International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Further investigation of Neubers rule and the equivalent strain

energy density (ESED) method
Duyi Ye a,b,
, Saburo Matsuoka a, Naoyuki Suzuki a, Yosho Maeda a
a

Materials Reliability Group, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1, Sengen, Tsukuba-Shi, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan
b
Department of Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Received 10 May 2003; received in revised form 9 September 2003; accepted 20 October 2003

Abstract
On the basis of the analysis of energy of elastic-plastic body subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading, a physical relationship
between Neuber s rule and the equivalent strain energy density (ESED) method is found. It is shown that Neubers rule is actually a particular case of ESED method, namely when the dissipation of the plastic strain energy at the notch root is neglected in
ESED method. The reason for the overestimation of the local strains using Neubers rule is thus explained essentially and the
physical meaning of ESED method in both monotonic and cyclic form is further dened. In terms of the real physical behavior
occurring at the notch root during cyclic plastic deformation, a modied version of ESED method, in which only the heat energy
is considered as a dissipation and the stored energy is regarded as a contribution to local stress and strain ranges, has been
developed in this paper. It is shown that, for the case of cyclic loading, the modied ESED method further improves the accuracy
of the original ESED method in prediction of the nonlinear stress/strain behavior of notches. It is also shown that the relation
developed in this paper can easily be used for a simulation of the local strain-stress history near a notch root.
# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Local stress and strain; Neubers rule; The equivalent strain energy density (ESED) method; Energy dissipation; Cyclic loading

1. Introduction
Fatigue life prediction of notched components in
complex service conditions requires the local stressstrain history of a material element at the notch root to
be known. Although accurate calculations of these
strains are not intractable, they are dicult and lengthy
especially for a long arbitrary cyclic loading history.
Therefore, approximate methods are widely used in
engineering practice. So far, a few approximate methods [18] for description of the nonlinear stress/strain
behaviour of notches have been developed. Among
these, the most popular and frequently used relations
are Neubers rule and its modied version [14].
Another frequently used relation is the equivalent
strain energy density (ESED) method proposed by
Molski and Glinka [5], Glinka [6,7] and Ellyin and


Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-0298-2511; fax: +81-0298-592501.
E-mail address: duyi.ye@nims.go.jp (D. Ye).

0142-1123/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2003.10.002

Kujawski [8]. During the last two decades, considerable

eort [513] has been devoted to the evaluation of the
predictive capacity of Neubers rule and ESED method
in notch strain analysis for various notch geometries,
materials and types of load. It has been found that in
the case of elastic range both Neubers rule and ESED
method get the same estimation of the local strains,
whereas in the case of elastic-plastic range, Neubers
rule normally overestimates the notch root strains,
while ESED method tends to underestimate the notch
root strains. Molski and Glinka [5] gave out a qualitative relationship between Neubers rule and ESED
method by the aid of graphical interpretation, but did
not further establish the physical relationship between
these two methods in a quantitatively accurate way.
The latter will be of important meaning to substantially
evaluate the predictive capability of Neubers rule and
ESED method as well as to seek for a further improvement of these approximate methods in practical application.

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D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

Nomenclature
E
K
K0
Kr
S
r
ee
WS
Wr
Wp
Ws
Wq
DS
Dr
Dee
WDS
WDr
DWp
DWs
DWq
n
n0
Kt
Ke
e
e
ep
De
De
Dep

modulus of elasticity
strength coecient
cyclic strength coecient
elastic-plastic stress concentration factor
nominal stress
local stress
local elastic strain
strain energy density due to the nominal stress S
strain energy density due to the local elastic-plastic stress-strain eld
plastic strain energy per unit volume in monotonic loading
stored energy per unit volume in monotonic loading
heat energy dissipated per unit volume in monotonic loading
nominal stress range
local stress range
local elastic strain range
strain energy density due to the nominal stress range DS
strain energy density due to the local cyclic elastic-plastic stress-strain eld
plastic strain energy per unit volume in cyclic loading
stored energy per unit volume in cyclic loading
heat energy dissipated per unit volume in cyclic loading
strain hardening exponent
cyclic strain hardening exponent
theoretical elastic stress concentration factor
elastic-plastic strain concentration factor
nominal strain
local strain
local plastic strain
nominal strain range
local strain range
local plastic strain range

