DRAFT

Proceedings of IMECE2012
2012 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition
November 9-15, 2012, Houston, Texas, USA

Paper Number: IMECE2012-85680

LOW – COST, ACCELERATED HIGH-CYCLE FATIGUE TESTING BY RESONANT DWELL

P. W. Whaley L. A. Killingsworth T. D. Bow

Oklahoma Christian University Oklahoma Christian University Nikon Research Corporation
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Belmont, California USA

ABSTRACT the application is consistent with the available

Characterization of the fatigue properties of
new materials using conventional empirical
procedures will be very expensive and time-
consuming because of the need for sufficient fatigue
life data, especially in the high cycle fatigue (HCF)
region. Fatigue specimens tested at 30 Hz require
over nine hours to accumulate 106 cycles for each
fatigue data point. Resonant-dwell double-
cantilever beam specimens resonating at
approximately 260 Hz accumulate 106 cycles in
about an hour. This paper describes low – cost,
accelerated HCF fatigue testing using resonant –
dwell specimens and a small, inexpensive
electrodynamic shaker. Using this method, HCF
data needed for characterizing the fatigue properties
of new materials can be collected about nine times
faster than a servo – hydraulic test machine
operating at 30 Hz.
INTRODUCTION
Conventional design for fatigue resistance as
taught in undergraduate machine design applies S-N
diagrams, Miner’s rule and various constant – life
diagrams to specify the maximum acceptable steady
and alternating loads [1], [2]. Continued use of
Miner’s rule reflects its simplicity, although it is
sometimes “wildly unconservative” [3]. When a
block of high stress amplitude loading is followed
by a block of low stress amplitude loading (or vice
versa), the Miner sums are not unity as assumed [4].
In spite of this limitation, constant – life diagrams
have been successfully applied to design whenever
experimental data.
Constant – life diagrams are empirical tools,
based on substantial amounts of fatigue life data.
For common structural metals, sufficient data has
accumulated over the past several decades for
acceptable fatigue characterization in most cases.
The disclaimer in a contemporary machine design
textbook reminds students that as practicing
engineers, they may need to collect their own
fatigue data for applications of new materials that
do not match the existing experimental data.
Fatigue testing is a fundamental part of structural
design.
Characterizing the fatigue resistance of new
materials, especially composite materials, will be
very expensive and time – consuming by
conventional means. Composite materials are
anisotropic, requiring fatigue characterization for
each laminate configuration. Commercially
available servo-hydraulic fatigue test machines
operate in the 20 Hz to 30 Hz range. Each HCF
data point (106 cycles and higher) takes about nine
hours at 30 Hz. Because so many cycles are
required for each data point and so many data points
are required for statistical significance,
characterizing fatigue resistance of new materials
takes a long time.
Resonant dwell vibration testing of double
cantilever beam specimens has been applied to the
measurement of material damping [5], [6].
Relatively large stress amplitudes can be achieved
with relatively low energy input at resonance.

