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International
Journalof
Fatigue

International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

New method for evaluation of the MansonConBasquin and

RambergOsgood equations with respect to compatibility
Adam Niesony a,*, Chalid el Dsoki b, Heinz Kaufmann c, Peter Krug d
b

a
Department of Mechanics and Machine Design, Opole University of Technology, ul. Mikolajczyka 5, 45-271 Opole, Poland
Chair of System Reliability and Machine Acoustics (SzM), TU-Darmstadt, Magdalenenstrasse 4, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
c
Fraunhofer-Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability, LBF, Bartningstrasse 47, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
d
PEAK Werksto GmbH, Siebeneickerstrasse 235, 42553 Velbert, Germany

Received 5 July 2007; received in revised form 6 November 2007; accepted 10 January 2008
Available online 1 February 2008

Abstract
In the modern description of the fatigue behaviour of materials the stressstrain curve, described with RambergOsgood equation,
and the strainlife curve, described with MansonConBasquin equation, are typically used. It is known that the assumption of equality of the plastic and elastic components in both equations leads to the so-called compatibility condition and connect the equations
theoretically. The conventional method for evaluation of the fatigue parameters use one set of experimental data from strain-controlled
uni-axial fatigue tests but they not ensure the compatibility conditions.
The presented new method for determining the stressstrain and strainlife curves retains the mathematical and physical relationships
between the considered curves. The method involves tting the curve to experimental data points in a three-dimensional strainstresslife
space. With the plastic part of strain, stress and fatigue life as coordinates, a straight line is used for tting the experimental data points.
The material parameters are calculated directly from projections of the three-dimensional straight line on suitable planes. The results
obtained from this new method using high-strength aluminium alloys subjected to dierent manufacturing conditions and dierent test
temperatures are presented. These results are then compared to results obtained with a conventional method for determining the fatigue
parameters.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: MansonConBasquin curve; RambergOsgood curve; Cyclic fatigue properties; Stress; Strain

1. Introduction
Manson and Con [13] were the rst researchers which
related the number of cycles to crack initiation to the
amplitude of plastic strain. Together with the modied
form of the Basquin equation [1,4], this work led to the
known equation of the strainlife curve, Fig. 1, where the
total strain amplitude ea,t is divided into elastic ea,e, and
plastic ea,p components as such:
r0
b
c
ea;t ea;e ea;p f 2N f e0f 2N f :
1
E
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 (0) 77 40 06 379; fax: +48 (0) 77 40 06

343.
E-mail address: a.nieslony@po.opole.pl (A. Niesony).
0142-1123/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2008.01.012

The Youngs modulus E is obtained either from a static

tensile material test or from the rst hysteresis loop
recorded during the fatigue test. To determine the remaining four material constants, it is necessary to perform
several fatigue tests under cyclic loading with constant
amplitude and a load ratio of Re = 1 on unnotched
specimens. Due to hardening or softening eects, materials
subjected to cyclic loading are often unstable, producing
stress amplitude changes during the tests [5,6]. Thus, the
stress amplitude corresponding to the stabilized state must
be used, which occurs at the half of the number of cycles to
crack initiation, which was determined at 10% stiness loss
of the stiness over cycles signal. With this stress amplitude, the Youngs modulus and the total strain amplitude
the plastic part of the strain amplitude can be calculated

1968

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

Nomenclature
ea,t, ea,e, ea,p total, elastic and plastic strain amplitude,
respectively
ra
stress amplitude
e0
plastic strain limit value
e0f
fatigue ductility coecient
r0f
fatigue strength coecient
b
fatigue strength exponent
c
fatigue ductility exponent
E
Youngs modulus (modulus of elasticity)
K0
cyclic strength coecient
n0
cyclic strain hardening exponent
2Nf
number of cycles to fatigue failure (crack initiation)
R
directional vector

l, m, n
Re
R0p0:2
V K 0 ; V n0

direction cosines of the vector R

strain ratio
yield limit for 0.2% residual elongation
compatibility ratio for K0 and n0 , respectively

Subscripts
comp. calculated from compatibility conditions or
compatibility is given
conv. conventional method
m
measured
Superscripts
MCB, RO MansonConBasquin or RambergOsgood, respectively

Fig. 1. Example of the MansonConBasquin curve according to Eq. (1).

