Anales de Mecnica de la Fractura 28, Vol.

1 (2011)

Fatigue testing of materials and components under mean load conditions

F. Klubberg a), I. Klopfer b), C. Broeckmann a), R. Berchtold b), P. Beiss a)
a)

Institute for Materials Applications in Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University,

Augustinerbach 4 52062 Aachen, Germany, e-mail: f.klubberg@iwm.rwth-aachen.de
b)
RUMUL Russenberger Prfmaschinen AG, Gewerbestrasse 10, 8212 Neuhausen, Switzerland,
e-mail: iklopfer@rumul.ch
ABSTRACT
The fatigue behaviour of metallic materials and components is significantly influenced by superimposed static mean
stresses, which must be taken into account in service life calculations or in structure design. For a particular given cyclic
life it is usually observed that the load amplitude of the endurance limits decreases with growing mean stress or static
load. This requires suitable investigations to determine the allowable stress amplitude for various stress ratios R
between the lowest and highest stress value during a loading cycle. Mean stress effects in fatigue are usually presented
as stress amplitude versus mean stress plot according to Haigh. The paper presents the working principle of high
frequency resonant testing machines and especially examples of applications in testing materials and components with
respect to non-zero mean stresses in tension and compression.
KEYWORDS: Fatigue, mean stress effect, metallic materials, component testing
1. INTRODUCTION
A major problem in fatigue design is the knowledge of
the effect of static mean stresses Vm on the endurable
stress amplitude VA. Accessible data have led to the
general observation that the endurable stress amplitude
S VA drops with increasing static mean stress. Fig. 1
gives a schematic overview of the amplitude reduction
influenced by static compression or tension preloads.
Although this effect has been known for hundred years,
occasional failures due to this cause are still
encountered based on only qualitative assumptions of
this kind.

Figure 2: Definition of the stress ratio R and stress

amplitude at various mean stresses

The stress ratio R is defined as the quotient of minimum

and maximum stress within a full sinusoidal loading
cycle (t) = m + a sin(t), Fig. 2.
R

V  Va
V min
{ m
V max Vm  V a

2. FATIGUE TESTING MACHINES

In the current state of the art of testing technology
(1)
especially designed testing machines can stress
specimens or structures with a dynamic load
superimposed onto a static load. Comparing costs high
frequency resonant testing machines have clear
advantages over servo-hydraulic machines. For
frequencies in the range of 50 Hz rather efficient
equipment has to be used. The testing load for each cycle
of the specimen has to be built-up by oil pressure of a
hydraulic actuator which is operating in a servo-loop. The
shortcoming is, that practically all needed energy is
transformed into heat and has to be carried off by an
additional cooling system. The dynamic load of a
resonant testing machine is generated by a mechanical
oscillating system (resonator) which consists of masses
and springs. Also the specimen with its elasticity is part
of this system. The RUMUL product family is shown in
Fig. 3.

(1)

with Vm and Va: mean static stress and stress amplitude,

respectively.

Figure 1: Mean stress effect in the S-N diagram

(schematic)

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A lot of special tools, i.e. hydraulic gripping heads for

sheet metal samples, for torsion and 4-point-bending,
furnace up to 900 C, corrosion chamber and low
temperature chamber ensure a universal application.
Resonant testing machines are predestined for tests with
large number of load cycles, therefore, the main
applications are fatigue tests for material investigations.
3. GENERAL
DESCRIPTION
STRESS EFFECT

OF

MEAN

Mean stress effects in fatigue are usually presented as

plots of the stress amplitude VA versus the
corresponding mean stress Vm according to Haigh, with
the life to failure N as a parameter, particular the
limiting value of stress cycle NG in the fatigue tests in
case of the endurance limit with the average failure
probability P = 50 %. With the exception of aluminium
alloys, the fatigue endurance limit or the knee in the
fatigue curve usually occurs between 106 and 107 cycles
at a given stress. In axial testing, for instance, an
absolutely limiting engineering stress would be the
tensile strength Rm of the material. For the sake of better
comparison and - if possible - generalization, Haigh
diagrams can be presented in a dimensionless version by
normalizing the stress amplitude to the fully reversed
amplitude at Vm = 0 and formulating a stress ratio also
for the mean stress on the abscissa, e.g. in axial tests by
dividing the mean stress by the tensile strength. A
schematic example is given in Fig. 5 for endurance
limits VA.