1 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

 DRAFT

George, et.al. [7], [8] conducted accelerated HCF

tests on base-excited plate specimens at high
frequency resonant modes (1200 Hz – 1600 Hz).
They used large electrodynamic shakers to provide
enough power at high frequency to excite a large
enough strain for fatigue to occur in about 106
cycles or less. They were able to characterize a
Goodman diagram for 6061-T6 aluminum in a
relatively short time.
The objective of this paper is to describe an
accelerated HCF test procedure by resonant dwell
using a small, inexpensive electrodynamic shaker.
A thin beam specimen has been designed for a
resonant frequency of about 260 Hz, with fatigue
occurring between 2.5x105 cycles and 6.0x105
cycles. The mean stress amplitude was
77.91 ± 3.45 MPa (11.3 ± 0.5 kpsi) . Fretting
damage was observed at the shaker head for a Fig. 1. Experimental Apparatus
uniform beam, a common problem in resonant
dwell. Two actions were taken to minimize the risk strain (stress) amplitude. Since the strain gage
of fretting. (1) A thin sheet specimen was designed usually failed before the fatigue test was completed,
to move the location of maximum strain away from an accelerometer was also mounted on the opposite
the fixture. (2) A redwood fixture was designed to side of the specimen from the strain gage. The
firmly clamp the specimen to the shaker head. The accelerometer signal was used to monitor the
result is a consistent and predictable location of specimen resonant frequency during the fatigue test.
fatigue crack initiation. Since the resonant The details of the specimen and fixture designs to
frequency decreases as a result of fatigue damage, eliminate fretting damage are described in the next
Labview code was written to track resonance. The section.
experimental procedure is described in the next
SPECIMEN AND FIXTURE DESIGNS
section.
Figure 2 illustrates the resonant – dwell
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE specimen and fixture that attaches it to the shaker
The accelerated HCF tests utilize double- head. Two actions were taken to eliminate fretting
cantilever beam specimens driven by a small damage. (1) The specimen was designed to move
electrodynamic shaker (Figure 1). Specimens of the maximum strain away from the support fixture
6061-T6 aluminum were taken from a thin sheet (Figure 2a). (2) A redwood support fixture was
and then fabricated into double – cantilever beam designed to eliminate fretting damage where the
specimens. The specimens were then clamped onto specimen clamps onto the shaker head (Figure 2b).
the shaker head and excited at the first resonant Specimens were taken from a 1.6 mm (0.063 in)
frequency by a small 222 N (50 lb) electrodynamic sheet of 6061-T6 aluminum. A finite element
shaker. The shaker system is capable of analysis was completed to design the specimen
maintaining stress amplitudes up to about 138 MPa shape so the maximum stress location is at the fillet
(20 kpsi) at 260 Hz, with fatigue life up to 106 radius, away from the support fixture (Figure 2a).
cycles completed in less than an hour. The wider profile where the specimen attaches to
A strain gage located at the maximum strain the fixture also provides a gradual transition to a
position on the specimen provides a measure of the low strain region under the fixture, helping to
eliminate fretting damage (Figure 2b).

2 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

 DRAFT

Figure 3. Photograph of Typical Fatigue Crack

Location in Every Specimen
Resonant dwell fatigue specimens experience a
a. Resonant-Dwell Fatigue Specimen, Dimensions decrease in resonant frequency as fatigue damage
in mm(in) decreases the stiffness [6]. Near the end of the
specimen fatigue life, the resonant frequency shift is
steady enough that manual adjustments of the
excitation frequency are not practical. For
acceptable fatigue testing, there must be a way to
automatically track resonance. A Labview virtual
instrument (VI) was developed to control the shaker
excitation frequency, track resonant frequency and
record the data. The details of the Labview VI are
described in the next section.

LABVIEW CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION

The Labview VI accomplishes three tasks: (1)
supply a constant open – loop sinusoidal voltage to
b. Resonant-Dwell Redwood Fixture drive the shaker amplifier, (2) continuously adjust
Fig. 2. Resonant – Dwell Sheet Specimen the frequency of the shaker excitation signal to track
A redwood fixture was designed to attach the the resonant frequency changes and (3) record and
specimen to the shaker head (Figure 2b). The save the accelerometer and strain gage data. Figure
specimen can be clamped firmly in place and the 4 shows the flow chart for tracking resonant
soft wood prevents any fretting damage to the frequency during HCF testing.
specimen.
The strain gage amplitude was used to calibrate
the accelerometer amplitude. Although the shaker
system operates in open loop, the accelerometer
amplitude always maintained a constant value
( ±4%) until the resonant frequency decreased by
about 3%. At that point, failure was assumed and
the test was terminated. At failure, a small crack
always appeared where the fillet radius joins the
constant – width portion of the specimen (Figure 3).
A strain gage was mounted at this location on every Figure 4. Flow Chart of Labview Resonance
specimen. Tracking sub VI