ea;p ea;t  ea;e ea;t 

ra
:
E

Another possibility for determining the plastic part of the

strain amplitude is to use the measured value of the thickness of the recorded stable hysteresis loop [5,7], Fig. 2a.
However, for materials in which the linear part of the
decreasing hysteresis curve becomes non-linear before
reaching the zero-stress level, Fig. 2b, the value of measured plastic strain ea,p,m and computed ea,p by Eq. (2)
are unequal, particularly when the specimen is subjected
to higher strain amplitudes. To guarantee the comparability of the cyclic parameters found in literature [9], this
study uses Eq. (2) for evaluating the plastic strain [1,5,8].
To compute the material constant in Eq. (1) from experimental data the least squares method for tting the component curves can be applied [10,11]. Linearization of the
plastic part of Eq. (1) leads to
Y loge0f cX ;

where Y = log (ea,p) and X = log (2Nf). While tting the

line, Eq. (3), only those points should be take into account
where the value of the plastic strain is higher than the
established limit e0. This limitation results from the measuring accuracy of the total strain and from the operations
of subtraction in Eq. (2). For steels, the value e0 = 0.01% is
recommended [12]. Many problems related to the strain
limit e0 have been discussed in [10].
Linearization of the elastic part of Eq. (1) can be done in
the same manner
 0
r
Y log f bX ;
4
E
where Y = log (ea,e), and X = log (2Nf).
Ramberg and Osgood [1,13] proposed a method of
describing stresses and strains in materials subjected to
constant amplitude cyclic loading. This method is widely
applied in fatigue analyzes as an important source of information about the material behaviour [5,7]. Like in the

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

1969

a,p,m = a,t a,e

a,p,m = a,t a,e

a,p,m

a,e

a,p,m

a,e

Fig. 2. Calculated (a) and measured (b) plastic parts of the strain amplitude.

MansonConBasquin equation, the total strain amplitude is divided into elastic and plastic components, but
described as a function of stress amplitude ra and not fatigue life Nf
ra ra n10
ea;t ea;e ea;p
:
5
E
K0
The rst term of the equation is linear (the elastic component), and the second term is logarithmic (the plastic component). The stressstrain curve is usually presented in a
linear coordinate system, Fig. 3a, but in the double-logarithmic coordinate system, the terms of the equations are
expressed by straight lines, Fig. 3b. Thus, in order to determine the material parameters K0 and n0 , the plastic part of
the Eq. (5) must be linearized. Linearization is performed
by nding the logarithms of the equation
0

ra K 0 ena;p ;

and thus obtaining

Y logK 0 n0 X ;

where Y = log (ra), and X = log (ea,p).

The experimental points are obtained from the constant
amplitude fatigue tests and tted using the least-squares
method. This approximation only takes those points into
account where the plastic strain is greater than the assumed
limit value e0. Here, the test results used for determining the
MansonConBasquin curve are usually applied [9]. Since
many materials stabilize after a relatively short time, it is
possible to obtain the experimental points using a more ecient method that uses only one specimen. These methods
are: incremental step test, multiple steps with increasing
strain, multiple steps with decreasing strain and a method
using random cyclic strain amplitude tests [14,15]. The
experimental results (pairs of amplitudes of total stress
and strain) are considered in the same way as those obtained
from constant amplitude tests for stabilised hysteresis, and
are tted as described above. However, the results obtained

Fig. 3. Example of the RambergOsgood curve according to Eq. (5): (a) linear scale; (b) logarithmic scale.

1970

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

for materials with unstable material behaviour can dier

extensively depending on the used method [9,14].
2. The compatibility terms
Eqs. (1) and (5) have similar structures in that both total
strain amplitudes consist of the sum of plastic and elastic
parts. By comparing the elastic components, the following
equations can be derived
RO
eMC
a;e ea;e ;
r0f

ra
;
E
E
logr0f log2N f b logra
b

2N f

and for the plastic parts of Eqs. (1) and (5)

RO
eMC
a;p ea;p ;
r  10
a n
e0f 2N f c ;
K0

1
loge0f log2N f c:
n0
Introducing the log (ra) part from Eq. (8) into (9) leads to
the following expression

