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IPE 303 Product Design: Chapter 6: Fatigue Failure Resulting From Variable Loading

This document discusses fatigue failure that results from variable loading. It explains that fluctuating stresses over long periods of time can cause parts to fail at stress levels lower than their ultimate strength. Three major fatigue life methods are described: the stress-life method, strain-life method, and linear-elastic fracture mechanics method. The stress-life method involves generating an S-N diagram from rotating beam tests to show the relationship between stress and the number of cycles until failure. It is noted that some materials have a discernible endurance limit below which they will not fail, even after an infinite number of cycles.

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47 views6 pages

IPE 303 Product Design: Chapter 6: Fatigue Failure Resulting From Variable Loading

This document discusses fatigue failure that results from variable loading. It explains that fluctuating stresses over long periods of time can cause parts to fail at stress levels lower than their ultimate strength. Three major fatigue life methods are described: the stress-life method, strain-life method, and linear-elastic fracture mechanics method. The stress-life method involves generating an S-N diagram from rotating beam tests to show the relationship between stress and the number of cycles until failure. It is noted that some materials have a discernible endurance limit below which they will not fail, even after an infinite number of cycles.

Uploaded by

RM Shahbab
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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IPE 303

Product Design
Chapter 6: Fatigue Failure Resulting from Variable Loading

Introduction
• Often, machine members are found to have failed well below the ultimate strength of
the material, and quite frequently even below the yield strength. How?
• The most distinguishing characteristic of these failures is that the stresses have been
repeated a very large number of times, which is known as Fatigue Failure.
• The condition frequently arises, however, in which the stresses vary with time or they
fluctuate between different levels. These kinds of stresses are known as variable,
repeated, alternating, or fluctuating stresses.
• Most machine elements are subjected to varying or fluctuating stresses (due to the
movement) such as shafts, gears, bearings, cams & followers, etc.
• Fluctuating stresses (repeated over long period of time) will cause a part to fail (fracture)
at a stress level much smaller than the ultimate strength (or even the yield strength in
some cases).
• Unlike static loading where failure usually can be detected before it happens (due to the
large deflections associated with plastic deformation), fatigue failures are usually sudden
and therefore dangerous.
• Fatigue failure is due to crack formation and propagation. Fatigue cracks usually
initiate at locations with high stresses such as discontinuities (hole, notch, scratch,
sharp corner, crack, inclusions, etc.).
• Fatigue cracks can also initiate at surfaces having rough surface finish. Thus, all parts
subjected to fatigue loading are heat treated and polished in order to increase the fatigue
life.

Fatigue Life Methods


Fatigue failure is a much more complicated phenomenon than static failure where much
complicating factors are involved. Also, testing materials for fatigue properties is more
complicated and much more time consuming than static testing.

Fatigue life methods are aimed to determine the life (number of loading cycles) of an element
until failure.

The fatigue life is usually classified according to the number of loading cycles into:

i. Low cycle fatigue (1≤ N≤ 1000) and for this low number of cycles, designers

sometimes ignore fatigue effects and just use static failure analysis.

ii. High cycle fatigue (N > 103):


➢ Finite life: from 103 → 106 cycles
➢ Infinite life: more than 106 cycles

There are three major fatigue life methods where each is more accurate for some types of loading
or for some materials. The three methods are: the stress-life method, the strain-life method, the
linear-elastic fracture mechanics method.

Stress-life method:

➢ Based on stress levels only


➢ Least accurate approach, especially for low-cycle applications.
➢ However, it is the most traditional method, since it is the easiest to implement for a
wide range of design applications, has ample supporting data, and represents high-cycle
applications adequately.

Strain-life method:

➢ Involves more detailed analysis of the plastic deformation at localized regions


➢ The stresses and strains are considered for life estimates.
➢ This method is especially good for low-cycle fatigue applications.
➢ In applying this method, several idealizations must be compounded, and so some
uncertainties will exist in the results.
Linear-elastic fracture mechanics:

➢ Assumes a crack is already present and detected.


➢ Predicts crack growth with respect to stress intensity.
➢ Most practical when applied to large structures in conjunction with computer codes and a
periodic inspection program.

The Stress-Life Method


➢ The stress-life relation is obtained experimentally using R. R. Moore high-speed
rotating beam test (Figure 6-9)
➢ The test is conducted by subjecting the rotating beam to a pure bending moment (of a
fixed known magnitude) until failure occurs. (Due to rotation, the specimen is subjected
to an alternating bending stress)
➢ The data obtained from the tests is used to generate the Fatigue strength, Sf vs. Number
of stress cycles, N diagram which is known as the S-N diagram (Figure 6-10).
➢ The first point is the ultimate strength which corresponds to failure in half a cycle.
➢ The alternating stress amplitude is reduced below the ultimate strength and the test is run
until failure. The stress level and the number of cycles until failure give a data point on
the chart.
➢ The testing continues and each time the stress amplitude is reduced (such that the
specimen will live longer) and new point is obtained.
➢ For steel alloys the low-cycle fatigue and the high-cycle fatigue (finite and infinite) can
be recognized as having different slopes. (they are straight lines but keep in mind it is a
log-log curve).
➢ For steels if we keep reducing the stress amplitude (for each test) we will reach to a stress
level for which the specimen will never fail, and this value of stress is known as the
Endurance Limit (Se).
➢ The number of stress cycles associated with the Endurance Limit defines the boundary
between Finite-life and Infinite-life, and it is usually between 106 to 107 cycles.
➢ Steel and Titanium alloys have a clear endurance limit, but this is not true for all
materials. For instance, Aluminum alloys do not have an endurance limit and for such
materials the fatigue strength is reported at 5(108) cycles. Also, most polymers do not
have an endurance limit (Figure 6-11).
➢ The endurance limits for various classes of cast irons, polished or machined, are given in
Table A–24. Aluminum alloys do not have an endurance limit. The fatigue strengths of
some aluminum alloys at 5(108) cycles of reversed stress are given in Table A–24 (See
page 1054).
The Endurance Limit
The determination of the endurance limit is important for designing machine elements that are
subjected to High-cycle fatigue. The common practice when designing such elements is to make
sure that the fatigue stress level in the element is below the endurance limit of the material
being used.

Finding the Endurance Limit using the rotating beam experiment is time consuming where it
requires testing many samples and the time for each test is relatively long. Therefore, we try to
relate the endurance limit to other mechanical properties which are easier to find (such as the
ultimate tensile strength).

The prime (‘) is used to denote that this is the endurance limit value obtained for the test
specimen (modifications are still needed).

Endurance Limit Modifications Factors


Endurance limit is obtained from the rotating beam test. The test is conducted under closely
controlled conditions (polished specimen of small size at a constant known temperature, etc.). It
is not realistic to expect a machine element to have the exact same endurance limit value as that
obtained from the rotating beam test because it has different conditions (size, surface finish,
manufacturing process, environment, etc.)

Thus, some modification factors are used to correlate the endurance limit for a given mechanical
element to the value obtained from tests:

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