In this paper, an inherent relationship between Neubers rule and ESED method is found on the basis of the
analysis of energy of elastic-plastic body subjected to
monotonic and cyclic loading. The physical meaning of
these two methods is then analyzed in a quantitative
way. In terms of the real physical behavior occurring at
the notch root during cyclic plastic deformation, a
modied version of ESED method, in which only the
heat energy is considered as a dissipation and the stored
energy is regarded as a contribution to local stress and
strain ranges, has been developed for the case of cyclic
loading. The predictive capacity of the modied ESED
method is further examined for several dierent materials and notches in the case of cyclic loading.
2. Analysis of energy of elastic-plastic body
subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading
Consider the monotonic tension deformation of an
elastic-plastic body (Fig. 1). Loading occurs along the

segment OAB and unloading corresponds to the line

BC. The area OABC represents the plastic strain
energy lost in monotonic tension deformation. The
plastic strain energy per unit volume is easily obtained
in terms of integrating area OABC, i.e.
e
1
1
Wp rde  ree
2
0
where Wp denotes the plastic strain energy, r and e are
the true stress and strain, respectively, and ee the elastic
part of the total strain.
It has been experimentally proven that, when a metallic specimen is deformed plastically, the bulk of the
irreversible plastic strain energy is dissipated in the
form of heat and the remaining part of it is consumed
by the change in the materials stored energy [14]. The
stored energy is mainly associated with residual stresses
generated in the metal after unloading [14,15]. A
method for the calculation of the stored energy from
the true stress-strain curve of an elastic-plastic body

D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

Fig. 1. Stored energy and plastic strain energy expended during

monotonic loading.

has been developed by Aravas, et al.[15], as shown in

Fig. 1 by the shaded area. Thus the stored energy Ws
can be expressed as
r
1
2
Ws edr  ree
2
0
The heat energy Wq dissipated during monotonic
tension deformation can be obtained according to the
First Law of Thermodynamics [16]
Wq Wp  W s

For monotonic loading, the material stress-strain

response can be described by the well-known RambergOsgood equation [14]
e ee ep r=E r=K 1=n

449

Fig. 2. Stored energy and plastic strain energy expended during cyclic loading.

Eq. (3) in conjunction with Eqs. (5) and (6)

1n
rep
7
1n
We now consider the generalized stress-strain
response of an elastic-plastic body subjected to a cyclic
loading (Fig. 2). The branches of the loading path
O0 AO00 in Fig. 2 are generally assumed to have the
similar shape with the unloading path O00 CO0 . Thus the
relations for the loading case can also be applied for
the unloading case when the origin of the coordinate
system for unloading path is placed at O00 . The plastic
strain hysteresis energy per cycle, namely the area
enclosed by the loop O0 AO00 CO0 , can be given in terms
of Fig. 2 [17]
Dr
8
DWp DrDe  2 e0 dr0

W q Wp  Ws

where ee and ep are the elastic and plastic part of the

total strain e, respectively, E is the elastic modulus and
K and n are the strength coecient and the strain
hardening exponent, respectively.
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eqs. (1) and (2), respectively, gives
Wp

1
rep
1n

n
rep
1n

and
Ws

Thus heat energy Wq can be further given from

where DWp denotes the plastic strain hysteresis energy

and Dr and De are the true stress and strain ranges,
respectively.
It is indicated that, during one loading cycle, the
hysteresis energy is mainly transformed into heat
energy, and a very small part of it into stored energy
[14]. Moreover, in each closed loop only the tension
half-cycle value of the stored energy is conserved [18].
The stored energy DWs in one cyclic loading, shown in
Fig. 2 by the shaded area, can thus be expressed as
Dr
1
e0 dr0  DrDee
9
DWs
2
0
where Dee is the elastic part of the total strain range De.

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D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

The heat energy DWq dissipated in one loading cycle

can also be obtained according to the First Law of
Thermodynamics [16]
DWq DWp  DWs

10

If the material subjected to cyclic loading exhibits

Masing-type behavior, the relation between stress and
strain ranges can be described by Morrows equation
[14],

 0
De Dee Dep Dr
Dr 1=n

11
2
2E
2K 0
2
2
where Dee and Dep are the elastic and plastic part of the
total strain range De, respectively, E is the elastic
modulus and K 0 and n0 are the cyclic strength coefcient and the cyclic strain hardening exponent,
respectively.
Using relationship (11), Eqs. (8) and (9) can further
be written in the following forms
DWp

