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365-373, 1995
I N E M A tq ~" Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Limited
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Using extensive experimental strain-life curve data on 116 steels, 16 aluminium alloys and six titanium
alloys, nearly all methods currently available for estimation of fatigue properties from simple tensile
data are discussed in detail. The four-point correlation method, the universal slopes method, Mitchell's
method, the modified universal slopes method, the uniform material law by Bgumel and Seeger. and
the modified four-point correlation method by Ong are evaluated in a quantitative manner by using
new criteria proposed in this work, along with conventional error criterion. The modified universal
slopes, Seeger's and Ong's methods give good life predictions. Among them, the modified universal
slopes method provides best results.
(Keywords: fatigue properties; fatigue life prediction; estimation method; simple tensile data; evaluation criteria)
Fatigue analysis is very important in the design material dependence, Mitchell proposed a method to
of mechanical structures and components. Fatigue estimate the slope of the elastic line from the tensile
properties of materials are essential for fatigue analysis. strength of material.
Fatigue properties such as stress-life ( S - N ) or The uniform material law proposed by Baumel and
strain-life (e-N) curves are usually obtained by Seeger. has been derived from a large amount of
performing fatigue tests. However, as fatigue testing fatigue data collected by them. This method may be
requires a lot of time and effort, there have been said to be a kind of universal slopes method, which
many attempts to estimate fatigue properties from assigns different slopes to unalloyed and low-alloy steels
simple tensile data. and to aluminium and titanium alloys respectively. One
Manson ~ first proposed two methods, the four-point advantage of the method is that only the tensile
correlation method and universal slopes method, to strength of the material is needed for estimation of
estimate the strain-life curve composed of the plastic the strain-life curve, in contrast to other methods,
and elastic lines on a log-log scale, using only which also require the data of the reduction in area
tensile data. Mitchell-~ has proposed another method, or the fracture ductility of the material. Using the
particularly suitable for steels. Recently, B~iumel and fatigue data collected by them, they checked the
Seeger. 3 have proposed a new method, the uniform prediction capability of the uniform material law and
material law. In contrast, Ong 4 has proposed a modified the modified universal slopes method. They found
four-point correlation method. that both methods showed larger deviations between
The universal slopes method, in which the slopes of the predicted and experimental results for aluminium
the plastic and elastic lines are universalized as -0.6 and titanium alloys and for high-alloy steels, compared
and -0.12 respectively for all materials, has been with unalloyed and low-alloy steels.
widely used for its simplicity and ease of application. Quite recently, Ong 6 has evaluated three commonly
However, the method tends to produce overconserv- used methods, the four-point correlation method, the
ative estimates of life in the very high cycle life range. original universal slopes method and Mitchell's method
To improve the original universal slopes method, (or the method proposed by Socie et al.), and found
Muralidharan and Manson 5 have proposed a new, that the four-point correlation method and the original
modified universal slopes method. universal slopes method give satisfactory results, while
The assumption that the slope of the plastic Mitchell's method gives inferior predictions. Moreover,
strain-life relationship (the plastic line) on a log-log he proposed a new, modified four-point correlation
plot is almost constant for all materials is relatively method to improve the original four-point correlation
well accepted. However, the slope of the elastic method. However, the data used for the evaluation
strain-life relationship (the elastic line) has been were not actual experimental data but calculated values
frequently observed to vary over a relatively wide from the fatigue properties of materials provided in
range and to be material-dependent. Considering this the A S M Metals Handbook 7.
365
366 Jun-Hyub Park and Ji-Ho Song
Though many useful estimation methods have been value of elastic strain at Nf = 1 0 4 cycles on the elastic
proposed as described above, there is little work to line.
evaluate them extensively, particularly using actual As the true fracture stress ~rf is not always given in
experimentally obtained data on a variety of materials. the literature, Manson ~ recommended the following
The importance of fatigue data has been emphasized approximation suggested by J. O'Brien:
recently in several remarkable fatigue data books,
containing a large amount of experimental fatigue data trf = ~r~(1 + El) (2)
for a broad range of materials, published in Japan
and Germany. Original universal slopes method by Manson ~
In this work, using the actual fatigue data available In this method, the coefficients C~, b, Cp, c of
in fatigue data books, the predictive accuracy of all Equation (1) are as given in the following equation:
the estimation methods described above is discussed.
