Fatigue

Definition and concepts

Timeline of early fatigue research history

1837: Wilhelm Albert publishes the first article on
fatigue. He devised a test machine for conveyor chains
used in the Clausthal mine

1842: William John Macquorn Rankine recognises the

importance of stress concentrations in his investigation of
railroad axle failures. The Versailles train crash was caused
by axle fatigue

1848: The Railway Inspectorate reports one of the first

type failures, probably from a rivet hole in tread of railway
carriage wheel. It was likely a fatigue failure

1854: Braithwaite reports on common service

fatigue failures and coins the term fatigue

1870: Whler summarises his work on railroad axles. He

concludes that cyclic stress range is more important than
peak stress and introduces the concept of endurance limit

1910: O. H. Basquin proposes a log-log

relationship for SN curves, using Whler's test data

1954: L. F. Coffin and S. S. Manson explain fatigue

crack-growth in terms of plastic strain in the tip of cracks

1968: Tatsuo Endo and M. Matsuishi devise the rainflowcounting algorithm and enable the reliable application of
Miner's rule to random loadings

1839: Jean-Victor Poncelet

describes metals as being tired in his
lectures at the military school at Metz

1843: Joseph Glynn reports on fatigue of

axle on a locomotive tender. He identifies
the keyway as the crack origin

1849: Eaton Hodgkinson is granted a small sum of money to report to

the UK Parliament on his work in ascertaining by direct experiment, the
effects of continued changes of load upon iron structures and to what
extent they could be loaded without danger to their ultimate security.

1860: Systematic fatigue testing undertaken by

Sir William Fairbairn and August Whler

1903: Sir James Alfred Ewing demonstrates the origin of fatigue

failure in microscopic cracks.
.

1945: A. M. Miner popularises A. Palmgren's (1924)

linear damage hypothesis as a practical design tool.

1961: P. C. Paris proposes methods for predicting the rate of growth

of individual fatigue cracks in the face of initial scepticism and popular
defence of Miner's phenomenological approach.

1970: W. Elber elucidates the mechanisms and importance of crack

closure in slowing the growth of a fatigue crack due to the wedging effect
of plastic deformation left behind the tip of the crack

Definition

Components of machines, vehicles, and structures are frequently subjected to

repeated loads, also called cyclic loads, and the resulting cyclic stresses can lead to
microscopic physical damage to the materials involved. Even at stresses well below
a given material's ultimate strength, this microscopic damage can accumulate with
continued cycling until it develops into a crack or other macroscopic damage that
leads to failure of the component. This process of damage and failure due to cyclic
loading is called fatigue. Use of this term arose because it appeared to early
investigators that cyclic stresses caused a gradual but not readily observable
change in the ability of the material to resist stress.

Key words: Progressive, localized, permanent , fluctuating, cracs, fracture

Description of Cyclic Loading

A discussion of the stress-based approach begins with some necessary definitions and basic concepts.

Cyclic loading

Different types of cycles of stress and corresponding stress ratio -R

Fatigue mechanism and microscopic features

Schematic representation of fatigue crack growth path. At short crack lengths where crack tip plastic zones
are small the crack path is usually flat. As the crack grows, the crack tip plastic zone increases in size and and
the crack plane can turn to shear mode. This can be either single (a) or double shear (b)

Fatigue mechanism and microscopic features

The progressive nature of slip due to cycle loading

a) static stress
b) cyclic stress
Schematic of srages I (shear mode)and II ( tensile mode).
c) Fatigue progression in the formation of an extrusion/intrusion pair
Fatigue crack growth

S-N curve
Figure shows a typical relationship between the applied stress, , and the number of
cycles to failure, ,for unnotched steel specimens tested either in rotating bending or
in tension-compression. This relationship is called an S-N curve.

Fatigue diagram
The term fatigue strength is used to specify a
stress amplitude value from an S-N curve at
a particular life of interest. Hence, the
fatigue strength at 105 cycles is simply the
stress amplitude corresponding to Nf =105.
Other terms used with S-N curves include
high-cycle fatigue and low-cycle fatigue. The
former identifies situations of long fatigue
life where the stress is sufficiently low that
yielding effects do not dominate the
behavior. The life where highcycle fatigue
starts varies with material but is typically in
the range 102 to 104 cycles.

Testing and equipment

12 hourglass shaped specimens were subjected to symmetric cyclic rotating-bending fatigue (RBF) to
fracture at different stress ranges (=800, 1000, 1200, 1400 and 1500 MPa) and at the following testing
conditions: R=-1, f=11 Hz, air environment and room temperature.

