Fatigue of Materials

Introduction
Fatigue of material is a well-known technical problem started seriously in
the 19th century and was reported by many researchers. August Woehler
reported that the structure will be damaged when a load (below the static
strength) but no any damage from a single time. In that century, fatigue was
thought to be a mysterious phenomenon in the material, because fatigue
damage could not be seen, therefore, failure apparently occurred without
any previous warning. In the 20 th century, fatigue mechanism in the material
leading to nucleation of a small crack, followed by crack growth, and
ultimately to complete failure resulted and started from repeated load
applications as learned.

Year after year such failure have caused catastrophic accidents, such as
explosion of a pressure vessel, a collapse of a bridge, or complete failure in
a large structure. Fatigue of structures is now generally recognized as a
significant problem. As a result of extensive research and practical
experience, much knowledge has been gained about fatigue of structures
and fatigue mechanism in the material.
Characteristics of fatigue

1. The process starts with dislocation movements, eventually

forming persistent slip bands that nucleate short cracks.
2. The greater the applied stress, the shorter the life.
3. Damage is cumulative. Materials do not recover when rested.
4. Fatigue is a stochastic process, often showing considerable
scatter. Fatigue life scatter tends to increase for longer fatigue
lives.
5. Fatigue life is influenced by a variety of factors, such as
temperature, surface finish, presence of oxidizing or inert
chemicals, residual stresses, or contact (fretting).
6. Some materials (e.g., some steel and titanium alloys) exhibit a
theoretical fatigue limit below which continued loading does
not lead to failure.
7. In recent years, researchers have found that failures occur
below the theoretical fatigue limit at very high fatigue lives
(109 to 1010 cycles). An ultrasonic resonance technique is
used in these experiments with frequencies around 10-20 kHz.
8. High cycle fatigue strength (about 103 to 108 cycles) can be
described by stress based parameters. A load-controlled,
servo-hydraulic test rig is commonly used in these tests, with
frequencies of around 20-50 Hz. Other sort of machines like
resonant magnetic machines can also be used, achieving
frequencies up to 250Hz.
9. Low cycle fatigue (typically less than 103 cycles) is associated
with widespread plasticity, thus a strain based parameter
should be used for fatigue life prediction. Testing is conducted
with constant strain amplitudes at 1-5 Hz. 4 4 The process
 starts with dislocation movements, eventually forming
persistent slip bands that nucleate short cracks

The process starts with dislocation movements, eventually forming

persistent slip bands that nucleate short cracks.

Figure1 Micrographs (1903) showing how surface fatigue cracks grow as

material is further cycled.

The fatigue mechanism

The transition from the initiation period to the crack growth period
has not yet been defined. The definition cannot really be given in
quantitative terms, but in a qualitative way the following
definition will be used: the initiation period is supposed to be
completed when micro-crack growth is no longer depending on
the material surface conditions. The size of the micro-crack at the
transition from the initiation period to the crack growth period can
be significantly different for different types of materials. The
transition depends on microstructural barriers to be overcome by
a growing micro-crack, and these barriers are not the same in all
materials.
In order to understand more about fatigue under various practical
conditions, several aspects of the fatigue mechanism are
discussed in more detail in the text books. The aspects are:
1. Crystallographic nature of the material;
2. Crack initiation at inclusions;
3. Small cracks, crack growth barriers, crack growth thresholds;
4. Number of crack nuclei;
5. Surface effects;
6. Macrocrack growth and striations;
7. Environmental effects;
8. Cyclic tension and cyclic torsion.

Fatigue Properties

Fatigue properties of materials are described in terms of the

fatigue limit, fatigue curves (S-N curves) and a fatigue diagram.
The properties are restricted to results of constant-amplitude (CA)
tests on unnotched specimens (Kt = 1.0) It is generally thought
that the results of these tests reflect the basic fatigue behavior of
a material. Mechanical properties of a material should include
fatigue properties, but quite often reporting of fatigue properties
is restricted to the fatigue limit on unnotched specimens obtained
in rotating beam experiments (Sm = 0)

If fatigue has to be considered as part of the design analysis of a

structure, it is well recognized that a stress cycle is characterized
by a stress amplitude (Sa) and a mean stress (Sm), see Figure 6.1.
Instead of Sa and Sm, a second equivalent definition is given by
Smax and Smin, while a third one uses the stress range S (= 2Sa)
together with the stress ratio R, defined as
R = Smin/Smax

Figure 2 Characteristic stress levels of load cycle

Which definition of a stress cycle should be preferred? From a

fatigue mechanistic point of view the obvious choice is S max and
. Those are the stress levels at which the loading direction is
Smin

reversed, and thus cyclic slip is reversed. Crack extension in a

cycle stops at Smax.