In general, the accuracy of the estimation methods Ae = Ae~ + Aep = 3.5 E N ( °.'2 + o-°f.~N~°,~' (3)
has been evaluated in terms of the error or deviation
of the predicted values from the actual ones. However,
it seems that the error criterion on its own is not
Method by MitchelF
always sufficient for detailed discussion of estimation
methods. Some additional criteria are proposed in this In this method, the strain-life relation is expressed
work to examine in more detail the predictive accuracy using the strain amplitude Ae/2 and the number of
of estimation methods. As the fatigue data used reversals 2Nf as
here for discussion of estimation methods are almost A~ = Aee + Aep
independent from the data from which the estimation 2 2 2
methods have been derived, the conclusions obtained
in this work may be unbiased and highly reliable. !
: tyf (2Nf)h + e~ (2Nf) c (4)
E
M E T H O D S F O R E S T I M A T I O N OF F A T I G U E
P R O P E R T I E S F R O M TENSILE D A T A where ~} is the fatigue strength coefficient, b is the
fatigue strength exponent, e} is the fatigue ductility
The estimation methods to be discussed in this work coefficient and c is the fatigue ductility exponent. The
are briefly explained below. equation is represented graphically in Figure 2. 2N, in
the figure is the transition fatigue life at which the
Original four-point correlation method by Manson 1 elastic and plastic lines intersect. Mitchell suggested
The strain-life relation is usually expressed as the that for steels with hardness below 500 BHN,
sum of the elastic and plastic lines on a log-log scale
as follows: ~ ~ ~rf = au + 50 (ksi)
A ~ = A~. e "~ A~.p = C~N } + CpN'f" (1) = ~u + 345 (MPa) (5)
where Ae, A~ and A% are the total, elastic and plastic
strains respectively, and Nf is the number of cycles to !o - 1o
failure. In the original four-point correlation method,
b = (6)
the coefficients C~, b, Cp, c of Equation (1) are log(lO o) - log(lO 6)
calculated using the four points, P1-P4, located on
the elastic and plastic lines as shown in Figure 1. i log 2(o'~ + 345)
= - ~ log = -a
Every point is determined from tensile data: the true ~' \ trB / [ O-B J
fracture stress ~rf, the tensile strength 0% and the
fracture ductility el. Ae* in the figure indicates the
-- + _ c
~a
i pl a%}cp.~ ~5
"0 ] A£¢ Of ~' b
e'~
,
Ae~ = A ~
I~1 p4~, ~ I ~ t I
l0 0 2Nt 106 107
2 2 2 pi
.... -E-\~,,f] -b 0.59t~2Nf) -°58 (lO)
where
O"B
--<~ 0.003,0= 1
.@ E
E
at a stress ratio of R,~ ( = O ' m a x / O ' m i n ) = --i or a strain tions, as shown in Figure 4, where Np and Ne are the
ratio of R~ ( = emaJer, i , ) = - - 1 . Run-out data are predicted and experimental lives respectively. The
excluded. Further, only the data on materials with values calculated by Equation (13) are all the same
both data of tensile strength o-B and percent reduction for the three methods. However, as can be easily
in area RA (or fracture ductility el) are utilized. found, method C can hardly explain the experimental
The data used are listed in Table 1, classified by results and method B may be expected to give superior
data sources and materials. The total number of e-N predictions to method A for a wider range of life.
curves is 315 and the total number of experimental This drawback in the error criterion may be overcome
strain-life data points is 2717 obtained on 138 materials. by considering the linear relationship between the
For convenience, each individual strain-life datum is predicted and experimental lives in the following
referred to a e - N data point, and a set of ~-N data manner.
points forming an E-N curve is hereafter referred to If the relationship between the predicted and exper-
a (E-N) data set. To apply successfully the evaluation imental lives is approximated by a least-squares line
criteria to be proposed later, data sets that consist of as
less than four data points are not considered in
log(2Np) = a + N o g ( 2 N , . ) (14)
the discussion. When needed, the value of ~rf is
approximated by Equation (2).
