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Fatigue Fracture
Fatigue Failure
It has been recognized that a metal subjected to a
repetitive or fluctuating stress will fail at a stress
much lower than that required to cause failure on a
single application of load. Failures occurring under
conditions of dynamic loading are called fatigue
failures.
Fatigue failure is characterized by three stages
Crack Initiation
Crack Propagation
Final Fracture
2
Fatigue Failure
It has been recognized that a metal subjected to a
repetitive or fluctuating stress will fail at a stress
much lower than that required to cause failure on a
single application of load. Failures occurring under
conditions of dynamic loading are called fatigue
failures.
Fatigue failure is characterized by three stages
Crack Initiation
Crack Propagation
Final Fracture
Jack hammer
component, shows no
yielding before fracture.
Fracture zone
Propagation zone, striation
Ductile
Brittle Intergranular
Brittle Transgranular
Shiny
Cleavage fractures
Flat
Fatigue
Beachmarks
Striations (SEM)
Initiation sites
Propagation zone
Final fracture zone
Alternating stress
min = 0
a = m = max / 2
max min
a =
2
Mean stress
max + min
m
2
=
10
Load
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S-N Curves
S-N [stress-number of cycles to failure] curve defines locus
of cycles-to-failure for given cyclic stress.
Rotating-beam fatigue test is standard; also alternating
tension-compression.
Plot stress versus the
[Hertzberg]
log(number of cycles
to failure), log(Nf).
For frequencies < 200Hz,
metals are insensitive to
frequency; fatigue life in
polymers is frequency
dependent.
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mean 1
mean 2
mean 3
log Nf
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Endurance Limits
Some materials exhibit endurance limits, i.e. a stress
below which the life is infinite:
Steels typically show an endurance limit, = 40% of yield; this is
typically associated with the presence of a solute (carbon,
nitrogen) that pines dislocations and prevents dislocation
motion at small displacements or strains (which is apparent in
an upper yield point).
Aluminum alloys do not show endurance limits; this is related to
the absence of dislocation-pinning solutes.
N > 103
Finite
life
Infinite
life
S
e
specimen
15
Steel
Se =
0.5Sut
100 ksi
Cast iron
Se =
0.4Sut
24 ksi
Sut 60 ksi
160 MPa
Cast iron
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Aluminum alloys
Se =
0.4Sut
Sut 48 ksi
19 ksi
130 MPa Sut 330 MPa
For N = 5x108 cycle
Copper alloys
Copper alloys
Se =
0.4Sut
Sut 40 ksi
14 ksi
100 MPa Sut 280 MPa
For N = 5x108 cycle
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Se
= endurance limit of
the specimen
(infinite life > 106)
Se
103
106
For materials that do not exhibit a knee in the S-N curve, the
infinite life taken at 5x108 cycles
Sf = fatigue strength of the specimen (infinite life > 5x108)
Sf
Sf
5x108 N
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20
[Dieter]
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Alternating Stress a
Mean stress m = (max +min)/2.
Pure sine wave Mean stress=0.
Stress ratio R = max/min.
For m = 0, R=-1
Amplitude ratio A = (1-R)/(1+R).
Statistical approach shows significant
distribution in Nf for given stress.
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Mean Stress
Alternating stress a = (max-min)/2.
Raising the mean stress (m) decreases Nf.
Various relations between R = 0 limit and the
ultimate (or yield) stress are known as Soderberg
(linear to yield stress), Goodman (linear to ultimate)
and Gerber (parabolic to ultimate).
a
m ean
a fat1
tensile strength
mean
tensile strength
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da/dN
I
II
Kc
III
Kth
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*Paris Law
Paris Law:
dc
m
A(K)
dN
m ~ 3 (steel); m ~ 4 (aluminum).
Threshold ~ Stage I
The threshold represents an endurance limit.
For ceramics, threshold is close to KIC.
Crack growth rate increases with R (for R>0).
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*Striations- mechanism
Striations occur by development of slip bands in each
cycle, followed by tip blunting, followed by closure.
Can integrate the growth rate to obtain cycles as
related to cyclic stress-strain behavior. [Eqs. 12.6-12.8]
cf
dc
N II
c0 dc/ dN
cf
dc
N II
m
m
A
c0
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*Striations, contd.
Provided that m>2 and is constant, can integrate.
A1 m 1m / 2 1m / 2
NII
c0
cf
(m / 2) 1
If the initial crack length is much less than the final length, c0<cf,
then approximate thus:
Can use this to predict fatigue life based on known crack
A1 m 1m / 2
NII
c0
(m / 2) 1
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Geometrical effects
Notches decrease fatigue life through stress
concentration.
Increasing specimen size lowers fatigue life.
Surface roughness lowers life, again through stress
concentration.
Moderate compressive stress at the surface increases
life (shot peening); it is harder to nucleate a crack when
the local stress state opposes crack opening.
Corrosive environment lowers life; corrosion either
increases the rate at which material is removed from
the crack tip and/or it produces material on the crack
surfaces that forces the crack open (e.g. oxidation).
Failure mechanisms
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Microstructure-Fatigue Relationships
What are the important issues in microstructure-fatigue
relationships?
Answer: three major factors.
1: geometry of the specimen (previous slide); anything on the
surface that is a site of stress concentration will promote crack
formation (shorten the time required for nucleation of cracks).
2: defects in the material; anything inside the material that can
reduce the stress and/or strain required to nucleate a crack
(shorten the time required for nucleation of cracks).
3: dislocation slip characteristics; if dislocation glide is confined to
particular slip planes (called planar slip) then dislocations can
pile up at any grain boundary or phase boundary. The head of
the pile-up is a stress concentration which can initiate a crack.
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Defects in Materials
32
graph courtesy of J.
Staley, Alcoa
33
graph courtesy of J.
Staley, Alcoa
34
[Dieter]
35
[Polmear]
Casting tends to result in porosity. Pores are effective sites for nucleation of
fatigue cracks. Castings thus tend to have lower fatigue resistance (as
measured by S-N curves) than wrought materials.
Casting technologies, such as squeeze casting, that reduce porosity tend to
eliminate this difference.
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*Fatigue in Polymers
Many differences from metals
Cyclic stress-strain behavior often exhibits softening;
also affected by visco-elastic effects; crazing in the
tensile portion produces asymmetries,
S-N curves exhibit three regions, with steeply
decreasing region II,
Nearness to Tg results in strong temperature
sensitivity.
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Fatigue: summary
Critical to practical use of structural materials.
Fatigue affects most structural components, even
apparently statically loaded ones.
Well characterized empirically.
Connection between dislocation behavior and fatigue
life offers exciting research opportunities, i.e.
physically based models are lacking!
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