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Dr. K. Devendranath Ramkumar Associate Professor School of Mechanical & Building Sciences
Fatigue
Fatigue
is a phenomenon associated with variable loading or more precisely to cyclic stressing or straining of a material. An engineering structure is often subjected to the repeated application of a stress below its yield strength of the material. Fatigue failure is characterized by three stages
Fundamentals of Fatigue
Fatigue failure is distinguished by three major features (a) Loss of Strength; (b) Loss of ductility; (c) Increased uncertainty in service life
Almost 90% of the metals/engineering components due to fatigue There are three common ways in which stresses may be applied: axial, torsional, and flexural. Examples of these are seen in Fig. 1.
VW crank shaft fatigue failure due to cyclic bending and torsional stresses
Fracture area
1.0-in. diameter steel pins from agricultural equipment. Material; AISI/SAE 4140 low allow carbon steel
Fracture surface of a failed bolt. The fracture surface exhibited beach marks, which is characteristic of a fatigue failure.
This long term fatigue crack in a high quality component took a considerable time to nucleate from a machining mark between the spider arms on this highly stressed surface. However once initiated propagation was rapid and accelerating as shown in the increased spacing of the 'beach marks' on the surface caused by the advancing fatigue crack.
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Crank shaft
Cont
Under fluctuating / cyclic stresses, failure can occur at loads considerably lower than tensile or yield strengths of material under a static load: Fatigue Estimated to causes 90% of all failures of metallic structures (bridges, aircraft, machine components, etc.) Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic deformation) - even in normally ductile materials. Thus sudden and catastrophic! ASM Definition of Fatigue The process of progressive, localized, permanent structural changes occurring in a material subjected to conditions that produce fluctuating stresses at some point or points and that may culminate in cracks or complete fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations
Cont
It is a common phenomenon in load bearing components in cars, air planes, turbine blades, springs, crankshafts that are subjected constantly to repetitive stresses in the form of tension
max
min
Time
A fatigue failure begins with a small crack; the initial crack may be so minute and can not be detected. The crack usually develops at a point of localized stress concentration like discontinuity in the material, such as a change in cross section, a keyway or a hole. Once a crack is initiated, the stress concentration effect become greater and the crack propagates. Consequently the stressed area decreases in size, the stress increase in magnitude and the crack propagates more rapidly. Until finally, the remaining area is unable to sustain the load and the component fails suddenly. Thus fatigue loading results in sudden, unwarned failure.
Fatigue Test
Loa d
A method for determining the behavior of materials under fluctuating loads. A specified mean load (which may be zero) and an alternating load are applied to a specimen and the number of cycles required to produce failure (fatigue life) is recorded. Generally, the test is repeated with identical specimens and various fluctuating loads. Loads may be applied axially, in torsion, or in flexure. Depending on amplitude of the mean and cyclic load, net stress in the specimen may be in one direction through the loading cycle, or may reverse direction. Data from fatigue testing often are presented in an S-N diagram which is a plot of the number of cycles required to cause failure in a specimen against the amplitude of the cyclical stress developed. The cyclical stress represented may be stress amplitude, maximum stress or minimum stress. Each curve in the diagram represents a constant mean stress.
Cont
SN Curve implies if a metal is only loaded to stress which is below its endurance limit, no matter how many times, the stress is repeated or reversed, the material will not fail. Endurance Limit Se, for the stress below which failure never occurs, even for an indefinitely large number of loading cycles or the limit up to which the material can withstand cyclic loads Many non-ferrous metals and alloys, such as aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloys, do not exhibit well-defined endurance limits. The reason may be the absence of dislocation pinning solutes (as in case of Al alloys). These materials instead display a continuously decreasing S-N response In such cases a fatigue strength Sf for a given number of cycles must be specified. An effective endurance limit for these materials is sometimes defined as the stress that causes failure at 1x108 or 5x108 loading cycles.
Types of Fatigue
Low-cycle fatigue - involves large cycles with significant amounts of plastic deformation and relatively short life High-cycle fatigue - where stresses and strains are largely confined to the elastic region. High-cycle fatigue is associated with low loads and long life While low-cycle fatigue is typically associated with fatigue life between 10 to 1,00,000 cycles, high-cycle fatigue is associated with life greater than 1,00,000 cycles.
LCF failures typically result from flaws in the material (impurities or voids), poor or inconsistent manufacturing processes, complex geometries (bolt holes, scallops, blade slots, etc.) that create high stress regions (hot spots) on the component, and wear between components. However, even perfect" components have a finite life. They becomr fatigue in operational heat and stress environments, and after a certain number of cycles they fail.
concentration Corrosion (Environment) Temperature Overload Metallurgical structure (Microstructure) Residual stress (shot peening, presetting) Combined stress Surface condition
Mode of fracture
Ductile
Brittle Intergranular
Brittle Transgranular
Fatigue