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FATIGUE
Fatigue is a form of failure that occurs in structures subjected to dynamic and fluctuating stresses (e.g., bridges, aircraft, and machine components). Under these circumstances it is possible for failure to occur at a stress level considerably lower than the tensile or yield strength for a static load. The term fatigue is used because this type of failure normally occurs after a lengthy period of repeated stress or strain cycling. Fatigue is important inasmuch as it is the single largest cause of failure in metals, estimated to comprise approximately 90% of all metallic failures; polymers and ceramics (except for glasses) are also susceptible to this type of failure. Furthermore, fatigue is catastrophic and insidious, occurring very suddenly and without warning. Fatigue must be considered in the design of many parts subject to cycles of stress such as motor shafts, bolts, springs, and gas-engine parts, wire rope, car axles and many machine parts subjected to cyclic loading. The stress at which a metal fails by fatigue is herein termed the Fatigue strength. It has been found that for most materials there is a limiting stress below which a load may be repeatedly applied an indefinitely large number of times without causing failure. This limiting stress is called the Endurance limit

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Cyclic Stresses
The applied stress may be axial (tension-compression), flexural (bending), or torsional (twisting) in nature. In general, three different fluctuating stresstime modes are possible.

Fig.1Variation of stress with time that accounts for fatigue failures

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One is represented schematically by a regular and sinusoidal time dependence in Fig.1a, wherein the amplitude is symmetrical about a mean zero stress level, for example, alternating from a maximum tensile stress to a minimum compressive stress (min) of equal magnitude; this is referred to as a reversed stress cycle (max). Another type, termed repeated stress cycle, is illustrated in Fig.1b; the maxima and minima are asymmetrical relative to the zero stress level. Finally, the stress level may vary randomly in amplitude and frequency, as exemplified in Fig.1c. Also indicated in Fig.1b are several parameters used to characterize the fluctuating stress cycle. The stress amplitude alternates about a mean stress m defined as the average of the maximum and minimum stresses in the cycle, or

Furthermore, the range of stress r is just the difference between max and min namely,

Stress amplitude a is just one half of this range of stress, or

Finally, the stress ratio R is just the ratio of minimum and maximum stress amplitudes:

By convention, tensile stresses are positive and compressive stresses are negative. For example, for the reversed stress cycle, the value of R is -1

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Machine for Fatigue Tests

Machines for making fatigue tests under cycles of repeated or reversed stress may be classified according to the type of stress produced: 1. 2. 3. 4. Machine for cycles of axial stress (tension, compression) Machines foe cycles of flexural stress Machine for cycle of torsional shearing stress Universal machines for axial, flexural, or torsional shearing stresses or combinations thereof

All repeated stress testing machines must be provided with a means for applying load to a specimen and with a means for measuring the load. Also, there must be provided a counter for recording the number of cycles applied and some device that, when the specimen breaks, automatically disengages the counter. Frequently the disengaging device is also designed to stop the testing machine itself. Machines for applying flexural stresses are the most common. The popularity of this type of machine is due to its simplicity of operation, the accuracy with which it can be calibrated, and the fact that it produces a common condition of stress. Flexural testing machines are generally of the rotating beam type, one example of which is shown in fig. 2

Fig. 2 One type of rotating beam reversed stress testing machine

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For this machine a specimen (fig. 3) is held at its ends in special holders, and loaded through two bearings equidistant from the center of the span. Equal loads on these two bearing are applied by means of weights that produce a uniform bending moment in the specimen between the two loaded bearings.

Fig. 3 Specimen for rotating beam test To applying cycles of stress the specimen is rotated by a motor; since the upper fibers of the rotated beams are always in compression while the lower fibers are in tension, it is apparent that a complete cycle of reversed stress in all fibers of the beam is produced during each revolution. Two types of testing machines are in use in which a cantilever specimen carries a load at its free end. In one type, the specimen is rotated while a gravity load is applied to the free end. In another, a bearing plane normal to the longitudinal axis of the specimen; thus the latter is deflected, and the spring rotates around it, cycles of reversed stress are produced.

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Test Procedure
A number of standard test specimens are made from the metal under test. The first specimen is tested at a high value of load. The number of revolutions the specimen experiences before fracturing is noted on the counter. Another specimen is fixed in the machine and this time, the load is slightly decreased. The number of revolutions that are indicated in the counter this time will be more than that in the previous case. The other specimens are also broken one after the other, each time reducing the load, and noting the number of revolutions. The procedure is continued until a value of stress is reached when the specimen does not fail; say even after 10 million revolutions.

Fig. 4 Stress distribution in cantilever loaded and rotated When the specimen is rigidly fixed at one end and loaded at the other, it bends. In such conditions, the top half of the layers in the specimen experience a sort of a stretching action while those in the bottom half experience compression.

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Once the specimen turns half a revolution, it literally comes into an upside down position with respect to its initial conditions. In such a condition the stress distribution in the specimen also changes exactly in an opposite fashion. That is, those regions which were under tension become compressed and vice versa. Further rotation through 360o brings the specimen back to its initial position. Thus, during one complete revolution, the stresses in the specimen are completely reversed once. Its means that, by measuring the number of revolutions the specimen is subjected to before failure, we actually measure the number of reversal of the load. From the data thus obtained, the stress, number of reversals of the stress diagram, commonly referred to as the S-N diagram, is plotted.