1
logr0f log2N f b  logK 0 0 loge0f log2N f c
n
10a


1
1
1
logr0f 0 log2N f b 0  c  logK 0 0 loge0f 10b
n
n
n
logra  logK 0 

Material parameters as well as number of cycles appear in

Eq. (10b). This equation shows three terms containing only
material parameters which do not depend on the number of
cycles. However, this equation should be valid for the
entire range of cycles, which then leads to


1
1
log2N f b 0  c 0 if; and only if; b 0  c 0;
11
|{z} n
n

assumed that the material is stable during fatigue tests and

does not exhibit signicant softening or hardening eects.
Therefore, the constants E, K0 , n0 , e0f , r0f , b and c do not depend on the number of cycles Nf or on the values of strain ea
or stress ra. This assumption may be invalid for some materials.
3. Problems when compatibility is not ensured
The known methods for determining material constants
do not ensure compatibility. The material constants are
usually determined separately, and the sets of data points
are treated as separate experimental results. If Eqs. (12)
and (14) are not adhered to, a loss of equality between
the plastic and elastic parts occurs in both formulations.
To make the problem clear the ratios of the elastic,
respectively of the plastic strain over the total stress amplitude were computed according to the ow chart showed in
Fig. 4 and presented in Fig. 5. When compatibility is given,
the ratio of the elastic part of the strain and the ratio of the
plastic part of the strain of the RambergOsgood and the
MansonConBasquin equations is always one for all
total strain amplitudes, and therefore for whole range of
cycles. Lack of compatibility causes the ratios to deviate
from one and yields to non-linear curves. This is incongruent because each tested specimen possesses elastic and plastic strain parts independent of whether it is used for the
analysis of the strainlife curve or the stressstrain curve
[1,5]. The component terms should be equal in both formulations. When compatibility is not given the line of the ratio
of the elastic part deviates from one to higher amplitudes,
and the line of the ratio of the plastic part shows large deviations to smaller amplitudes.

60

b
n0 n0comp:
c
Substitution of Eq. (12) into (9) leads to
1
1
logr0f 0  logK 0 0 loge0f
n
n
r0f
0n0
ef
K0
K0

12

13

r0f

0
14
b K comp:
e0f c
Eqs. (12) and (14) are the so-called compatibility equations
and they couple the coecients and exponents which appear in the RambergOsgood and MansonConBasquin
formulations. This yields the possibility of determining the
coecient and exponent in the stressstrain curve (5)
directly from the strainlife curve (1). In Eq. (10) it is
assumed, that the number of cycles to failure does not inuence the elasticplastic properties of the material. Thus, it is

Fig. 4. The ow chart for computing the numerical quantities used in

Figs. 5 and 6.

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

1971

Fig. 5. Computed ratios for elastic and plastic strains by neglecting the compatibility.

Thus, any of the following applications connecting the

parts of Eqs. (1) and (5) in further calculations can lead
to large deviations in the fatigue life of a component. This
can be shown if the number of cycles to the fatigue crack
occurrence is determined, either by using Eq. (1), or by
using the stress amplitude and the following equation:
 1
1 ra b
Nf
:
15
2 r0f

If compatibility is satised Eqs. (15) and (1) leads to the

same number of cycles. The consecutive computational
steps are shown in Fig. 4 and the resulted values on
Fig. 6. The numbers of cycles Nf and N MCB
obtained by
f
way of the two calculations methods are dierent if the
compatibility equations are not satised. That means that
the equation leads to two dierent stress amplitudes for
one number of cycles or it leads to two dierent number
of cycles for one stress amplitude, see Fig. 6. Moreover,

Fig. 6. Calculated number of cycles by neglecting the compatibility.

1972

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

the numerically determined stresslife characteristic

MCB
rRO
does not produce a straight line in the doua  Nf
ble-logarithmic coordinate system, thus disagreeing with
Eq. (15) used for its description. This can cause signicant
deviation in the determination of the cycle numbers, when
the nal formulae for determining fatigue life are derived
on the assumption that the elastic and plastic parts in
Eqs. (1) and (5) are equal.

z1
P1 ( x1 , y1 , z1 )

R (l , m , n )