Figure 3: High frequency resonant testing machines,

Type RUMUL
The machines discussed here are used at full resonance,
e.g. the operating point is situated in the peak of the
resonance curve. The resonator is excited by an
electromagnet. Typical frequencies for such machines
are in the range of 50 - 250 Hz and due to the resonant
effect the needed energy consumption is very low, about
0.5 kW. The machine works subdivided into a separate
static and dynamic part and allows to run any
combination of stress ratio with high accuracy. The load
is measured by means of RUMUL load cells. The
control unit is a compact adaptive testing system. A
twin computer concept allows a consequent separation
in functions by avoiding the well known problem of
running process software on unstable PC operating
systems. The host computer is a pure Windows-PC, the
operating system is PC-independent. The core is a
powerful process computer system. The online data
acquisition and the digital controllers register the data of
the installed transducers. The control conception is used
for new testing machines as well as for modernisations
of older equipment, e.g. 100 kN high frequency
pulsators of type Amsler 422 (Fig. 4).

Figure 5: Mean stress effect for endurance limits in nondimensional form of the amplitude versus mean stress
plot according to Haigh and general description models

Figure 4: Amsler HFP 422 upgraded

For generalization purposes several types of equations

have been proposed. Goodman suggested to estimate the
endurable amplitude by a straight line through VA/VA (R =
1) = 1 and Vm/Rm = 1 which gives reasonable results for
partly brittle materials, yet, underestimates the
behaviour of ductile materials. Gerber introduced a
parabola through VA/VA(R =  1) = 1 and Vm/Rm = 1 which
was in fair agreement with experimental observations of
ductile materials with positive mean stresses. Additional
Smith proposed a progressive description for extremely

A great number of different data is recorded during a

fatigue test. The user can determine the type of data and
the intervals for reading data. These data include
information related to the damage process of the
specimens or components and allow a more extensive
analysis than a standard fatigue test. A history function
with graphic display records continuously data and
shows the user the immediate state of test. All test data
are in ASCII-files.

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brittle materials. In general, however, the fatigue

performance of materials is not sufficiently described in
the form of these simple theoretically models. They are
not intended for precise use, but rather to give a picture
of the relations involved. In further approaches the
endurable amplitude is discontinuously described by
straight line segment between certain defined stress
ratios R [1] but there are much more flexible relations
by higher order polynomials proposed [2, 3] considering
material specific mean stress sensitivity, e.g.:
V
1  p m
Rm

VA
VW

 (1  p ) m
Rm

this paper, at first in Fig. 6 for a high strength alloy steel

[6] and a pearlitic grey cast iron [7,8] with flake
graphite morphology. The curve of the endurable stress
amplitude resembles the Smith model for brittle
materials in figure 5. With other metallic materials there
is no such progressive amplitude increase with
compressive mean stresses, and on the other hand no
such clear amplitude decrease with tensile mean
stresses. The fatigue properties of grey cast irons are
affected by their microstructures and the strength
depends on the amount, shape, size and distribution of
the free graphite in their matrices. Flaky graphite might
be considered as an inherent notch that increases stress
concentrations for fatigue failure under tensile mean
stresses. The average compressive strength of grey cast
iron is roughly three and a half times the ultimate tensile
strength Rm. For grey cast irons the general sensitivity
parameter in eq. (2) is p = 1,6 [7]. Extracted out of
figure 6, Fig. 7 shows three S-N curves of this cast iron,
one for specimens with cast skin and one for smooth
longitudinally polished laboratory specimens, both
tested at the pure pulsating stress ratio R = 0 quantifying
the technological surface effect, and the third one in
comparison to the second S-N curve, demonstrating the
drop of the endurance limit under high tension mean
stresses at R = 0,5.