However, in service, a structure quite often is carrying a

stationary load with a superimposed cyclic load. The stationary
load can be a result of the weight of the structure, cargo, etc. The
stationary load accounts for the mean stress, whereas loads in
service induce cycles with certain stress amplitudes. If the
severity of the cyclic load spectrum can be reduced, the S a-values
becomes smaller but Sm remains the same. Another situation
occurs if a designer wants to increase the fatigue life by reducing
the design stress level, e.g. by increasing the cross section of the
fatigue critical area. All stress levels are then reduced with the
same ratio. In other words, the stress ratio R remains constant,
but S is reduced. All three definitions of a stress cycle are used
in the literature on fatigue.

Fatigue Crack Growth under Variable-Amplitude Loading

The fatigue life was supposed to include the crack initiation period
and the crack growth period until failure. It was tacitly assumed
that the crack growth period was relatively short and could be
disregarded. The crack initiation period dealing with crack
nucleation and micro-crack growth is not addressed. The
propagation of macro-cracks is a significant issue if fatigue cracks
cannot be avoided, especially if safety or economy is involved.
Dangerous situations can occur in pressure vessels, high-speed
rotating masses (turbine disks, blades of wind turbines) and
aircraft structures as some characteristic examples. Incidental
cracks can be generated by a variety of conditions; such as
surface damage, corrosion pits, material defects in welded joints,
inferior production quality, etc. Furthermore, the fatigue life of a
structure in service may cover many years. The occurrence of
macro-cracks can then be acceptable in order to avoid a low
design stress level and a corresponding heavy structure.

Difference between cracks and notches

During crack growth, compressive loads can reduce the favorable

effect of tensile peak loads, but it does not necessarily lead to a
reduced crack growth life. Macro cracks can already be closed
during a decreasing load when the load is still a tension load. A
closed crack is no longer a stress raiser, and negative plastic
strains in the crack tip plastic zone do not occur. However, if a
notch is loaded under compression, the notch is not closed. It
remains a stress raiser, and notch root plasticity can introduce
unfavorable residual tensile stresses with an adverse effect on
fatigue life.

Thickness effect
Crack growth was observed in center cracked tension specimens
of different thicknesses varying from 0.5 to 12.7 mm. For a
maneuver spectrum the maximum stress occurring in the flight-
simulation test is used as the characteristic stress level. Three
stress levels were used. The results in Figure 3 clearly show a
systematic thickness effect, i.e. lower endurances for thicker
material.
Figure 3 Initial fast crack growth at the edge of a hole. Flight-simulation
loading with gust load spectrum (F-28). Sheet material 2024-T3, Smf = 69
MPa.
An increased thickness leads to more plane strain at the crack
front, and thus to smaller plastic zones, less crack closure and
less crack growth retardation. As a consequence, the crack
growth lives are smaller. The life for the thin sheet material was
about 10 times(!) longer than for the thick plate material. A
similar thickness effect was also found in flight-simulation tests
with a gust spectrum. A thickness effect on fatigue crack growth
is sometimes observed in CA tests, but in general the effect is
larger for VA-load histories. It must be concluded that
representative crack growth experiments should not only be
based on a realistic load history, but a relevant material thickness
should also be used.

Fatigue Tests
The extensive literature on fatigue problems illustrates the large
variety of purposes of fatigue investigations. Some categories are:
1. Collecting data on material fatigue properties for material
selection by the designer.
2. Investigations on effects of different surface finishes and
production techniques.
3. Investigations on joints and other structural elements.
4. Investigations on environmental effects.
5. Investigations on crack nucleation and crack propagation.
6. Verification of fatigue prediction models.
Although other lists can be compiled, it is obvious that the choice
of experimental variables will depend on the type of investigation
to be carried out. Major variables to be selected are: (i) type of
specimen, (ii) fatigue loads, and (iii) testing procedures.
The main purpose of an investigation can be to compare fatigue
properties for different conditions, e.g. different surface
conditions. It implies comparative fatigue tests. In other test
series, the main objective is a determination of specific fatigue
properties for a single condition, e.g. the determination of crack
growth properties of a material. In this case, it is not
a comparative investigation. Last, but not least, tests may have
an ad-hoc nature because of questions of industrial applications.
Other investigations are carried out in view of a common interest
to know more about the fatigue behavior of materials and
structures under certain conditions. This category comprises
many fatigue research programs published in the literature.
Obviously, various circumstances can affect the choice of test
specimen, fatigue load and testing procedures.

Figure 4 Full-scale simulation test on the chassis and coach work of a

motorcar with 12 electro-hydraulic actuators providing vertical, lateral and
longitudinal inputs at four corners of the test vehicle.
References
1. Schtz, W., A history of fatigue. Engrg. Fracture Mech., Vol. 54
(1996)

2. Forrest, P.G., Fatigue of Metals. Pergamon Press, Oxford (1962).

3. Mills,W.J. and Hertzberg, R.W., The effect of sheet thickness on

fatigue crack retardation in 2024-T3 aluminum alloy. Engrg.
Fracture Mech., Vol. 7 (1975)

4. Sunder, R. and Dash, P.K., Measurement of fatigue crack

closure through electron microscopy. Int. J. Fatigue, Vol. 4 (1982)
5. Schijve, J., Fatigue of Structures and Materials, Springer (2003)