4. The proposed method

From Eqs. (1) and (5) it appears, that one value of the
total strain amplitude, ea,t, corresponds to only one stress
amplitude, ra, and to a single number of cycles, Nf. In such
a case, it is possible to formulate the total characteristics
expressed by the curve (ea,traNf) in a three-dimensional
space. Fig. 7a shows such characteristics also depicting
curves for the parts of elastic strain (ea,eraNf) and plastic
strain (ea,praNf). By a projection of the three-dimensional characteristics, the following curves can be obtained:
projection to the plane (ea,tra) gives the trajectory of the
cyclic stressstrain curve (RambergOsgood equation),
projection to the plane (ea,tNf) gives the strainlife curve
(MansonConBasquin equation), and projection to
the plane (raNf) gives the stresslife curve, expressed with
Eq. (15). Particular projections for 3-D characteristics are
shown in Fig. 7bd.

y1

x1
x
Fig. 8. Points in the three-dimensional space with the regression line
determined by point P1 and directional vector R.

In this new method, all six cyclic characteristics are

determined through the approximation of the regression
line in the 3-D space, and there is no dependence on the
regression direction. The proposed method retains compatibility. Location of the straight line (ea,praNf) in 3-D
space can be dened by coordinates of the point
P1(x1, y1, z1) located on this straight line and the directional
vector R(l, m, n) to which the straight line is parallel [15],
Fig. 8.

Fig. 7. (a) Three-dimensional space with the strainstresslife curve (earaNf) and its projections on (b) strainstress (eara) plane, (c) stresslife (raNf)
plane, and (d) strainlife (eaNf) plane.

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

It is proposed to approximate the points with the

least-square method, minimizing the sum of the squares
of the distances of the points from the straight line. There
are many ecient methods for such regressions in the 3-D
space [16,17]. The location of the straight line in 3-D space
also determines the positions of its projections on the
particular planes. Thus, the material parameters of interest
can be determined directly from the following equations:
m
;
l
0
K 0 10y 1 x1 n ;

n0

l
m
c ;
b ;
n
n
e0f 10x1 z1 c ; r0f 10y 1 z1 b :

16

These equations have been derived according to the following assumptions:

x logea;p ;

y logra ;

z logN f :

17

As in the conventional method, the established limit e0 is

considered in the 3-D method. While tting the line, only
those points were considered where the value of plastic
strain is higher than e0. However, it is not recommended
to do this directly since omission of such points can greatly
inuence the stresslife curve (raNf), where the elastic part
of the strain plays a signicant role. Therefore, it is proposed to recalculate the plastic strain parts with
e0 < 0.01% so that the new values do not change the
strainlife curve (eaNf). These new values then lie directly
on the line of the plastic part of the RambergOsgood
equation, which was determined without considering these
points. However, the stress values which form the third
plane of these tests are not corrected, and are subject to
further scatter. Subsequently, a second regression is carried

1973

out in order to recalculate the location of the (ea,praNf)

line. The algorithm of the computations is shown in Fig. 9.
5. Practical implementation
The proposed method was used for calculating the fatigue parameters from RambergOsgood and MansonCofnBasquin equations for spray-compacted aluminium
alloys (DISPAL = DISPersion hardened ALuminium)
made by PEAK Werksto GmbH. These materials are
characterized by their high Youngs modulus, good wear
resistance and a low coecient of thermal expansion. In
the framework of a bilateral project, several tests on dierent materials were carried out by varying the test conditions. A detailed description of the materials and the
static and fatigue tests can be found in previous studies
[18,19]. For each material, the constant strain amplitude
tests were performed under alternating load and the numbers of cycles to crack initiation were recorded. The stress
amplitude was obtained from the recorded stable hysteresis
loop at half of the number of cycles to crack initiation. For
comparison purposes, the conventional method of determining the fatigue parameters [18,19] was also calculated
according to the algorithm shown in Fig. 7. The obtained
results can be found in Tables 1 and 2. Since the conventional method does not satisfy the compatibility relations,
two simple parameters, V K 0 and V n0 , were dened
V K0

K0
K 0comp:

V n0

n0
n0comp:

18

These parameters show the dierences between material

constants K0 and n0 obtained from Eqs. (12),(14), and

Fig. 9. Algorithms for calculation of the material constants K0 , n0 ; e0f , c, r0f and b.

