NOTCH SENSITIVITY - Some materials are not fully sensitive to the presence of notches so for these a reduced value

of Kt can be used . max = Kf o where Kf is a reduced value of Kt and o is the nominal stress. The factor Kf is called fatigue stress concentration factor . Kf=max stress in notched specimen/ stress in notch free specimen

Notch sensitivity q is defined by the equation q=Kf-1/Kt-1 or Kfs-1/Kts-1=q shear q lies between 0 and 1 . If q=0, then Kf=1 the material has no sensitivity to notches at all . If q=1 then Kf=Kt the material has full sensitivity . For design , find Kt first . Then specify the material , find q and solve for Kf.

* It is always safe to use Kf=Kt if there is any doubt about the true value of q . *For large notch radii , q is not far from unity . * for cast iron , q = 0 to 0.2 q=0.2 can be used for all grades of cast iron .

Fatigue failures are influenced by (i) Nature and magnitude of the stress cycle. (ii) Endurance limit. (iii) Stress concentration. (iv) Surface characteristics.
These factors are therefore interdependent. For example, by grinding and polishing, case hardening or coating a surface, the endurance limit may be improved. For machined steel endurance limit is approximately half the ultimate tensile stress.

The S-N curve In high-cycle fatigue situations, materials performance is commonly characterised by an S-N curve, also known as a Whler curve . This is a graph of the magnitude of a cyclic stress (S) against the logarithmic scale of cycles to failure (N).

S-N curves are derived from tests on samples of the material to be characterised (often called coupons) where a regular sinusoidal stress is applied by a testing machine which also counts the number of cycles to failure. This process is sometimes known as coupon testing. Each coupon test generates a point on the plot though in some cases there is a runout where the time to failure exceeds that available for the test. Analysis of fatigue data requires techniques from statistics, especially survival analysis and linear regression.