Fatigue

Another aspect of mechanical design is to design for longevity. Most often, a part does not see the stress necessary to break it in one cycle. It is only after repetitive cyclic loading that a part breaks. There are several terms when dealing with fatigue failure: mean stress stress range maximum stress stress amplitude minimum stress

One complete cycle of loading is shown below highlighting the terminology. It is assumed that this same cycle can be repeated many thousands of times.

If the maximum and minimum values of stress are known, all the terms can be calculated:

As well as some new terms,

stress ratio and

amplitude ratio:

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Stress vs. Cycles Plot

The way to predict fatigue failure is to look at an S-N Diagram, where stress ( ) is plotted versus the number of cycles ( ) on a log-log plot. As the number of cycles increases, the stress level where failure will occur drops. is the ultimate stress where failure occurs at 1 cycle. is the low cycle fatigue point which is defined as 103 or 1,000 cycles. is the modified endurance limit which is defined as 106 or 1,000,000 cycles. It is assumed that if the object has a stress level under the modified endurance limit it can survive an infinite life. NOTE: The S-N diagram assumes a mean stress of 0. Therefore there is a completely reversed positive and negative stress cycle.

The values in the S-N diagram are dependent on the type of loading. NOTE: the unmodified endurance limit ( ) is given below which will later be modified. Loading Bending Axial Torsion Low Cycle Fatigue (103 Cycles) 0.90 0.75 0.72 Unmodified Endurance Limit (106 Cycles) 0.50 0.45 0.29

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Modified Endurance Limit

There are many k factors that more accurately represent real world conditions and affect the unmodified endurance limit ( ), creating a modified endurance limit ( ). Each factor is a number between 0 and 1. The most important ones are listed first, in my opinion.

1.) Fatigue stress concentration factor ( ) We have learned about stress concentration factors ( ) due to holes or changes in material size with fillets. The notch sensitivity ( ) is found from the chart below. For static loading, stress concentrations were only a function of geometry and loading. For fatigue, material is incorporated as well.

2.) Surface finish factor ( ) The best finish is polished which has a . However, most times the part will have surface imperfections which give rise to fatigue cracking. This is an important one that will be used often since most parts are machined. Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

3.) Size factor ( ) Larger parts will most likely contain more flaws then smaller parts. For axial loading For bending and torsion where is the outer diameter:

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

4.) Reliability factor ( ) The actual strength of a material can vary. Therefore, statistics are used to employ a confidence level of survival out of a large sample size. Similar to the Dr. Bednarz 95% rule, a probability of 95% is the most common. Probability of Survival 50% 90% 95% 99% 99.9% 99.99%

1.00 0.90 0.87 0.82 0.75 0.70

5.) Temperature factor ( ) If the high cycle fatigue takes place under extreme temperatures ( ) such an in aircraft engines, this factor must be employed. is the ultimate strength at the desired temperature and is the ultimate strength at room temperature.

6.) Miscellaneous factor ( While it may seem that every effect is covered already, the misc. factor takes into account others such as manufacturing history, residual stresses, coatings and corrosion. Such factors are hard to quantify and may be estimated from experience.

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Failure Between 100 and 103 Cycles

From the log-log plot, failure will occur at for 100 or 1 cycle, and at for 103 or 1,000 cycles. This will be the range of failure for specialty pieces of equipment that are only stressed a few times in a given day. From the log-log plot of the S-N diagram:

where is the fatigue strength and intercept ( ) are defined below.

is the number of cycles until failure. The slope (

) and

If the number of cycles are known but the stress is unknown:

If the stress is known but the number of cycles are unknown:

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Failure Between 103 and 106 Cycles

Most consumer products see service lives between 1,000 and 1,000,000 cycles, from door hinges to aluminum baseball bats. From the log-log plot of the S-N diagram:

where is the fatigue strength and is the number of cycles until failure. The slope ( intercept ( ) are defined below. Note: the modified endurance limit ( ) is used.

) and

If the number of cycles are known but the stress is unknown:

If the stress is known but the number of cycles are unknown:

Cumulative Damage
It is also possible that fatigue damage can occur from varying stress levels. In this case, failure occurs when the total damage equals 1 in the following formula:

where is the number of cycles performed at a certain load level and to failure at that particular load level.

is the number of cycles

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Why use log-log plot?

The reason is obvious when comparing the 2 plots! Nothing can be deciphered in detail at low cycle levels on the regular scale.

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University

Nonzero Mean Stress

I want to emphasize that everything up to this point assumed that stress was cycled about a mean stress of 0. Therefore was applied for all the previous formulas. Oftentimes, the mean stress is not 0, such as the simple case where a part is loaded and then unloaded. For these cases, other methods must be used. The graph below shows alternating stress vs. mean stress. The Soderberg line is the most conservative and will be used here with: stress amplitude ( ), mean stress ( ), modified endurance limit ( ), yield strength ( ) and the safety factor for infinite life ( ).

Dr. Edward Bednarz Wilkes University