3 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

 DRAFT

The user inputs a small value, δ, for the The Labview VI was tested by a frequency
frequency increment of the shaker excitation signal sweep from 30 Hz to 80 Hz on a preliminary
frequency. The increment must be smaller than the specimen with a resonant frequency of about 61 Hz,
smallest frequency increment of the digital data as illustrated in Figure 5. After one such sweep, the
acquisition system. It is chosen so that changes in initial estimate of the specimen resonant frequency
frequency are small enough that the system does not for each subsequent fatigue test specimen was
lose resonance but not so small that changing usually very accurate.
resonance can’t be tracked fast enough. The The resonant frequency tracking capability was
frequency increment for this research was tested as illustrated in Figure 6 for a specimen with
δ = 0.20 Hz . The sample rate must be at least 20 a resonant frequency of about 82 Hz. Figure 6a
times greater than the specimen resonant frequency shows a sweep from a lower frequency to the higher
in order to accurately capture the waveform and resonant peak and Figure 6b shows a sweep from a
measure the accelerometer and strain gage higher frequency to the lower resonant peak. This
amplitudes. test assures that the frequency increment is correct
The Labview VI continuously compares the and the resonant frequency tracking sub VI is
current accelerometer amplitude (Ai) to the previous working correctly.
one (Ai-1) and adjusts the excitation frequency to
maintain the accelerometer amplitude at the
resonant peak. A series of true/false statements
accomplishes this task, as illustrated in Figure 4.
The accelerometer amplitude at a particular time
(Ai) is compared to the amplitude at the previous
time (Ai-1). If Ai is larger than Ai-1, the excitation
frequency continues to change until Ai is less than
or equal to Ai-1. If Ai is less than Ai-1, the frequency
increment is reversed and the excitation frequency
changes by –δ. This process continues until the
resonant frequency changes enough to indicate
failure of the specimen (3%). Labview was
programmed to write the data to a text file. a. Sweep Up to Resonance of 82 Hz.
Microsoft Excel was then used to calculate the
number of cycles to failure.

b. Sweep Down to Resonance of 82 Hz.

Figure 5. Test 1 of Labview Resonance Tracking Figure 6. Test 2 of Labview Resonance Tracking
sub VI, Identify Resonance sub VI, Track Resonance

4 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

 DRAFT

The objective of accelerated HCF testing is to

design the resonant frequency as high as possible.
The vibration amplitude supplied by electrodynamic
shakers decreases significantly at higher
frequencies. There is a trade-off between high
resonant frequency while still providing enough
strain amplitude to fatigue the specimen in 106
cycles or less. The resonant frequency of the final
specimen was gradually increased by decreasing the
length of the specimen until the shaker amplifier
was just able to supply the required amplitude
without being overloaded. For these specimens, the
nominal resonant frequency was 260 Hz, with an
average surface stress amplitude between 138 and a. Resonant Frequency Decrease During Fatigue
178 MPA (20 and 26 kpsi), accumulating 5.0x105
cycles in about 30 minutes.
HCF tests have been completed on 104
resonant dwell specimens. Results are described in
the next section.

RESULTS
Figure 7 shows results of a typical fatigue test.
At this particular maximum strain (stress)
amplitude, the fatigue test was completed in
approximately 30 minutes. Figure 7 shows one of
the few cases when the strain gage survived the
entire test. Figure 7a shows that the resonant
frequency was constant for the first 60% of this test
and then began to increase at about 2.5x105 cycles. b. Strain Gage Signal Amplitude During Fatigue
Figure 7b shows that as the resonant frequency
started to decrease, the strain amplitude also started
to decrease. This is not surprising since the
electrodynamic shaker was operating in open loop
and changing resonant frequency changes the
loading on the shaker. Figure 7c shows the reliable
accelerometer amplitude that was used to track
resonance.
The motivation for this research was a
concurrent study of statistical scatter in HCF data.
A stochastic theory of the fatigue life with tolerance
limits is described in a companion paper [9].
Parameters used in the probabilistic prediction of
fatigue were based on tensile test results, so the c. Accelerometer Signal Amplitude During Fatigue
maximum strain on the surface of the bending
Figure 7. Accelerated High Cycle Fatigue Typical
fatigue specimen shown in Figure 7b was averaged
Results for One Specimen
over the specimen cross-section.

