 𝐶2 ∗ ( ∆ 𝐾 )
=
𝑑𝑁 (1 − 𝑅 ) ∗ 𝐾 𝐶 − ∆ 𝐾

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Paris Erdogan Law

· Errors in measuring crack size and applied force

· Inherent material variability
Precision and Bias
· Crack size measurement interval
· Improper precracking and suspected errors in force calibration

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Experimental Procedure

• Sample preparation
• Pre-cracking
• Fully treated sample
• K­max,crack < Kmax, test
• Minimum size for fatigue pre-crack:
0.1*b, 0.1*h, or 1 mm (E647)

• During testing
• Crack measurement on front and backside
of the specimen (at best without interrupting
the test)
• interval measurements
• Observation of crack line
• Example: K-decreasing test
Force ratio, R and C should be kept constant

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Experimental Procedure

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Strength and Weaknesses

+ Various geometries
+ Various load setups
+ Testing close to application conditions

‒ Scattering of results (due to material

irregularities,
‒ Not always comparable
‒ time-consuming and labour-intensive

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Results, Wöhler Line
One important parameter that
characterizes a material’s
fatigue behavior is fatigue life Nf.
It is the number of cycles to
cause failure at a specified
stress level, as taken from the
S–N plot.

Fatigue S–N probability of failure curves for a 7075-T6 aluminium

alloy; P denotes the probability of failure

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Practical Example

Most engineering materials contain small crack­s like defects, and they
can extend in a sub­critical manner, which means that a component
initially thought to be safe against fracture may become dangerous after
a period of service.

Give a specific example in industry:

· 7.5 m diameter
· 40 mm wall thickness
· Working pressure of 5.1 MPa
· Steel toughness 200 Mpa m1/2

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Practical Example

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Thank you for your attention

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