The S-N Curve

The stress value is plotted on the Y-axis and the number of reversals of the load, taken on a logarithmic scale, on the X-axis. The stress value, at which the curve becomes nearly horizontal, is taken to be the endurance limit of the metal. Two distinct types of S-N behavior are observed, which are represented schematically in Fig.5. As these plots indicate, the higher the magnitude of the stress, the smaller the number of cycles the material is capable of sustaining before failure. For some ferrous (iron base) and titanium alloys, the S-N curve (Fig. 5a) becomes horizontal at higher N values; or there is a limiting stress level, called the fatigue limit (also sometimes the endurance limit), below which fatigue failure will not occur. For many steels, fatigue limits range between 35% and 60% of the tensile strength. Most nonferrous alloys (e.g., aluminum, copper, magnesium) do not have a fatigue limit; in that the S-N curve continues its downward trend at increasingly greater N values (Fig.5b). Thus, fatigue will ultimately occur regardless of the magnitude of the stress. For these materials, the fatigue response is specified as fatigue strength, which is

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defined as the stress level at which failure will occur for some specified number of cycles (e.g. 107 cycles).

Fig. 5 Stress amplitude (S) versus logarithm of the number of cycles to fatigue failure (N) for (a) a material that displays a fatigue limit, and (b) a material that does not display a fatigue limit

Fig. 6 Typical SN diagrams for determining endurance limit of metals under reversed flexural stress

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Theories
There are many theories explaining the fatigue phenomena. But not one of them is totally comprehensive and conclusive. However, failure due to the building up of the slip line at a particular region appears to be a reasonable proposition.

Orowans Theroy
Commercial metals are composed of aggregations of small crystals with random orientations. The crystals themselves are usually non-isotropic. Experiments indicated that some crystals in a stressed piece of metal reach their limit of elastic strain sooner than others, owing to their unfavorable orientation, which permits slip to occur. Also, the distribution of stress from crystal to crystal within a piece of stressed metal is probably non-uniform, and when a piece is subjected to cyclic stress variation; the constituent particles tend to move slightly with respect to one another. This movement finally weaken, some minute element to such an extent that it ruptures. In the zone of failure a stress concentration develops, and with successively repetitions of stress the fracture spreads from this nucleus across the entire section. For this reason fatigue failures are referred to as progressive fractures. High localized stress is also developed at abrupt changes in cross section, at the base of surface scratches, at the root of screw thread, at the edge of small inclusions of foreign substances, and at a minute blowhole or similar internal defect. These are typical conditions which accentuate the susceptibility to failure by fatigue. Again when a crack is developed it become another weak region. The process repeats itself resulting in the formation of fresh cracks. These get aligned suitably and result in larger crack, leading to fracture.

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Woods Concept
When loaded, metals deform under conditions of slipping. When the load is reversed, the direction of slipping of the metal is also reversed. As a result there is every possibility for a notch to develop when the load reversal is repeated many times. This notch may be the root cause for the final fatigue failure. This theory sounds reasonably because it established that The fatigue failure starts from the surface, and The cracks initiate at the slip-band, intrusions and extrusions.

Fig. 7 Woods Concept

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Crack Initiation and Propagation

The process of fatigue failure is characterized by three distinct steps: 1. Crack initiation, wherein a small crack forms at some point of high stress concentration; 2. Crack propagation, during which this crack advances incrementally with each stress cycle; and 3. Final failure, which occurs very rapidly once the advancing crack, has reached a critical size. Crack nucleation sites include surface scratches, sharp fillets, keyways, threads, dents, and the like. In addition, cyclic loading can produce microscopic surface discontinuities resulting from dislocation slip steps that may also act as stress raisers, and therefore as crack initiation sites. The region of a fracture surface that formed during the crack propagation step may be characterized by two types of markings termed beachmarks and striations. Both of these features indicate the position of the crack tip at some point in time and appear as concentric ridges that expand away from the crack initiation site(s), frequently in a circular or semicircular pattern. Beachmarks (sometimes also called clamshell marks) are of macroscopic dimensions (Fig. 8), and may be observed with the unaided eye. Each beachmark band represents a period of time over which crack growth occurred.

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Fig.8 Fracture surface of a rotating axle that experienced fatigue failure. Beachmark ridges are visible in the photograph. On the other hand, fatigue striations are microscopic in size and subject to observation with the electron microscope (either TEM or SEM), as shown in Fig 9.

Fig.9 Transmission electron fractograph showing fatigue striations in aluminum

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Both beachmarks and striations are fatigue fracture surface features having similar appearances, they are nevertheless different, both in origin and size. There may be literally thousands of striations within a single beachmark. The presence of beachmarks and/or striations on a fracture surface confirms that the cause of failure was fatigue. Nevertheless, the absence of either or both does not exclude fatigue as the cause of failure. Beachmarks and striations will not appear on that region over which the rapid failure occurs. Rather, the rapid failure may be either ductile or brittle; evidence of plastic deformation will be present for ductile, and absent for brittle, failure. This region of failure may be noted in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 Fatigue failure surface

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Factors Which Affect Fatigue

A maximum tensile stress of sufficiently high value. A large enough variation or fluctuation in the applied stress. A sufficient large number of cycles of applied stress Other variables 1. Stress concentration, 2. Corrosion, 3. Temperature, 4. Over load, 5. Metallurgical structure, 6. Residual stresses, 7. Combined stresses, 8. Specimen size, 9. Form of the specimen (smooth or notched), 10.Chemical composition and 11.Method of fabrication.