Data source
Number of 9 35 28 0 72
Unalloyed E - N curves
steels Number of data 51 317 234 0 6(12
points
Number of 13 8O 42 2 137
Low-alloy e - N curves
steels Number of 87 903 299 27 1316
data points
Number of 23 36 9 0 68
High-alloy ~ - N curves
steels Number of 133 3(13 69 0 505
data points
Number of 12 1(1 7 0 29
Aluminium E-N curves
alloys Number of 100 76 64 (I 24(I
data points
Number of 0 9 0 0 9
Titanium E - N curves
alloys Number of 0 54 0 0 54
data points
Number of 57 17(I 86 2 315
E-N curves
Total
Number of 371 1653 666 27 2717
data points
Detailed evaluation of methods for estimation of fatigue properties 369
it can be said that the closer the values of intercept a In this work, the predictive accuracy of estimation
and slope/3 are to 0 and 1 respectively, the better the methods will be evaluated in a quantitative manner
estimation method is. And if a is rather greater than by using the evaluation measure defined below.
zero, the case when/3 is moderately smaller than unity
gives better predictions than the case when/3 is greater Fraction of data within a factor of s, E j s )
than unity. For a rather less than zero, the case As noted above, the error criterion can be expressed
when /3 is moderately greater than unity gives better by Equation (13), i.e. fraction of data within a factor
predictions than the case when/3 is smaller than unity. of s, Ef(s). A value of s of 3 is employed for life
Thus the values of a,/3 and (a + /3) can be utilized prediction. The evaluation value Er(s = 3) is given as
to evaluate the predictive accuracy of an estimation
method from the viewpoint of agreement between the Ef(s = 3) (15)
predicted and experimental lives. The drawback above Np 1
Number of data falling within 3_ <- Nr -< 3
described can be overcome by employing the values
of a, /3 and (a + /3) as additional criteria. Number of total data
In using the additional criteria, the following possi-
bility should be considered. Assume that Figure 5 The closer El(S) is to 1, the better the prediction.
shows the prediction results obtained by applying two Accordingly, all the evaluation measures to be here
estimation methods, D and E, to two (e-N) data sets employed will be formulated to be unity for ideally
I and II. That is, method D gives different least- good prediction.
squares lines for (e-N) data sets [ and II, while
providing a least-squares line of a ~ 0 and/3 ~ 1 for Goodness of fit between the predicted and
the combined data of data sets I and II, as shown in experimental values, E.~
Figure 5a. In contrast, method E gives nearly the Using the additional criteria presented above, the
same least-squares lines of a ~ 0 and /3 ~- 1 for both goodness of fit is defined for the combined data of all
data sets I and II, and also for the combined data of (e-N) data sets and for individual (E-N) data sets.
data sets I and II, as shown in Figure 5b. Limiting separately as
attention to only the results obtained for the combined
(l- IOftotal [) -c (1 - - l1 - - /-~total I )
data, methods D and E appear to be equally excellent (E.),,,,,,1 =
4
methods. However, it is evident from the results
obtained for individual (E-N) data sets that method (1--[1- O~total- ~[~tota I [)+(1--11-- r,,,,,[) (16)
E is preferable. + -- 4
The correlation coefficient between the predicted 1 /V
and experimental values, r, will also be one other (E.)D~c, = N ,=~ (E~,),
additional criterion. When two different methods
happen to provide identical least-squares lines, an
estimation method that gives a higher r value is
N i=1
z.., [ 4
preferable.
~+ (1 -- 1] -- ~ ' - - ~'1)
4 + (1 -- [I - - ' " l ) ] (17)
--t--- fore Ncurvel I I1 ff where the subscripts, total and i, refer Io the combined
--m-- fore N c u r v e l l l T, 1+I1
for curves (1+ Ill I i// data of all (e-N) data sets and the ith (e-N) data set
/ / respectively, and N is the number of (e-N) data sets.
(E,0Dset of Equation (17) represents the goodness of
fit for individual (e-N) data sets.
C O M P A R I S O N OF ESTIMATION M E T H O D S
i "2' Life predictions were performed with the aforemen-
z~ / tioned six estimation methods on the five material
a) Method D groups listed in Table 1. Figure 6 shows a typical
result of life predictions obtained on low-alloy steels,
If/I+II•
• for which the largest amount of data is obtained among
the five material groups. In the figure, the perfect
e~
correlation line and a factor of 3 scatter band are
/ expressed by the dashed and solid lines respectively.
The equation and the value of r in the figure represent
./ "A"
the result of least-square analysis and the correlation
N,=j4" /
coefficient for the combined data respectively.