Fig. Geometry of the specimens

Figure 2. Presentation of fatigue machine electric engine 1, driving belt 2, ball-

bearing unit 3, testing box 4, specimen 5, device for loading 6, counter 7, device for
circulation and aeration of corrosion agent 8

A general schematic summary of the many types of microscopic fatigue fracture surfaces for axial and bending loads
Schematic fatigue fractures for axial and bending loads.

A) Round specimen

B) Sheet or plate specimens

Image

Specimen

,
MPa

Nf,
cycles

Fractographic characterization

Image 1

12

1500

11 330

Crack initiation zone

Image 2

12

1500

11 330

Crack initiation zone/Crack propagation zone

Image 3

10

1500

22 220

Zone of final failure

Image 4

10

1500

22 220

Crack initiation zone/Crack propagation zone

Image 5

1400

84 580

Zone of final failure

Image 6

1400

84 580

Microcracks zone of final failure

Image 7

1200

106 700 Fracture surface

Image 8

1200

78 210

MnS inclusion at crack initiation zone

Image 9

1200

37 682

Crack initiation zone

Image 10

1000

325 710 Microcracks zone of final failure

Image 11

1000

170 390 Crack initiation zone

Image 12

1000

170 390 Crack initiation zone

Image 13

1000

134 002 Crack propagation zone/Zone of final failure

Image 14

1000

134 002 Crack initiation zone

Fatigue design flowchart

Geometry

Load History

Enviroment

Material properties

Select Configuration, Material and Processes

Stress Analysis

modify

Fatigue life model

Component or
machine test

Cumulative
damage model
verify

Life prediction

modify

Accept and
manufacture
Service

modify

Processing effect

Material, specimens and testing

The materials used are SUS304 (EN10095

1.4301) , SUS316 (EN10095 1.4401), SUS316L
(EN10095 1.4404) and SUS405 (EN10095
1.4002) [1,2]. Table shows the chemical
compositions and the Vickers hardness of
these materials.

Hydrogen was charged into the specimens of stainless steels

SUS 304, SUS 405, SUS316 and SUS316L by cathodic charging .
The solution used for the cathodic charging was a dilute sulfuric
acid (PH = 3.5) and the current density was i = 27 A/m2. Hydrogen
charging conditions for fatigue test specimens are shown in
Table .

The specimens were machined in hour glass

shape with artificial hole (diameter d = 100
m and depth h = 100 m, as shown in figure.

Methods for analysis

Method of Short Fatigue Crack Growth
Fatigue data obtained by the Method of Short Fatigue Crack Growth investigations are modeled using a system of
parabolic-linear functions . The crack behavior is described and presented in three different stages bordered by
microstructural barriers which have substantial impact on fatigue process.
- I Stage of short fatigue crack growth (SFC) fatigue cracks initiate and propagate as shear cracks MODE II.
- II Stage known as Stage of physically small fatigue crack growth (PhSFC) the shear fatigue cracks change into tensile
cracks MODE I. During these two stages fatigue cracks are strongly influenced by different elements of metal
microstructure, and their propagation can be described by parabolic functions.
- III stage, Stage of long fatigue crack growth (LFC), shows that metal microstructure does not influence fatigue crack
growth and fatigue crack propagates with increasing rate up to the complete failure of specimen. The modelling of this
stage uses linear function.
Crack growth rate da/dN [m/cycle] is determined as a ratio of divided differences between two concessive values of a
[m] (a = 2a) and N [cycles]:
An algorithm for determining the values of the substantial microstructural barriers d1 and d2 is used to all data obtained
from the tests. The parameters d1 and d2 represent the borders between the stages SFC, PhSFC and LFC.

Methods for analysis

Mathematical modelling

1
2

)
1 )

= ( 1

Determine

1 ,2

Determine of the coefficients Di

Mathematical
model

Experimental procedure
Data obtained from rotating-bending fatigue and tension compression crack lengths a,
m and the corresponding numbers of cycles N, cycles are plotted as Crack length, a
- Numbers of cycles, N are shown in figures in the following slides

Presentations in plots Crack growth rate, da/dN - Crack length, a shown in

figures in the next slide

Mathematical modelling and checking and adequacy of the proposed model

Group A

Group C

Group B

Group D

Rotating bending machine

1- electric engine, 2driving belt,
3- ball bearing unit,
4- testing box,
5- specimen,
6- device for loading,
7- counter,
8- device for circulation
and aeration of corrosion
agent.