(2)

with respect to the sensitivity parameter p [2]. For p = 1

in eq. (2) the linear relation by Goodman (line a in
figure 5) and for p = 0 the Gerber parabola relation (b
in figure 5) are resulting. The sensitivity parameter p
can be calculated from ultimate tensile strength UTS {
Rm, reversed axial and pulsating axial endurance limits
A (R = 1) { W and 2A (R=0) { Sch respectively, based
on constant-load amplitude tests at R = 1 and R = 0:

42
p

V A (R
V A (R

V A (R
Rm

V A (R 0 )


V A (R 1)
1)

V A (R 0 )

2 

R m

0)

0)

(3)
.

Unfortunately, however, only very few results of good

reliability are reported in the literature. For a given
material, there are often no pulsating fatigue strength
results at hand. Therefore a statistically backed estimate
of the pulsating fatigue strength dependence on the
alternating strength amplitude by a two parameter
power law was proposed [4, 5]:
V A (R

0)

K A >V A R

1@

Figure 6: Effect of mean stress on the endurance limit of

brittle materials [6, 7, 8]

(4)

with material group specific parameters KA and q,

which can be gained by regression analysis on basis of a
sufficient number of available data pairs. Especially KA
in eq. (4) is affected by the material ductility and
indicates the declining, straight line or progressive
character of mean stress influence. The accuracy of the
proposed eq. (4) was tested by comparing the calculated
with the predicted pulsating stress amplitude for about
1700 pairs of data [5].
4. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTAL MATERIAL
INVESTIGATIONS

Figure 7: S-N lines of pearlitic flake-graphite cast iron

[7]

Caused by the lack of fatigue test data there are only

very few Haigh diagrams which take into account
compressive mean stresses. Examples of reliable test
results on smooth specimens and the description of their
failure limit as parabolas of second order are given in

The endurance limit lines of two heat-treated steels,

earlier investigated [6, 9], are shown in Fig. 8. For each
data point in the two steel curves in Fig. 8, e.g. each

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related S-N curve, about 30 smooth specimens were

available. The resulting curves correspond both to the
Gerber parabola distinctive for ductile materials. It is
striking that the allowable axial stress amplitude of
2.5CrMo4V [9] decreases under compression mean
loading nearly in the same manner as for tension
conditions.

Fig 9: S-N curves of the spray-compacted PEAK

aluminium alloy DISPAL S232 T6X for fully reversed
loading (R = 1) and compression mean stress
(R = 2,3) at a temperature of 150 C [10]

Figure 8: Effect of mean stress to the endurance limit of

ductile materials [6, 9, 10]
In the same figure a collection of curves for some
extruded aluminium alloys [6, 10] is given, also
showing ductile fatigue behaviour. The investigated
DISPAL alloys S230 and 232 are high performance
spray-compacted aluminium alloys and hot extruded
[10]. The mechanical properties of these alloys must be
tailored by heat treating. The fatigue tests were
performed under axial loading with three different stress
ratios. The focus of all tests was the very high cycle
fatigue performance beyond 107 cycles. To this end 50
107 survived cycles were specified as run-out criterion.
Mainly several 100 kN - HFP type Amsler resonance
testing machines equipped with RUMUL upgrades were
used in parallel work over years for a total of 370
smooth longitudinally polished specimens tested at
room temperature and 150 C. In figure 8 only two of
the three investigated material conditions are shown.
Figure 4 shows the arrangement for room temperature
testing. Fig. 9 gives a view into the opened shell furnace
after fracture of a specimen had occurred in addition to
typical S-N diagrams of the PEAK aluminium alloy
DISPAL S232 T6X under alternating stress amplitude
(R = 1) and compression mean stress(R = 2,3) at an
elevated temperature of 150 C. In comparison to the
fatigue strength under fully reversed loading the applied
compression load condition allows a higher stress level
of 6 %. Owing to the high alloy content and the uniform
segregation-free fine phase distribution, the fatigue
strength drop between room temperature and 150 C
stays surprisingly moderate. Therefore this alloy has a
high potential for oscillating load applications at
elevated temperatures e.g. for connecting rods [10].

