Chapter 14

Fatigue
Fatigue Fracture Surface

• Initiation region (usually at the

surface)
• Propagation of fatigue
crack (evidenced by beach
markings)
•Catastrophic rupture when crack
length
exceeds a critical value at the
applied stress.
Analysis of Fatigue: Approaches

(i) Stress-life approach

(ii) Strain-life approach
(iii) Fracture mechanics approach
 Parameters of the S N Tests

cyclic stress range, σ = σmax − σ min

cyclic stress amplitude, σa = (σmax − σmin)/2

mean stress, σm = (σmax + σmin)/2

stress ratio, R = σmin/σmax

Basquin’s Law : High cycle Fatigue
S–N (Wöhler) Curves

(a) S (stress)–N (cycles

to failure) curves. (A) Ferrous and
(B) nonferrous metals; SL is the
endurance limit.

b) S–N curves for

polymeric materials. Polymers that
form crazes, such as
polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)
and polystyrene (PS), may show a
flattened portion in the very
beginning, indicated as stage I.

(c) An example of an actual S–N

curve showing the three stages in
the
case of polystyrene.
Coffin-Manson Law: Low Cycle Fatigue

Basquin + Coffin -Manson

S–N curves for typical metals and polymers
 Fatigue Strength

Superposition of elastic and plastic curves gives the fatigue

life in terms of total strain.
(Adapted with permission fromR. W. Landgraf, in American Society for Testing and Materials,
Special Technical Publication (ASTM STP) 467 (Philadelphia: ASTM, 1970),
p. 3.)
 Fatigue Life: HCF and LCF

Fatigue life in terms of strain for an 18%-Ni maraging steel

from R. W. Landgraf, in ASTMSTP 467, ASTM,1970), p. 3.

Mean Stress on S-N curves

Effect of mean stress on S–N curves

Fatigue life decreases as the mean stress increases
Effect of Mean Stress on Fatigue Life

Goodman

Gerber

Soderberg
Effect of Frequency on the Fatigue Life

Effect of frequency on the fatigue life

of a reactor pressure vessel steel. The
fatigue life decreases at 1,000 Hz
compared to that at 20 Hz.

(Used with permission from P. K. Liaw, B. Yang, H. Tian et al.,

ASTM STP 1417 (West Conshohocken, PA: American Society
for Testing and Materials, 2002.)
 Cumulative Damage

(a) Damage accumulation, in a high-to-low loading sequence. (Adapted

with permission from B. I. Sandor, Fundamentals of Cyclic Stress and
Strain (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972.) (b)
Sequence of block loadings at four different mean stresses and
amplitudes.
Fatigue Crack Nucleation
(a) Persistent slip
bands in vein structure.
Polycrystalline copper fatigued at a
total strain amplitude of 6.4 ×
10−4 for 3 × 105 cycles. Fatiguing
carried out in reverse bending at
room temperature and at a
frequency of 17 Hz. The thin foil
was taken 73 μm below the
surface. (Courtesy of J. R.
Weertman and H. Shirai.)
(b) Cyclic shear stress, τ , vs.
plastic cyclic shear strain, γ pl.,
curve for a single crystal of copper
oriented for single slip. (After
H. Mughrabi, Mater. Sci. Eng., 33
(1978) 207.) The terms γ pl,M. and
γ pl,PSB refer to cyclic plastic shear
strain in the matrix and persistent
slip bands, respectively.
(c) Intrusions/extrusions in a
tin-based solder due to thermal
fatigue. (Courtesy of N. Chawla
and R. Sidhur.)
 Maze Structure

Well-developed maze structure, showing dislocation

walls on {100} in Cu–Ni alloy fatigued to saturation.

(From P. Charsley, Mater. Sci. Eng., 47 (1981) 181.)

Fatigue Crack Nucleation at Slip Bands

(a) Fatigue crack nucleation

at slip bands.

(b) SEM of extrusions and

intrusions in a
copper sheet.

(Courtesy of M. Judelwicz and B. Ilschner.)

 Fatigue Crack Nucleation

Some mechanisms of fatigue crack nucleation.

(After J. C. Grosskreutz, Tech. Rep. AFML-TR-70–55 (Wright– Patterson AFB, OH: Air Force Materials
Laboratory), 1970.)
Fatigue Life

(a) Residual stress

profile generated by shot peening
of a surface; CS and TS indicate
compressive and tensile stress,
respectively.

(b) Effect of shot peening on

fatigue life, σ of steels with
different treatments as a function
of ultimate tensile strength,
σUTS.