As can be found from Figure 6a, the predicted data
by the four-point correlation method tend to level off
i
b) Method E in the long-life range, resulting in over-conservative
life predictions. Such a trend is also discernible in the
Experimental life, Nf
result for the original universal slopes method shown
Figure 5 Application of least-squares analysis to the predicted data in Figure 6b. In contrast, the modified universal slopes
by two different estimation methods method, the uniform material law by B~iumel and
370 Jun-Hyub Park and Ji-Ho Song
109
109
a) Four-PointCorrelati,
l0 s
10 s
b) OriginalUniversalSlopes
107
Z-
t"q Z
107 0 0
10n t"q
106
>
105
105
o o~8 0
>
104
104 oJ 1 e°°°
h3 103 [] EF o
;.~ 103
10 2
102
10 ~ 0.893
r =
Iog(2Np)=1.375+0.5241og(2Nr ) 101 r = 0.936
10° ~ ' ' ~ ~ l °)=0.858+0.781
g ( 2 Nlog(2Nr)
10 °
10° 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 10s 109
10° 101 102 103 104 105 106 I07 10s 109
Experimentalreversals,2N Experimentalreversals,2Nf
109
10 9
c)ModifiedUniversal d)Mitchell'sMethod
10 8 SlopesMethod 10 s ee m
engB ~no ~9
107
Z
t"q Z 107
106 t'-,I
106
105
> ~ 1¢
~ 104
~ 104
;~ 103 I)
103
F
~
~ 102 [] m m ii dim
~ 102
101 r = 0.936
I0° ~ l o g ( )=0.100+0.9531og(2Nr)
2 N I01 [,_ ~_) fro// r = 0.922
log(2Nv)=0.642+0.9271og(2Nr )
10°
I0° l01 102 103 l04 105 106 107 108 109 ]0 ° l01 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 10 7 l0 8 10 9
Experimentalreversals,2Nf Experimentalreversals,2Nf
109 109
108
e) Seeger'sMeth°d ~~ ~ ~ 108
If)Ong'sMeth°d ~
mull •
107 ~k
'@
106 , ~ 10 o |
z~ . An ~ ai D,
105
> ~1~ ~> 105 !~- I•
1o4 ~
l0 ° 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 l08 109 10 ° lO 1 102 103 104 105 106 107 l0 x 109
Experimentalreversals,2Nf Experimentalreversals,2Nf
Figure 6 Comparison of the predicted and experimental fatigue lives for low-alloy steels
Detailed evaluation of methods for estimation of fatigue properties 371
Original Modified
Material Four-point universal universal Mitchell's Seeger's Ong's
group E value correlation slopes slopes method method method
In the evaluation averaged o v e r all material groups value, c~ = 0,563. Consequently, Ong's method is
and expressed by the value of E, almost the same inferior to both the modified universal slopes method
results are obtained as described above on low-alloy and Seeger's method in the goodness of fit, and
steels, tends to provide non-conservative predictions more
In the total evaluation represented by the value of frequently, compared with the modified universal
~, the modified universal slopes method is best and slopes method. The fraction of data within a factor of
Seeger's method is next best, followed by Ong's. 3 scatterband is slightly more than 80%.
It can be noted from the above discussion that the
DISCUSSION modified universal slopes method, Seeger's method
and Ong's method all give reasonably good life
From the results in the preceding section, the features predictions, with about 80% of the data falling within
of each estimation method can be summarized as a factor of 3 scatterband. Based on the goodness of
follows. fit, the modified universal slopes method is the best
The predictive accuracy of both the four-point and Seeger's method is the next best. While not shown
correlation method and the original universal slopes here explicitly, the modified universal slopes method
method is considered inferior to the other methods, has the fewest non-conservative data falling outside
because the prediction results from both methods tend the upper line of a factor of 3 scatterband, in
to level off in the long-life range, as noted in Figure comparison with other two methods.
6. As can be found from the value of Ef(s = 3) in In conclusion, the modified universal slopes method
Table 2, only about 58% of the data predicted by the can be recommended as the best estimation method
original four-point correlation method fall within a at present. This method essentially requires the elastic
factor of 3 scatterband, indicating that the method modulus E, tensile strength o-B and fracture ductility
may not be recommended. el, of the material. When the fracture ductility is not
The original universal slopes method may be satisfac- available, Seeger's method, which requires only the
tory in the respect that about 80% of the data fall elastic modulus and tensile strength, may be utilized
within a factor of 3 scatterband, However, the goodness as an alternative to obtain satisfactory results.
o f fit due to th_e method is inferior, as the values of On the other hand, Ong's method, while being a
(E~)tot~l and (E~)Dset in Table 2 indicate. good estimation method, requires the true fracture
It is worth noting that the above two methods tend stress o-t,, which is not always given, in addition to the
to provide slightly non-conservative predictions at above three material properties.