1  n0
DrDep
1 n0

12

n0
DrDep
13
1 n0
Thus the heat energy DWq dissipated in one loading
cycle is easily obtained by subtracting Eqs. (12) and
(13) from Eq. (10)
DWs

DWq

1  2n0
DrDep
1 n0

14

3. A physical relationship between Neubers rule and

ESED method
3.1. Neubers rule and ESED method
Neuber rule was initially derived in the case of antiplane shearing [1]. On the basis of experimental
measurement of strain at the notch root, it is further
found that Neubers rule is of more general validity
and can also be used for other types of loading [2]. In
the case of simple uniaxial tension, Neubers rule can
be written in the following general form
Kt2 Kr Ke

15

where Kt is the theoretical (elastic) stress concentration

factor, Kr r=S and Ke e=e are the stress and strain
concentration factor, respectively, where S and e are
the nominal remote stress and strain, and r and e are
the local stress and strain at the notch root.
Consequently, Neubers rule can also be written by
the following alternative form
Kt2 Se re

16

Assuming the elastic stress and strain remote from a

notch and using Eq. (4), Eq. (16) is further written by
 r 1=n
Kt S2 r2

r
17
K
E
E
Given the geometry Kt , material properties E, K and
n, and the applied nominal stress S, the local stress r
and strain e can be solved by combining Eq. (17) with
Eq. (4).
For the case of cyclic loading, Eq. (16) was modied
by Topper et al.[14] and was used to relate the nominal
remote stress and strain ranges DS and De to the product of the local (notch) stress and strain ranges Dr
and De. Neubers rule in the cyclic form can thus be
written in the form
Kt2 DSDe DrDe

18

When the nominal stress range is in the elastic

region, the above equation can be written, by expressing the local strain range with Morrows Eq. (11), in
the following form,

 0
Kt DS2 Dr2 Dr Dr 1=n

19
2 2K 0
4E
4E
The solution for Dr and De at a notch root can be
obtained from Eq. (19) in combination with Eq. (11)
when the theoretical stress concentration factor Kt and
the applied nominal stress range DS are given.
Based on the assumption that the strain energy density distribution in the plastic zone ahead of a notch tip
is the same as that determined on the basis of the pure
elastic stress-strain solution, Molski, Glinka et al.[57]
developed a similar local elastic-plastic stress and strain
calculation method called the equivalent strain energy
density (ESED) method. In the case of monotonic
loading and uniaxial stress condition at the notch root,
ESED method can be expressed in the form
Kt2 WS Wr

20

where Wr is the strain energy per unit volume due to

e
local stress and strain at the notch root, Wr 0 rde,
and WS is the strain energy per unit volume due to the
e
nominal remote stress, WS 0 Sde.
Assuming the elastic stress and strain behavior away
from the notch, namely WS 12 Se, Eq. (20) is further
written by
Kt2 Se 2Wr

21

In the presence of localized yielding at the notch tip,

the strain energy density Wr in Eq. (20) should be calculated in respect to relation (4) and Eq. (21) takes the
form
Kt S2 r2
2r  r 1=n

22
E
E n1 K

D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

Thus, for a given nominal stress S and theoretical

stress concentration Kt , the local stress r and the local
strain e at the notch root can be calculated by combining Eq. (22) with (4).
In the case of cyclic loading, the variables r, e and S,
e in Eq. (20) or Eq. (21) should be replaced by representative ranges Dr, De and DS, De [5]. Assuming the
elastic stress and strain ranges remote from a notch,
ESED method in the cyclic form can be written, from
Eq. (21), as follows
Kt2 DSDe

2WDr

23

Using Morrows equation Eq. (11) to express the

local strain range, Eq. (23) can be nally written in the
following form,

 0
Kt DS2 Dr2
Dr
Dr 1=n

0
24
n 1 2K 0
4E
4E
Combining Eq. (23) with Eq. (11) makes it possible
to calculate the local stress and strain ranges Dr and De
at the notch tip for a given nominal stress range DS
and theoretical stress concentration Kt .
3.2. A physical relationship between Neubers rule and
ESED method
Molski and Glinka [5] gave out a relationship
between Neubers rule and ESED method in a qualitative way by the aid of the graphical interpretation, as
shown in Fig. 3. It is easily obtained that, in the case of
elastic range, the local strains and stresses calculated
according to Neubers rule are equal to those according
to ESED method (Fig. 3(a)), while in the case of localized plasticity the local strains and stresses calculated
according to Neubers rule are always higher than

Fig. 3.