1974

Number

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
21
22
23
24

Material and
heat treatment

Pressing

S225 F
S250 F
S220 F
S260 F
S250 F
S250 F
S250 F
S226 T6
S250 F
S250 F
S250 F
S230B T6
S232 T6
S232 T6
S691 T6
S693 T6
S691 T6
S693 T6

19
16
13
7A
15
29
34
5B
34
28
30
6A
2
2
7
40
7
40A

Raw part
diameter (mm)

Position in
the raw part

Temperature
(C)

Youngs
modulus E (GPa)

Cyclic values according to MansonConBasquin curve

Fatigue strength
coecient (MPa)
r0f
Conv.
3-D

Fatigue strength
exponent
b
Conv.
3-D

Fatigue ductility
coecient (m/m)
e0f
Conv.
3-D

Fatigue ductility
exponent
c
Conv.
3-D

Fitting
quality (%)
R2
Conv. 3-D

30
30
30
30
30
60
100
30
100
60
60
30
30
30
30
30
30
30

l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
c
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l

20
20
20
20
200
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
200
20
20
200
200

100.0
100.0
92.5
90.0
90.0
100.0
100.0
92.5
100.0
97.5
97.5
92.5
92.5
86.0
75.0
73.0
73.0
71.0

241.4
394.0
228.1
420.6
284.0
455.0
330.3
499.5
369.2
407.9
370.5
411.4
654.9
450.0
1030.5
866.6
499.7
464.6

0.063
0.099
0.082
0.061
0.073
0.110
0.075
0.063
0.082
0.100
0.088
0.063
0.066
0.086
0.115
0.098
0.082
0.077

0.046
0.035
0.121
0.100
0.038
0.048
0.038
0.019
0.029
0.049
0.035
0.224
0.069
1.219
10.054
15.781
1.358
0.573

0.431
0.359
0.500
0.620
0.324
0.374
0.356
0.484
0.333
0.369
0.330
0.668
0.739
0.847
1.237
1.445
0.851
0.765

97.6
93.8
96.6
98.4
98.3
98.6
94.6
97.1
99.2
98.9
97.7
86.7
97.3
96.8
99.3
97.8
97.1
98.6

241.6
396.9
228.7
420.7
284.1
455.5
331.6
499.9
369.5
408.3
371.3
413.4
655.1
449.8
1030.6
867.4
499.8
463.9

0.063
0.099
0.082
0.061
0.073
0.110
0.075
0.063
0.082
0.100
0.088
0.063
0.066
0.086
0.115
0.099
0.082
0.076

0.046
0.036
0.124
0.107
0.038
0.048
0.039
0.019
0.029
0.049
0.035
0.244
0.072
1.482
10.945
36.385
1.504
0.605

0.432
0.361
0.502
0.628
0.324
0.374
0.358
0.487
0.333
0.369
0.331
0.678
0.744
0.868
1.247
1.557
0.862
0.772

97.5
93.8
96.4
98.3
98.4
98.6
94.8
97.0
99.2
98.9
97.7
85.4
97.3
96.2
99.2
97.5
96.9
98.6

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

Table 1
Cyclic values according to the MansonConBasquin curve

Number

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
21
22
23
24

Material and
heat treatment

S225 F
S250 F
S220 F
S260 F
S250 F
S250 F
S250 F
S226 T6
S250 F
S250 F
S250 F
S230B T6
S232 T6
S232 T6
S691 T6
S693 T6
S691 T6
S693 T6

Pressing

19
16
13
7A
15
29
34
5B
34
28
30
6A
2
2
7
40
7
40A

Raw part
diameter (mm)

30
30
30
30
30
60
100
30
100
60
60
30
30
30
30
30
30
30

Position in
the raw part

l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
c
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l

Temperature
(C)

20
20
20
20
200
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
200
20
20
200
200

Youngs modulus
E (GPa)

100.0
100.0
92.5
90.0
90.0
100.0
100.0
92.5
100.0
97.5
97.5
92.5
92.5
86.0
75.0
73.0
73.0
71.0

Cyclic values according to RambergOsgood curve

Cyclic hardening
coecient (MPa)
K0
Conv. 3-D
K 0Comp:
393.7
1009.3
380.2
465.3
590.4
1099.0
649.1
730.4
877.0
923.7
912.2
464.1
956.3
248.6
675.3
572.5
273.3
333.7

379.4
991.4
322.2
523.4
593.8
1108.5
654.0
835.9
879.9
924.9
902.3
471.6
828.1
432.5
826.3
691.0
480.9
487.6

380.0
988.5
322.7
528.4
594.1
1109.8
654.5
839.5
880.1
925.0
901.0
473.6
832.0
441.0
831.2
718.1
485.2
491.3

V K0

Cyclic hardening
exponent
n0
Conv. 3-D
n0Comp:

V n0

Fitting quality
(%)
R2
Conv. 3-D Comp.