Figure 10: Effect of mean stress to the endurance limit

of ductile materials [6, 11, 12]
Test results subjected to repeated and static load of
aluminium alloys for cylinder head die castings [6] are
shown in Fig. 10, together with a nanostructured high
strength powder metallurgy aluminium alloy [11, 12].
The permissible stress amplitudes decreases with
greater mean stresses according to the Goodman
straight line for fatigue behaviour of partly brittle
materials. The PLM aluminium alloy MS-N4 is a new
high performance Al-Ni-Fe based alloy, which has
been developed by applying melt spinning technology
on an industrial scale and downstream processing via
HIP and hot extrusion. The material has a nanocrystalline microstructure with an excellent thermal
stability up to 400C. A plot of the summarized results
of all the tests on smooth polished specimens of the
MS-N4 material performed under axial loads with
various combinations of alternating and mean stresses
at room temperature and elevated temperatures is
shown in Fig. 11. Note the small reduction of fatigue
strength due to temperature. This alloy shows superior
static and dynamic mechanical properties without any
additional heat treatment. This leads to new engine
applications for nanostructured P/M Al alloys like
tappets, lightweight valves, pistons compressor wheels,
etc. [11, 12].

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diagram and the probability plots for the range of finite

life (high cycle fatigue regime) and the transition range
to infinite endurance is shown in Fig. 13. The
illustration demonstrates the statistical nature of fatigue
data by the experimental scatter inherent to fatigue
testing.

Figure 11: Influence of temperature on fatigue strength

on a nanostructured high strength powder metallurgy
aluminium alloy in the Haigh diagram [11, 12]

Figure 13: Statistical evaluation of fatigue tests with the

SAFD software, S-N diagram (top), probability plots for
the HCF-regime (center) and long life fatigue region
(bottom)

Figure 12: Features of the evaluation software SAFD

developed by IWM
All fatigue test data handled in this work were statistical
evaluated using the Software SAFD (Statistical
Analysis of Fatigue Data) [13, 14], Fig. 12. The samples
of component fatigue tests or the samples of material
fatigue tests as well as stored and reloaded samplings of
a fatigue data base can be evaluated to S-N lines. This
software works in an efficient and practice oriented
manner. A complete analysis example for a fatigue test
case of figure 11, stress ratio R = 2,3 at elevated
temperature of 250 C, in form of the resulting S-N

5. COMPONENT TESTING
STRESS CONDITIONS

UNDER

MEAN

With specially designed fixtures different components

can be adapted to resonance machines to test their
strength limits in the vicinity of the service loads.
Several typical component applications are shown in
Fig. 14.

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[4]

[5]

[6]

Figure 14: Examples of component test applications

under typical static load conditions
[7]

6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Resonance fatigue testing machines are comparably
inexpensive, fast and reliable equipment for high
numbers of cycles at very moderate energy
consumptions. The loading modes can be plane
bending, torsion or axial in nature with or without
superimposed mean stresses. Under axial conditions the
mean stresses can be positive and negative. This way,
resonance machines are mainly used to characterise the
performance of materials under cyclic loading. In many
simpler loading situations also components can be
realistically tested under accelerated conditions to gain
an overview of the behaviour when exposed to cyclic
service.

[8]

[9]

[10]

Examples are given under axial load for different

material responses to mean stresses. Metallic materials
with limited ductility, e.g. grey cast iron, exhibit a
progressively increasing endurable stress amplitude
with decreasing mean stresses. Many more ductile
engineering materials, like low alloy steels or wrought
aluminium alloys, show a degressive slope in Haigh
diagrams or can even lose endurable stress amplitude
with higher compressive mean stresses, which is to say
that this material group has superior cyclic load bearing
capacity at positive mean stresses than the first group.
And, thirdly, there are intermediate cases with a more or
less linear relationship between endurable amplitude
and mean stress, e.g. extremely alloyed nanostructured
aluminium alloys or cast aluminium.

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

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