451

those according to ESED method (Fig. 3(b)). The

above graphical interpretation, however, did not further give out the physical relationship between Neubers rule and ESED relation in a quantitatively
accurate way.
In fact, according to Fig. 1, the strain energy density
Wr in Eq. (21) can also be expressed in the following
an alternative form
Wr

1
1
re rep  Ws
2
2

25

Using Eqs. (4) and (6), Eq. (25) can further be written by
Wr

1
1n
re
rep
2
21 n

26

Substituting Eq. (26) into Eq. (21), we obtain

Kt2 Se re

1n
rep
1n

27

Notice that the second term on the right hand side of

Eq. (27) is just the heat energy dissipated in monotonic
tension deformation process as presented in Eq. (7).
Thus Eq. (27) can also be written by
Kt2 Se re Wq

28

Eq. (28) is an alternative expression form of ESED

method in monotonic loading, namely Eq. (21). The
meaning of Eq. (28) can be explained as that the theoretical work Kt2 Se applied to the material element at the
notch root due to the nominal remote stress is transformed into the real total strain energy (sum of the
strain energy and complementary strain energy) re
absorbed by the material element at the notch root and

Graphical interpretation of Neubers rule and ESED method.

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D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

the heat energy Wq dissipated at the notch root during

plastic deformation.
Comparing ESED method Eq. (28) with Neubers
rule Eq. (16), we may easily nd that ESED method
yields Neubers rule when Wq in Eq. (28) equals zero.
In other words, Neubers rule is actually a particular
case of ESED method, namely when the dissipation of
the heat energy in ESED method is neglected. Since the
heat dissipation occurs unavoidably accompanied by
the plastic deformation at the notch root, i.e. Wq in
Eq. (28) is always larger than zero, Neubers rule will
inevitably overestimate the local stresses and strains in
the presence of localized plastic yielding at the notch
tip, which has been indicated by a great number of previous experimental results [57]. On the other hand, we
may also conclude from the above analysis that ESED
method well reveals the real physical behavior occurring at the notch root during plastic deformation. In
addition, in terms of the energy balance criteria [14], it
is also easily inferred from Eq. (28) that the stored
energy has been considered as a contribution to local
stress and strain at the notch root in ESED method.
We now try to establish the physical relationship
between Neubers rule and ESED method in the case
of cyclic loading. For a fully reversed cyclic loading
(Fig. 2), the term on the right hand side of Eq. (23) can
also be expressed as the sum of strain energy density
O0 AO00
for the loading path O0 AO00 with origin placed
WDr
O00 CO0
at O0 and strain energy density WDr
for the reversed
00
0
path O CO with origin placed at O00 , namely
O0 AO00
O00 CO0
O0 AO00
O00 CO0
2WDr WDr
WDr
, where WDr
WDr
.
Thus, from Eq. (23), one gets
0

00

00

O AO
O CO
WDr
29
Kt2 DSDe WDr

De
De
O0 AO00
O00 CO0
where WDr
0 r0 de0 and WDr
0 r00 de00 .
Using the strain energy interpretation shown in
Fig. 2, the above equation can be easily rewritten by

Kt2 DSDe DrDe DWp

30

where DWp is the plastic strain hysteresis energy per

cycle (area of the hysteresis loop O0 AO00 CO0 ).
Eq. (30) is an alternative expression form of ESED
method in the case of cyclic loading, i.e. Eq. (23). The
meaning of Eq. (30) can also be explained as that the
theoretical work Kt2 DSDe applied to the material
element at the notch root due to the nominal remote
stress range is transformed into the real total strain
energy (sum of the strain energy and complementary
strain energy) DrDe absorbed by the material element
at the notch root and the hysteresis energy DWp dissipated at the notch root during cyclic plastic deformation.
It is also easily obtained, by comparing ESED
method Eq. (30) with Neubers rule Eq. (18), that