1.036
1.021
1.178
0.881
0.994
0.990
0.992
0.870
0.997
0.999
1.012
0.980
1.149
0.564
0.812
0.797
0.563
0.679

0.152
0.277
0.188
0.082
0.225
0.292
0.208
0.112
0.245
0.271
0.267
0.091
0.105
0.025
0.066
0.041
0.016
0.047

1.036
1.011
1.144
0.832
0.996
0.995
0.995
0.857
0.998
0.999
1.007
0.966
1.176
0.248
0.709
0.597
0.170
0.474

95.5
99.2
99.3
99.6
99.6
99.7
97.9
99.8
98.7
99.7
99.7
96.9
99.9
98.5
99.9
99.9
99.1
96.0

0.147
0.275
0.164
0.098
0.226
0.293
0.209
0.130
0.246
0.271
0.266
0.093
0.089
0.099
0.092
0.063
0.095
0.099

0.147
0.274
0.164
0.099
0.226
0.293
0.209
0.130
0.246
0.271
0.266
0.094
0.089
0.102
0.093
0.068
0.096
0.100

95.4
99.2
99.0
99.5
99.6
99.7
97.9
99.7
98.7
99.7
99.6
96.9
99.7
97.2
99.7
99.7
97.3
94.9

95.4
99.2
99.0
99.4
99.6
99.7
97.9
99.7
98.7
99.7
99.6
96.9
99.7
97.1
99.7
99.7
97.3
94.9

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

Table 2
Cyclic values of the RambergOsgood curve

1975

1976

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

Fig. 10. Stressstrain curves obtained with the conventional and the 3-D method.

Fig. 11. Strainlife curves obtained with the conventional and the 3-D method.

(16). The stressstrain and strainlife curves for three selected materials are shown in Figs. 10 and 11.
This new method of evaluation will now also be used in
the context of the Collaborative Research Centre CRC 666
project Integral Sheet Metal Design with Higher Order
Bifurcation (started 2005). The aim of two subprojects
in the CRC 666 at the chair of System Reliability and
Machine Acoustic SzM of the Technical University of
Darmstadt is to analyze and evaluate material characteristics resulting from the new manufacturing method called

linear ow splitting [20,21]. With this new processing

method, integral design proles are produced by utilising
very high degrees of deformation and strong surface hardening eects. These proles are aicted with gradients
(residual stress, hardness and microstructure) that require
exact knowledge of the local conditions. Here, it was
important to closely analyze the compatibility conditions
and the methods for evaluating the strainlife curve and
the stressstrain curve such that dierences in the stress
strain and the strainlife curve are coming from dierent

A. Niesony et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 30 (2008) 19671977

existing local condition and not from the evaluation

method.
6. Conclusion
The proposed 3-D method uses a spatial approximation
of the test results in order to determine the cyclic parameters. The method yields complete compatibility.
The straight line is determined by the least-squares analysis in the 3-D space and the accuracy of the regression is
indicated. The conventional methods depended on the
regression line (3), (4), or (7), and on the direction (x-axis
or y-axis) in which the regression was carried out. This
dependence had a large inuence on the cyclic coecients
and exponents, and compatibility was not always given
because the assumptions did not allow such dependences.
In contrast, the new 3-D analysis method guarantees
compatibility. However, for certain materials, it cannot
describe the stressstrain curve adequately. For various
materials, the determined stressstrain curve derived from
the compatibility condition does not agree with the test
results, and therefore the materials do not possess compatibility behaviour. Describing this material behaviour is one
object of further investigation in the framework of the
CRC 666 and a method will be presented soon.
Acknowledgements
The introduced results were developed in the framework
of the German research foundation in the subproject C2 of
the CRC 666, entitled Developing Methods for the Estimation of the structural durability and System Reliability
of Integrated Construction of Metal Sheets. Furthermore,
the authors thank the PEAK Material GmbH in Velbert,
Germany, for the provision of material data through which
the applicability of this analysis method could be shown.
Dr. Adam Nieslony is pleasured to acknowledge the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for sponsoring his stay in
Germany.
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