Advanced Materials Course

Tutorial Questions:
Metals Fatigue 1


We consider a part made of a steel with an ultimate tensile strength of 850 MPa. Experimental S-N
curves are given in Figure 1:

Figure 1: S-N curves

1. Repeated fatigue experiments at 400 MPa reversed stress amplitude yield a variance
s(ln N) = 1.1. After how many cycles have 95% of the specimen failed? (Assume that
the lifetimes are log-normal distributed)

2. Evaluate the mean lifetime under a repeated load with an amplitude of 500 MPa and
a mean tensile stress of 200 MPa. Use both the Goodman and Gerber rules, and an
interpolation of the S-N data of Figure 1, and compare the results.







1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Number of cycles, N
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

s
t
r
e
s
s

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
M
P
a
]

m
=-200MPa

m
=200 MPa

Under service conditions, the part is subject to irregular tensile/compressive loads as shown in
Figure 2.

Figure 2




















3) Perform a rainflow classification of the stress vs. time signal and determine the rainflow matrix.

4) After how many repetitions of the signal as given in Figure 2 is failure likely to occur? (Use the
Palmgren-Miner rule and base your calculation (a) on interpolation of the S-N data and (b) on the
Goodman rule.

5) Failure of axles in German ICE high-speed trains is attributed to fatigue associated with oscillating
loads during high-speed cruising. Assume that (1) fatigue lifetimes are Weibull distributed with
modulus 8; (2) the average lifetime of an axle (measured in service kilometres) is 2.2x10^6, (3) the
average annual kilometrage per train is 5x10^5. (3) Each train has 32 axles, the fleet consists of 67
trains.

Axle failure is preceded by subcritical crack growth. The average kilometrage for a detectable crack to
become critical is 500 000km. The crack growth times are statistically distributed according to
Weibull distributions of modulus =6.

a) Assume there are no inspections. How long does it take for the first in-service failure to
occur?
b) Inspections are scheduled at regular intervals of 300 000 service kilometers. Evaluate the
probability for a crack to remain undetected before it becomes critical.
c) Equally spaced inspections do not take into account the fact that fatigue failure is unlikely
while the component is in the early stages of its service life. Develop criteria for an
improved inspection schedule.


0 5 10 15 20 25
-600
-400
-200
0
200
400
600
s
t
r
e
s
s

[
M
P
a
]
time [arbitrary units]

Solutions Fatigue 1:

1. We base our calculation on the natural logarithm.

Average lifetime: 10000 cycles, ln(average lifetime) = 9.21
Probability density function for cycle numbers at failure

2
2
2
ln
ln
1 (ln 9.21)
(ln ) exp
2
2 N
N
N
p N
s
s
(
=
(



Failure probability after N
0.95

cycles (probability for lnN<lnN
0.95
):

0.95
0.95
ln
2
0.95 2
2
ln
ln
ln
2
0.95
0.95
0.95
1 ( 4)
(ln ln ) exp 0.95
2
2
( 9.21) /
1
exp 0.95
2 2
1.645
11.02
61073
N
N
N
N
v
u
P N N du
s
s
v u s
v
dv
v
u
N

(
> = =
(

=
(
=
(

=
=
=

2. Mean stress 200 MPa, amplitude 500 MPa, tensile strength 850 MPa

Effective stress amplitude (Goodman)
1
,
1

|
|

\
|
=
t
m
a eff a

=653MPa
Effective stress amplitude (Gerber)
1
2
,
1

|
|

\
|
|
|

\
|
=
t
m
a eff a

=552MPa

N(Goodman) ~ 60
N(Gerber) ~ 250
N(datasheet)~ 70


3. Classification used:

Class 1 550 650 MPa
Class 2 450 550 MPa
Class 3 350 450 MPa
Class 4 250 350 MPa
Class 5 150 250 MPa
Class 6 50 150 MPa
Class 7 -50 50 MPa
Class 8 -150 -50 MPa
Class 9 -250 -150 MPa
Class 10 -350 -250 MPa
Class 11 -450 -350 MPa
Class 12 -550 -450 MPa
Class 13 -650 -550 MPa

Rainflow matrix


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1 1
2
3
4 1
5 1
1/2
6 1
7 1
8 1 1
9
10 1 1
11
12
1/2
1 1
13


Rainflow classification

Half cycles

Start End Mean stress Amplitude Effective Amplitude Lifetime N Lifetime N
[MPa] [MPa] (Goodman)[MPa] (Goodman) (Datasheet)

12 1 50 550 584 200 250
5 12 -150 350 297 9E4 3E5

Full cycles

Start End Mean stress Amplitude Effective Amplitude Lifetime N Lifetime N
[MPa] [MPa] (Goodman)[MPa] (Goodman) (Datasheet)


1 13 0 600 600 180 180
4 10 50 250 265 infinite infinite
5 9 0 200 200 infinite infinite
4 6 200 100 130 infinite infinite
7 5 -100 100 89 infinite infinite
8 7 -50 50 47 infinite infinite
8 9 -150 50 42 infinite infinite
10 7 -150 150 126 infinite infinite
10 8 -200 100 80 infinite infinite
12 3 -50 450 425 6000 9000
12 6 -200 300 240 infinite infinite