ESED method yields Neubers rule when DWp in

Eq. (30) equals zero. In other words, Neubers rule in
cyclic form is also a particular case of ESED method
in cyclic form, namely when the plastic strain hysteresis
energy in ESED method is neglected. Since the hysteresis energy unavoidably dissipates accompanied by the
cyclic plastic deformation at the notch root, i.e. DWp in
Eq. (30) is always greater than zero in the case of the
localized cyclic plasticity at the notch tip, Neuber rule
will inevitably overestimates the notch stress and strain
ranges in low cycle fatigue, as indicated by a great
number of the measured results [57].
It has been pointed out previously that, during cyclic
plastic deformation, most of the hysterises energy is
converted into heat energy dissipated and the remainder is stored in the material as the stored energy that is
associated with the residual stress generated in the
metal after unloading. In other words, only one part of
DWp in Eq. (30), i.e. DWq , dissipates accompanied by
the cyclic plastic deformation at the notch root and the
reminder part of DWp , i.e. DWs , will contribute to the
local stress and strain ranges at the notch root. This
analysis implies that Eq. (30) may low-estimate the real
local stress and strain ranges as a result of the fact that
the whole plastic strain hysteresis energy has been considered as the dissipation in this relation. Therefore, a
modied version of ESED method in which only the
heat energy is considered as a dissipation and the
stored energy is regarded as a contribution to local
stress and strain ranges, can be developed on the basis
of Eq. (30), that is
Kt2 DSDe DrDe DWq

31

It follows, by comparing Eq. (31) with Eq. (28), that

the physical meaning of the modied ESED method in
cyclic form becomes accordance with that of the ESED
method in monotonic form. Generally, in the presence
of cyclic plastic yielding at the notch tip, there exists
0 < DWq < DWp , thus the local stress and strain ranges
calculated according to modied ESED method
Eq. (31) will be greater than those according to ESED
method Eq. (30) and less than those calculated according to Neubers rule Eq. (18).
Using Morrow stress-strain relation (11) and the
expression of the heat energy dissipated in one cycle,
Eq. (14), Eq. (31) can further be written by

1
Kt DS2 Dr2 2  n0 Dr Dr n0

32
21 n0 2K 0
4E
4E
Thus, for a given nominal stress range DS and theoretical stress concentration Kt , the local stress range Dr
and the local strain range De at the notch root can be
calculated by combining Eq. (32) with Eq. (11).

D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

4. Comparison of calculated and experimental data

For the case of monotonic loading, the comparisons
of the notch strains between the predictions of Neubers rule Eq. (17) and ESED method Eq. (22) and the
experimental data have been carried out for dierent
materials, notch geometries and types of load [5,6].
Thus, in this paper, the comparisons of the calculated
strains using Neubers rule Eq. (18), the original ESED
method Eq. (24) and the modied ESED method
Eq. (32) with the measured strains will only be conducted for the case of cyclic loading, in which the comparison will especially focus on the dierence of the
predictive accuracy of ESED method Eq. (24) and its
modied version Eq. (32).
Fig. 4 shows the plots of the calculated and measured local strain amplitude ea against the theoretical
notch stress amplitudes Kt Sa in the tip of a blunt notched compact specimen made of AISI 4340 steel [19]. It
is obvious from this gure that, for low values of Kt Sa ,
Neubers rule, ESED method and the modied ESED
method all gave results very close to the measured
strain amplitudes. For high Kt Sa values, both ESED
and the modied ESED method give good results even
for nominal stress amplitude Sa higher than the yield
strength ry , whereas Neubers rule obviously overestimates the local strain amplitudes. The agreement
between the modied ESED relation and the experiment is surprisingly good in almost the whole stress
range 0  Sa  ry . For e 0:018 the strain amplitudes
calculated using the modied ESED relation did not

Fig. 4. Theoretical and experimental local strain amplitudes in a

blunt notched compact tension specimen (AISI 4340 steel; Kt 2:63
[19]).

453

dier from the experimental value by more than 1%.

The strain amplitude calculated using ESED relation
was about 4% lower than the experimental strain
amplitude in this case.
Fig. 5 is the comparison of the local strain amplitudes calculated by the above three methods with those
measured for keyhole specimen made of Man-Ten steel
[20]. Similar results with those presented in Fig. 4 are
also observed in this gure, although a deviation of the
calculated strain amplitudes from the measured strain
amplitudes using ESED method and the modied
ESED method is found when the nominal stress amplitude Sa is greatly larger than the yielding strength ry .
For e 0:02 the dierence between the calculated and
measured strain amplitudes is smaller than 9% for the
modied ESED method and about 12% for ESED
method.
The strain amplitudes calculated using three approximate methods and those measured at the notch root of
the specimen made of AL 2024-T3 with a circular hole
[21] are shown in Fig. 6. Good results are also
observed using ESED method and the modied ESED
method in the case of lower values of Kt Sa . However,
underestimation of the local strain amplitudes for these
two methods and obvious overestimation of the local
strain amplitudes for Neubers rule are observed in the
case of the nominal stress amplitude Sa greatly larger
than the yielding strength ry . It is also easily obtained
from this gure that for AL 2024-T3 with very small
strain hardening exponent n0 n0 0:065, accordingly
with very small stored energy during cyclic plastic
deformation, the dierence of the calculated local

Fig. 5. Theoretical and experimental local strain amplitudes in a

keyhole notched specimen (Man-Ten steel; Kt 2:88 [20]).