(After J. Y. Mann, Fatigue of Materials

(Melbourne, Melbourne University Press,
1967).)
Stages I, II, and III of fatigue
crack propagation
Fatigue Striations

Fatigue striations in
2014-T6 aluminum alloy;
two-stage
carbon replica viewed in
TEM. (a)
Early stage. (b) Late stage.
(Courtesy of J. Lankford.)
Fatigue Crack Growth

Fatigue crack growth

by a plastic blunting
mechanism. (a) Zero load. (b)
Small tensile load.
(c) Maximum tensile load. (d)
Small compressive load. (e)
Maximum compressive load. (f)
Small tensile
load. The loading axis is
vertical

(After C. Laird, in Fatigue Crack

Propagation, ASTM STP 415
(Philadelphia: ASTM, 1967),
p. 131.)
Microscopic Fracture Modes

Microscopic fracture
modes in fatigue. (a) Ductile
striations triggering cleavage. (b)
Cyclic cleavage. (c) α − β interface
fracture. (d) Cleavage in an α − β
phase field. (e) Forked
intergranular cracks in a hard
matrix. (f) Forked intergranular
cracks in a soft matrix. (g) Ductile
intergranular striations. (h)
Particle-nucleated ductile
intergranular voids. (i)
Discontinuous intergranular facets.

(Adapted from W. W. Gerberich

and N. R. Moody, in Fatigue
Mechanisms, ASTM STP 675
(Philadelphia: ASTM, 1979) p. 292.)
 Fatigue Crack Path in Polymer

Discontinuous crack growth through a craze at the tip of a fatigue crack.

(After L. Konczol, M. G. Schincker and W. Do¨ ll, J. Mater. Sci., 19 (1984) 1604.)
Fracture Mechanics Applied to Fatigue

• Failure locus. (b) Schematic of crack length a as a function of

number of cycles,N.
Crack Propagation Rate:
Paris Erdogan Relationship
Paris Relationship: Integration
Fatigue Crack Propagation in an AISI 4140 Steel

Fatigue crack propagation in an AISI 4140 steel.

(a) Longitudinal direction (parallel to rolling
direction). (b) Transverse
direction (perpendicular to rolling direction).
(Reprinted with permission from E. G. T. De Simone, K. K. Chawla, and J. C.
Miguez Su´arez, Proc. 4th CBECIMAT (Florian ´ opolis, Brazil, 1980), p. 345)
Fatigue Crack Propagation in Polymers

Fatigue crack propagation rates for a number of polymers.

(After R. W. Hertzberg, J. A. Manson, and M. Skibo, Polymer Eng. Sci., 15 (1975) 252.)
Fatigue Crack Propagation for PMMA and PVC

Variation in fatigue crack propagation rates, at fixed

values of K (= 0.6 MPa m1/2) and test frequency v (= 10 Hz),
as a function of reciprocal of molecular weight for PMMA
and PVC.

(After S. L. Kim, M. Skibo, J. A. Manson, and R. W. Hertzberg, Polymer Eng. Sci., 17 (1977)
194.)
 Fatigue Crack Growth Under Cyclic Loading

Fatigue crack growth rate da/dN in alumina as a function

of the maximum stress intensity factor Kmax under fully reversed
cyclic loads (v = 5 Hz). Also indicated are the rates of crack
growth per cycle derived from static-load fracture data.

(After M. J. Reece, F. Guiu, and M. F. R. Sammur, J. Amer. Ceram. Soc., 72(1989) 348.)
 Fatigue Damage

Intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of

fatigue damage.

(After R. O. Ritchie, Intl. J. Fracture, 100 (1999) 55.)

Fatigue Crack Propagation

Fatigue crack
propagation rates for
pyrolitic-carbon coated
graphite specimens in a
physiological environment;
leaflet and
compact-tension
specimens.

(Adapted from R. O. Ritchie, J.

Heart Valve Dis., 5 (1996) S9.)
Hysteretic Heating in Fatigue

Effect of the applied stress range σ on

temperature rise in PTFE subjected to
stress-controlled fatigue. The symbol x
denotes failure of the specimen.
(After M. N. Riddell, G. P. Koo, and J. L. O’Toole, Polymer Eng.
Sci. 6 (1966) 363.)
 Effects in Fatigue

A schematic of fatigue crack propagation rate as a

function of cyclic stress intensity factor in air and
seawater. At any given K, the crack propagation
rate is higher in seawater than in air.
Two-parameters Approach

A fatigue threshold curve.

(After A. K. Vasudevan, K. Sadananda, and N. Louat, Mater.
Sci. Eng., A188 (1994) 1.)
Fatigue crack growth rates for long
and short cracks
Fatigue Testing

Various loading
configurations used in fatigue
testing. (a) In cantilever loading,
the bending moment increases
toward the fixed end. (b) In
two-point beam loading, the
bending moment is constant. (c)
Pulsating tension, or
tension–compression, axial
loading.
Statistical Analysis of S-N Curves

S–N curve showing

log-normal distribution of
lives at various stress
levels.
q-values for S--N Data
 Survival and Failure

Family of curves
showing the probability of survival
or failure of a component.
Line diagram of a hydraulically
operated closed-loop system
Block diagram of a low-cycle
fatigue-testing system