LAB 4

FATIGUE TEST

INTRODUCTION
Most machinery and many structures do not operate under a constant load and
stress. In fact, these loads and stresses are constantly changing. A good
example of this is a rotating shaft such as the axle on a railroad car. The bending
stresses change from tension to compression as the axle rotates. This constant
change in stress can cause fatigue failure in which the material suddenly
fractures. The process that leads to fatigue failure is the initiation and growth of
cracks in the material. Fracture occurs when the crack grows so large that the
remaining uncracked material can no longer support the applied loads. Fatigue
may be defined as a cyclic (or stochastic) time-dependent loading or straining of
a material. The change in the loading with respect to time is more common from
an engineering perspective and is generally considered to be mechanically
induced. Some examples of this are: the changing compressive and tensile
stresses due to the rotation of a train or car axle; the forces on an airplane wing;
the forces on structural components of buildings, etc.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Equipment
Fatigue testing machine of rotary bending fatigue method is used in order to
perform the experimental work. The machine is designed and manufactured by
the testing equipment division of SHIMAZU CORPORATION Company. The
model of the machine is H7. This machine model is especially designed to
determine fatigue properties under room and high temperature. The fatigue

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Fatigue Test
machine is shown schematically in Figure 1. Table 1 also gives the general
specifications of the fatigue machine.

No. Item Name No. Item Name

1 Driving motor 7 Arm lever
2 Rotary pivot of left rotary spindle 8 Right rotary spindle
3 Left rotary spindle 9 Loading rod
Center of loading applied on the
4 10 Loading jack
left spindle
5 Hanger of the left spindle 11 Rotary pivot of right rotary spindle
6 Specimen 12 Receiver plate of load system

Figure 1 Schematic drawing of the fatigue machine

Table 1 Main specifications of Fatigue Machine

Maximum bending motor 10 kg/m

Testing speed 0 ~ 3400 r.p.m ♦

Mitsubishi inverter device,
Inverter
frequency of A200
Driving motor Three phases, 200V, 400W
Machine dimensions
1600 × 500 × 1000
W×D×H in mm
♦ (changing of the test revolution speed is due to using of inverter)

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Fatigue Test
Specimen Dimensions
The dimensions of the specimen used in the experimental work are given in
Figure 2. However, Figure 3 shows the other dimensions of the testing
specimens used for testing under high temperature.

Figure 2 Dimensions of fatigue specimens

Figure 2.4 Fatigue specimen used for testing under high temperature

Experimental Procedures
The procedures of each experiment run are determined as the following:
- The specimen is inserted inside the left and right grips of the machine spindle.
- Special weight (delivered with the machine) is placed on the receiving plate of
the loading mechanism to compensate the unbalance of both left and right
rotary spindles.
- The predetermined weights to apply the required stress
- The motor of the machine is started up and the test is run after adjusting the
motor revolution per minutes during testing at 2500 r.p.m.
- During testing the number of revolution, N, is digitally recorded by using built-
in photocell attached at the end of the right rotary spindle which contains
toothed disc rotate with the spindle between the two sides of the photocell
sensor. The signal of the photocell is transmitted to a digital counter mounted
on the machine
- After fracturing the machine is stopped automatically and the number of
revolution at fracturing is displayed on the front panel of the machine.
- The test is repeated under different load until adequate numbers of points can
be plot to obtain the S-N curve
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Fatigue Test
Student Work
The following data are obtained from a previous test it is required to plot data on
the given simelog scale and determine the endurance limit.
Group 1(‫)ﻋﻤﻠﻲ‬ Group 2 (‫)ﻧﻈﺮي‬ Group 3 (‫)ﻧﻈﺮي‬
6 ‫ و‬5 ‫اﻻﺣﺪ‬ 6 ‫ و‬5 ‫اﻻﺛﻨﯿﻦ‬ 6 ‫ و‬5 ‫اﻟﺜﻼﺛﺎء‬
Stress Cycles to Stress Cycles to Stress Cycles to
(MPa) Failure (MPa) Failure (MPa) Failure
170 3.7E4 470 1.0E4 345 1.0E4
148 1.0E5 440 3.0E4 276 4.0E4
130 3.0E5 390 1.0E5 207 1.5E5
114 1.0E6 350 3.0E5 138 1.0E6
92 1.0E7 310 1.0E6 69 5.0E7
80 1.0E8 290 3.0E6 65 1.0E8
74 1.0E9 285 1.0E7 60 1.0E9

Group 4 (‫)ﻋﻤﻠﻲ‬ Group 5 (‫)ﻋﻤﻠﻲ‬ Group 6 (‫)ﻋﻤﻠﻲ‬

6 ‫ و‬5 ‫اﻻرﺑﻌﺎء‬ 8 ‫ و‬7 ‫اﻻﺣﺪ‬ 8 ‫ و‬7 ‫اﻻﺛﻨﯿﻦ‬
Stress Cycles to Stress Cycles to Stress Cycles to
(MPa) Failure (MPa) Failure (MPa) Failure
965 1.0E3 250 6.0E4 260 1.5E+05
825 1.4E3 150 7.0E5 200 4.0E+05
690 3.0E3 90 4.0E6 110 2.0E+06
500 7.0E4 70 8.0E6 90 4.0E+06
400 1.0E7 52 2.0E7 65 2.0E+07
380 5.0E7 50 4.0E7 50 8.0E+07
370 1.0E8 48 8.0E7 49 4.1E+08

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Fatigue Test