454

D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

Fig. 6. Theoretical and experimental local strain amplitudes for a

specimen with a circular hole (Al 2024-T3 alloy; Kt 2:57[21]).

strain amplitudes between ESED method and the

modied ESED method is inappreciable.
Thus it follows from the above presented three cases
that the modied ESED method Eq. (32) gives a better
prediction of the local strain amplitude than the original version of ESED method Eq. (24), as a whole. In
other words, the modied ESED method developed in
this paper further improves the prediction accuracy of
the original ESED method.

5. Summary and conclusions

A physical relationship between Neubers rule and
the equivalent strain energy density (ESED) method in
both monotonic and cyclic form is established on the
basis of the analysis of the energy of the elastic-plastic
body subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. It is
shown that Neubers rule is actually a particular case
of ESED method, namely when the energy dissipated
at the notch root during plastic deformation process is
neglected in ESED method. The reason for the overestimation of local strains and stresses using Neubers
rule is thus explained essentially and the physical
meaning of ESED method in both monotonic and cyclic form is further dened. According to the real physical behavior occurring at the notch root during cyclic
plastic deformation, a modied version of ESED
method, in which only the heat energy is considered as
a dissipation and the stored energy is regarded as a
contribution to local stress and strain ranges, is
developed for the case of cyclic loading. The physical
meaning of the modied ESED method in cyclic form

becomes accordance with that of ESED method in

monotonic form. It is shown that, for the case of cyclic
loading, the modied ESED method predicts the local
strain amplitude more accurately than the use of the
original ESED method and Neubers rule. Since the
calculation of local stress and strain using the modied
ESED method needs the same amount of computation
time as the original ESED method, the relation
developed in this paper can be also acted as a replacement for the original ESED method in fatigue life predictions of notched components in engineering
application.
It should also be pointed out that, similar with the
original ESED method, the predictive accuracy of the
modied ESED method depends in general on
the extent of the plastic zone at the notch tip. It can be
expected that the smaller the plastic zone in the notch
tip, the more accurate is the relation. In addition, the
accuracy of the modied ESED method will depends
on the accuracy of the description of the hysteresis
loop or stress and strain curve. A Masing assumption
is generally adopted in the description of the hysteresis
loop in deriving this relation. This is correct when the
materials exhibits Masing type behaviour or approximate Masing type behaviour. Otherwise, some errors
will be produced in the calculation of the local stress
and strain amplitudes. The dierent accuracy between
the calculated stains and the measured values presented
in previous section for the dierent materials may be
more or less related with this description accuracy of
the hysteresis loop. Therefore, for the material exhibiting non-Masing property, the hysteresis loop curve in
Eq. (30) needs to be modied in terms of the approach
proposed by Jhansale and Topper [22]. All the calculations in this paper are carried out on the assumption of
uniaxial stress conditions at the notch root. It has been
proved that for moderate amounts of triaxiality or
biaxiality both elastic and inelastic strains can
be estimated with reasonable accuracy using uniaxial
stress-strain behaviour [57]. The comparisons of the
calculated strains with the measured strains presented
in this paper show that this assumption maybe reasonable for the present examined cases. However, when
the state of stress at the notch root is highly triaxial,
the modied ESED method Eq. (32) should be further
modied to the multiaxial stress state. In a limiting
case, i.e. plane strain, this modication can be carried
out by introducing Hencky ow rule and Misess yield
criterion into the uniaxial stress-strain relation [23].

Acknowledgements
The rst author would like to express his sincere
thanks to Dr. Akihiko OHTA, the former host
researcher of the rst author, who provided nancial

D. Ye et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 26 (2004) 447455

assistance through JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Thanks are also due to Dr. Lingxi Zhou for many
valuable discussions. The rst author wishes to
acknowledge the National Institute for Materials
Science (NIMS) of Japan for his appointment as a visiting researcher in Materials Reliability Group during
Feb. 1st, 2002 through Jan. 31st, 2004.

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