Fatigue

Dr. K. Devendranath Ramkumar Associate Professor School of Mechanical & Building Sciences

Fatigue
Fatigue

is a phenomenon associated with variable loading or more precisely to cyclic stressing or straining of a material. An engineering structure is often subjected to the repeated application of a stress below its yield strength of the material. Fatigue failure is characterized by three stages

Crack Initiation Crack Propagation Final Fracture

Fundamentals of Fatigue
Fatigue failure is distinguished by three major features (a) Loss of Strength; (b) Loss of ductility; (c) Increased uncertainty in service life

Almost 90% of the metals/engineering components due to fatigue There are three common ways in which stresses may be applied: axial, torsional, and flexural. Examples of these are seen in Fig. 1.

Next few slides will give an insight of fatigue

VW crank shaft fatigue failure due to cyclic bending and torsional stresses

Propagation zone, striations

Crack initiation site

Fracture area

928 Porsche timing pulley

Crack started at the fillet

1.0-in. diameter steel pins from agricultural equipment. Material; AISI/SAE 4140 low allow carbon steel

Fracture surface of a failed bolt. The fracture surface exhibited beach marks, which is characteristic of a fatigue failure.

bicycle crank spider arm

This long term fatigue crack in a high quality component took a considerable time to nucleate from a machining mark between the spider arms on this highly stressed surface. However once initiated propagation was rapid and accelerating as shown in the increased spacing of the 'beach marks' on the surface caused by the advancing fatigue crack.
8

Gear tooth failure

Crank shaft

Cont
Under fluctuating / cyclic stresses, failure can occur at loads considerably lower than tensile or yield strengths of material under a static load: Fatigue Estimated to causes 90% of all failures of metallic structures (bridges, aircraft, machine components, etc.) Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic deformation) - even in normally ductile materials. Thus sudden and catastrophic! ASM Definition of Fatigue The process of progressive, localized, permanent structural changes occurring in a material subjected to conditions that produce fluctuating stresses at some point or points and that may culminate in cracks or complete fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations

Cont

Fatigue failure proceeds in three distinct stages:

Crack initiation in the areas of stress concentration (near stress raisers), Incremental crack propagation, and Final catastrophic failure

It is a common phenomenon in load bearing components in cars, air planes, turbine blades, springs, crankshafts that are subjected constantly to repetitive stresses in the form of tension

max

min

Time

Fatigue Failure- Mechanism

A fatigue failure begins with a small crack; the initial crack may be so minute and can not be detected. The crack usually develops at a point of localized stress concentration like discontinuity in the material, such as a change in cross section, a keyway or a hole. Once a crack is initiated, the stress concentration effect become greater and the crack propagates. Consequently the stressed area decreases in size, the stress increase in magnitude and the crack propagates more rapidly. Until finally, the remaining area is unable to sustain the load and the component fails suddenly. Thus fatigue loading results in sudden, unwarned failure.

Fatigue Failure Modes

Crack Initiation The initial crack occurs in this stage. The crack may be caused by surface scratches caused by handling, or tooling of the material; threads (as in a screw or bolt); Slip bands or dislocations intersecting the surface as a result of previous cyclic loading or work hardening. Crack Propagation: This further increases the stress levels and the process continues, propagating the cracks across the grains or along the grain boundaries, slowly increasing the crack size. As the size of the crack increases, the cross sectional area resisting the applied stress decreases and reaches a threshold level at which it is insufficient to resist the applied stress. Failure Failure occurs when the material that has not been affected by the crack cannot withstand the applied stress. This stage happens very quickly

Fatigue Test

Typical testing apparatus, pure bending

Mot or

Loa d

Rotating beam machine applies fully reverse bending stress

Fatigue Test Procedure

A method for determining the behavior of materials under fluctuating loads. A specified mean load (which may be zero) and an alternating load are applied to a specimen and the number of cycles required to produce failure (fatigue life) is recorded. Generally, the test is repeated with identical specimens and various fluctuating loads. Loads may be applied axially, in torsion, or in flexure. Depending on amplitude of the mean and cyclic load, net stress in the specimen may be in one direction through the loading cycle, or may reverse direction. Data from fatigue testing often are presented in an S-N diagram which is a plot of the number of cycles required to cause failure in a specimen against the amplitude of the cyclical stress developed. The cyclical stress represented may be stress amplitude, maximum stress or minimum stress. Each curve in the diagram represents a constant mean stress.

S-N Curve (Stress Vs No. of Cycles)

Cont
SN Curve implies if a metal is only loaded to stress which is below its endurance limit, no matter how many times, the stress is repeated or reversed, the material will not fail. Endurance Limit Se, for the stress below which failure never occurs, even for an indefinitely large number of loading cycles or the limit up to which the material can withstand cyclic loads Many non-ferrous metals and alloys, such as aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloys, do not exhibit well-defined endurance limits. The reason may be the absence of dislocation pinning solutes (as in case of Al alloys). These materials instead display a continuously decreasing S-N response In such cases a fatigue strength Sf for a given number of cycles must be specified. An effective endurance limit for these materials is sometimes defined as the stress that causes failure at 1x108 or 5x108 loading cycles.

Some more details

Fatigue Strength - Magnitude of fluctuating stress required to cause failure in a fatigue test specimen after a specified number of cycles of loading (Say 107 ). Usually determined directly from the S-N diagram Other features of a fatigue fracture are Beachmarks and Striations. Beachmarks, or clamshell marks, may be seen in fatigue failures of materials that are used for a period of time, allowed to rest for an equivalent time period and the loaded again as in factory usage. .

Types of Fatigue

Low-cycle fatigue - involves large cycles with significant amounts of plastic deformation and relatively short life High-cycle fatigue - where stresses and strains are largely confined to the elastic region. High-cycle fatigue is associated with low loads and long life While low-cycle fatigue is typically associated with fatigue life between 10 to 1,00,000 cycles, high-cycle fatigue is associated with life greater than 1,00,000 cycles.

Low Cycle Fatigue

LCF failures typically result from flaws in the material (impurities or voids), poor or inconsistent manufacturing processes, complex geometries (bolt holes, scallops, blade slots, etc.) that create high stress regions (hot spots) on the component, and wear between components. However, even perfect" components have a finite life. They becomr fatigue in operational heat and stress environments, and after a certain number of cycles they fail.

Variables Affecting Fatigue

Stress

concentration Corrosion (Environment) Temperature Overload Metallurgical structure (Microstructure) Residual stress (shot peening, presetting) Combined stress Surface condition

Fracture Surface Characteristics

Mode of fracture
Ductile

Typical surface characteristics

Cup and Cone Dimples Dull Surface Inclusion at the bottom of the dimple Shiny Grain Boundary cracking Shiny Cleavage fractures Flat Beachmarks Striations (SEM) Initiation sites Propagation zone Final fracture zone

Brittle Intergranular

Brittle Transgranular

Fatigue