5 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

 DRAFT
Figure 8 shows the fatigue test results for 104
specimens at cross – section – averaged stress
amplitudes between 69 and 89 MPa (10 and 13
kpsi), along with a power – law regression curve.
Most of the specimens failed between 1.4x105 and
5.8x105 cycles. About one hour of graduate
assistant labor was required for each specimen,
including machining the specimen, installing the
strain gage and conducting the test. All 104
specimens were tested in about eight weeks during
the summer of 2011.
Figure 8. Accelerated HCF data from 104
Specimens with Power – Law Regression,
Cross – Section – Averaged Stress
Figure 9. Weibull Cumulative Distribution of 44
Specimens with Cross – Section –
Averaged Stress Amplitude
82.0 ± 4.14 MPa (11.9 ± 0.6 kpsi)
Figure 8 illustrates significant variability of the
stress amplitudes of the 104 test specimens. Since
6 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
the purpose of the study was to investigate
statistical scatter of the data, no effort was applied
to make all the stress amplitudes the same.
However, there were 44 specimens within the stress
range 82.0 ± 4.14 MPa (11.9 ± 0.6 kpsi) . Figure 9
shows a Weibull cumulative distribution curve fit to
these 44 specimens along with the accelerated HCF
data.
CONCLUSIONS
Accelerated, low cost High Cycle Fatigue
testing utilizing a small, inexpensive
electrodynamic shaker has been demonstrated. Two
actions were taken in the specimen design to
prevent fretting damage at the shaker head
attachment point. (1) The specimen geometry was
designed to move the maximum strain away from
the support fixture that attaches to the shaker head.
(2) A fixture fabricated from soft redwood firmly
attached the specimen to the shaker head. There
was no evidence of fretting damage in any of the
104 specimens.
A Labview control VI was designed to track
resonant frequency as it decreases due to specimen
fatigue damage. Resonant dwell fatigue testing has
been completed at stress levels between 69 and 89
MPa (10 and 13 kpsi) on 104 6061-T6 aluminum
thin beam specimens. The specimen nominal
resonant frequency was 260 Hz, allowing 5.0x105
cycles in about 30 minutes. Operating in open loop,
the strain amplitude remained approximately
constant until the resonant frequency decreased by
about 3%. At this time, a small fatigue crack was
just visible in the location of maximum stress.
Since the strain gage usually fails after about 25%
of the fatigue life, an accelerometer was installed to
provide a way to monitor strain amplitude and track
the decrease in resonant frequency.
Even though acceptable results are reported
here for open-loop amplitude control, it might be
possible to incorporate a feedback controller to
decrease the uncertainty of the acceleration
amplitude during fatigue tests. There are many
challenges to closed loop control since the specimen
must continually scan frequency inside the loop.
Resonance in a high Q system is marginally stable.
 DRAFT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS [9] Whaley, P.W., “Critical Entropy Threshold: An

The authors would like to thank Mr. Robert A. Irreversible Thermodynamic Theory of
Stevenson for conducting most of the fatigue tests. Fatigue,” Proceedings of ASME International
Mechanical Engineering Congress &
REFERENCES Exposition, Paper Number: IMECE2012-
[1] Miner, M. A., “Cumulative Damage in Fatigue,” 85435, November 9-15, 2012, Houston, Texas,
Journal of Applied Mechanics, Trans. ASME, USA
vol. 12, p. A-159, 1945.
[2] Sendeckyj, G. P., History of Constant Life
Diagrams,” High Cycle Fatigue of Structural
Materials, W. O. Soboyejo and T. S. Srivatsan,
Eds., The Minerals, Metals and Materials
Society, pp. 95-107, 1997.
[3] Schutz, W., “A History of Fatigue,” Engineering
Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 263 –
300, 1996.
[4] Manson, S. S., “Interfaces Between Fatigue,
Creep and Fracture,” International Journal of
Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 2, pp. 327-363,
1966.
[5] Gibson, R.F., and R. Plunkett, “A Forced-
vibration Technique for Measurement of
Material Damping,” Experimental Mechanics,
Vol. 17, No. 8, 297 – 302, Aug. 1977.
[6] Whaley, P.W., Chen, P.S., and Smith, G.M.,
1984, “Continuous Measurement of Material
Damping During Fatigue Tests,” Experimental
Mechanics, 24(4), pp. 342-348.
[7] George, T.J., M.-H. Shen, O. Scott-Emuakpor,
T. Nicholas, C. J. Cross and J. Calcaterra,
“Goodman Diagram Via Vibration-Based
Fatigue Testing,” ASME Journal of
Engineering Materials and Technology, Vol.
127, pp. 58 – 64, Jan. 2005.
[8] George, T.J., M.-H. Shen, T. Nicholas and C. J.
Cross, “A New Multiaxial Fatigue Testing
Method for Variable-Amplitude Loading and
Stress Ratio,” ASME Journal of Engineering
for Gas Turbines and Power, Vol. 128, pp. 857
– 864, Oct. 2006.

7 Copyright © 2012 by ASME