NEW ERA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MATERIALS SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING (L)
A LABORATORY MANUAL

Compiled by:
ERWIN T. STA. MARIA

Laboratory Exercise No.8

Fatigue Testing of a Round Bar

NAME: Date Performed:

Program/Year: Date Submitted:
Day/Time/Group: Instructor:
 Laboratory Exercise No. 8
Fatigue test of a Round Bar
Objectives:
Upon Completion of this laboratory exercise; the students must be able to:
1. Familiarized themselves on the principle of fatigue
2. Get acquainted on the use of fatigue resting machine
3. Realize the significance of loads exerted on metallic materials;
4. Identify actual applications in the field of Mechanical Engineering
Introduction:
In engineering manifestation of progressive fracture in a solid under
cyclic loading as in the case of a metal strip that ruptures after repeated
bending back and forth. Fatigue fractures begins with one several cracks
on the surface that spread inward in the course of repeated application of
forces until complete rupture suddenly occurs when the small unaffected
portion is too weak to sustain the load. Structural and machine parts
subjected to vibrations and other cyclic loading must be designed to avoid
fatigue fracture.
Fatigue occurs when a material is subjected to repeated loading and
unloading. If the loads are above a certain threshold, microscopic cracks
will begin to form at the stress concentrators such as surface, persistence
slip bands (psbs) band grain interfaces. Eventually a crack will reach a
critical size, the crack will propagate suddenly, and the structure will
fracture the shape of the structure will significantly stresses where fatigue
crack can initiate. Round holes or sharp corners will lead to elevated local
stresses where fatigue crack can initiate. Round holes and smooth
transitions or fillet will therefore increase the fatigue strength of the
structure.
The process of fatigue is characterized by three distinct steps:
1. Crack initiation, wherein a small crack forms at some point of high
stress concentration;
2. Crack Propagation, during which this crack advances incrementally
with each stress cycles;
3. Final Failure, which occurs very rapidly once the advancing crack has
reached a critical size.
 Materials and Equipment
a. 3 mild steel (round bar)
b. 3 G.I (round bar)
c. Fatigue tester
d. Vernier Caliper

Procedure
1. One end of the specimen was placed into the shaft and the pther end
was put into the bearing at the load end
2. The grips in the chuck were tightened using the tee key provided
3. The required load on the specimen as per suggested was set by
turning the load nut.
4. The revolution counter was set to zero and the main switch of the
inverter speed control was turned on.
5. The required frequency of the motor was set
6. The motor was let to run until the specimen fails
7. The number of turns upon failure was recorded

Sample Computations:
32𝑃𝐼
Maximum bending stress amplitude, 𝑠 =
𝜋𝑑

P = Load in Newton using g= 9.81 𝑚⁄𝑠 2

I = Length
 Final Tabulation of Data
Table 1 (Mild Steel)
Load Parameter Length No. of Max
Turn Bending
Stress

Table 2 (G.I.)
Load Parameter Length No. of Max
Turn Bending
Stress

Questions to Answer:
1. What are the Importance of Fatigue testing?
2. What is Fatigue manufacturing?
3. Why is Fatigue failure important to Engineers?
4. State some applications where Fatigue testing is applied
 Laboratory Exercise No. 8
Fatigue Test of a Round Bar
Preliminary Data Sheet
Name: Date Performed:
Day/Time/Group: Instructor:

Table 1 (Mild Steel)

Load Parameter Length No. of Max
Turn Bending
Stress

Table 2 (G.I.)
Load Parameter Length No. of Max
Turn Bending
Stress

[ ] Approved for finalization

Group No.:____
[ ] For revision / correction
Leader:_________________
Remarks:__________________
Members: __________________________
1. 5. __________________________
2. 6.
3. 7.
4. 8. __________________________
_ Instructor