short lives, but are excessively overconservative at Although not shown here, the fraction of data falling
long lives. This fact has been already pointed out by within a factor of 2 scatterband is found to be about
Manson and Muralidharan 5, particularly for the original 60% for all the above three methods. The major
universal slopes method. conclusions obtained above for a factor of 3 scatterband
In contrast, the modified universal slopes method, are hardly affected by employing a factor of 2.
developed to overcome this drawback of the original It has already been noted in the introduction that,
universal slopes method, tends to give slightly conserva- on its own, the error criterion expressed by Equation
tive predictions at shorter lives, but is non-conservative (15) is not always sufficient for detailed evaluation of
at long lives, as already noted in Figure 6c. While the estimation methods, Based on the error criterion
fraction of data within a factor of 3 scatterband is alone, the original universal slopes method may be
80%, as can be found in Table 2, the goodness of fit said to be one of the best estimation methods, as the
is remarkably improved in the modified universal fraction of data falling within a factor of 3 (or 2)
slopes method. As the equation in Figure 6c shows, scatterband amounts to 78% (or 60%), comparable
the values of intercept (~ = 0.100) and slope to the results due to the above three methods,
(/3 = 0.953) are very close to 0 and 1 respectively. However, the original universal slopes method is in
This result implies that the modified universal slopes practice inferior to the modified universal slopes
method gives accurate predictions. method as reported by Manson and Muralidharan ~.
As can be seen in Figure 6d, Mitchell's method also Such a fact can be easily clarified in a quantitative
provides a value of slope, /3 = 0.927, relatively close manner by using the additional criteria proposed here,
to 1, indicating excellent direct correspondence as Table 2 shows.
between the predicted and experimental lives. How-
ever, the value of the intercept, a = 0,64, is relatively CONCLUSION
high, leading to non-conservative predictions over the
The predictive accuracy of various methods developed
entire life range. Consequently, only about 60% of
to estimate fatigue properties from simple tensile data
the data fall within a factor of 3 scatterband as listed
is quantitatively evaluated by using the additional
in Table 2.
criteria proposed in this work. with the conventional
Good direct correspondence (/3 = 0.914) between
error criterion, The conclusions obtained are summar-
the predicted and experimental lives can be observed
ized as follows:
also in Figure 6e for Seeger's method. In particular,
the method is the best in goodness of fit for individual 1. New criteria based on a least-squares analysis
data sets, as can be found from the value of (E~)D~ct between the predicted and experimental fatigue
in Table 2. The fraction of data falling within a factor lives are proposed to evaluate estimation methods.
of 3 scatterband is 79%. 2. The three methods - the modified universal slopes,
As can be seen in Figure 6f, Ong's method gives Seeger's and Ong's methods - give reasonably
the value of slope, /3 = 0.862, less than those for the good life predictions. Among them, the modified
above three methods, and a relatively high intercept universal slopes method provides the best results.
Detailed evaluation of methods for estimation of fatigue properties 373
3. Consequently, the modified universal slopes method Loading, Supplement 1' Elsevier Science Publishers, Amster-
dam, 1990
can be recommended as the best estimation method 4 Ong, J.H. Int. J. Fatigue 1993, 15, 213
at present. When the fracture ductility required by 5 Muralidharan, U. and Manson, S.S.J. Eng. Mater. Technol.
the method is not available, Seeger's method may 1988, 110, 55
be utilized as an alternative to obtain satisfactory 6 Ong, 3.H. Int. J. Fatigue 1993, 15, 13
results. 7 'ASM Metals Handbook', 9th edn, American Society for
Metals, Metals Park, OH, 1978, 680
4. The fraction of data falling within a factor of 3 (or 8 "JSME Data Book: Fatigue of Metals', IV Low Cycle Fatigue
2) scatterband is found to be about 80% (or 60%) Strength, Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Tokyo,
for all the above three methods. 1983
9 BOller, Chr, Jr and Seeger, T. 'Materials Data for Cyclic
REFERENCES Loading', Vol. l - 4 , Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam,
1 Manson, S.S, Exp. Mech. 1965, 5, 193 1987
2 Mitchell, M.R. "Fatigue and Microstructure', American 10 Wetzel, R.M. (ed.) 'Fatigue Under Complex Loading:
Society for Metals, Metals Pack, OH, 1979, p. 385 Analyses and Experiments', Society of Automotive Engin-
3 B~iumel, A. Jr and Seeger, T. ~Materials Data for Cyclic eers, Inc., 1975 p. 41