4. Palmgren-Miner lifetime calculation:

Number of cycles = number N
R
of repetitions times number of cycles in repetition

121
1
90000
5 . 0
200
5 . 0
6000
1
180
1
=
=
(

+ + +
R
R
N
N
(Goodman)


130
1
200000
5 . 0
250
5 . 0
9000
1
180
1
=
=
(

+ + +
R
R
N
N
(Datasheet estimates)




5. a) Average lifetime of an axle is 2.2x10
6
service kilometers. There are 32x67=2144 axles in the
fleet, and the first failure occurs when the weakest of these fails. With a Weibull exponent of 8, this
occurs on average after (2.2x10
6
)x2144
-1/8
= 8.4x10
5
service kilometres or 1.68 years

b) This one is more tricky. First we evaluate the lifetime parameter T of the Weibull distribution of
crack growth times. The average is 500000, the exponent is 6, so this parameter is 500000/(1+1/6) =
539000 service kilometres.

The lifetime distribution (probability for failure before t) is
(
(

\
|
=
6
exp 1 ) (
T
t
t P


So a nave calculation would be to simply insert t=300000, T=539000, to get the probability that
failure has occurred before the inspection time is over

=
(
(

\
|
=
6
539000
300000
exp 1 ) 300000 ( P 0.029=2.9%

However, this is overly pessimistic (or conservative) since it assumes that the crack emerges
immediately after the previous inspection. More realistic is to assume that the crack emerges with
equal probability anytime during the interval. For a crack emerging at time t before the end of the
inspection interval, the probability to become critical before it is detected at the next inspection is
simply




where we have used that (t/T)
6
is small. We now have to average this probability over all t between
0 and t, hence

004 . 0
7
1
'
' 1
'
'
exp 1
1
6
0
6
0
6
= |

\
|
= |

\
|

|
|

\
|
(
(

\
|
=

T
t
dt
T
t
t
dt
T
t
t
P
t t
c



d) Aim: The inspection schedule should minimize the number of inspections while keeping the
risk at a prescribed level. Alternatively, the schedule should be designed to incur the lowest risk
for a prescribed price (number of inspections).

We first evaluate the risk for a given inspection interval t, i.e. the probability for a crack to
become critical during an interval of length t starting at t
0
. [Probability for a crack emerging after
t to become critical before t+t
0
] = [probability for the crack to form during that interval] *
[probability for this crack to become critical before next inspection]. As the average lifetime >>
interval duration, and assuming that lifetime and crack growth time are uncorrelated, this is
approximately

6 6
' '
exp 1 ) ( |

\
|

(
(

\
|
=
T
t
T
t
t P
c
) ( ] ) ( [ ) , (
0 0 int
t P t t p t t P
c erval
=

where p is the derivative of the lifetime distribution P
lifetime
. The failure rate in an ensemble of
parts is

) ( ) (
0
t P t p
c


and for a part which has survived until time t
0
the failure rate is

) ( 1
) ( ) (
) , (
0
0
0
t P
t P t p
t t p
lifetime
c

=

where the denominator is the survival probability

A good strategy is to keep the failure rate of a given part at a (hopefully small) level.
One could also do a much more involved calculation which minimizes the number of inspections
(or the cost) while keeping the total risk at a prescribed level. This should produce the same
outcome.

Using the above approximation,

6 / 1
0 0
6
0
0
6
0
0
0
))] ( /( )) ( 1 )( 539000 [( 7 hence ,
) ( 1
) (
539000 7
1
) ( 1
) ( ) (
) , ( t p t P t
t P
t p t
t P
t P t p
t t p
lifetime
lifetime lifetime
c

\
|

=


where the proportionality constant corresponds to the accepted failure rate.

Using

(
(

\
|
=
(
(

\
|
|

\
|
=
8
0
0
8
0
7
0
0
2200000
exp ) ( 1 ,
2200000
exp
2200000 8
1
) (
t
t P
t t
t p
lifetime


this gives the simple result

[ ]
6 / 1
7
0
7 6
/ ) 2200000 )( 539000 ( 8 7 t t

i.e., the inspection interval lengths should decrease as
6 / 7
0

t

This is just one approach - other solutions are welcome.






Advanced Materials Course

Tutorial Questions:
Metals Fatigue 2

Fatigue experiments on steel rods show the fatigue lifetimes to be Weibull distributed with a Weibull
exponent =1.5. The mean lifetimes are shown as a function of stress amplitude in Figure 1. The
ultimate tensile strength of the rods is measured to be 950 MPa.

Figure 1: S-N curve



















1. After which number of cycles 2% of the rods have failed, provided they are subject to a stress
amplitude of 300 MPa?

2. The rods are subject to a fluctuating load as shown below. What is the average lifetime? (perform a
rainflow classification and use the Goodman and Palmgren-Miner rules)

0 5 10 15 20 25
-600
-500
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
s
t
r
e
s
s

[
M
P
a
]
time [10
2
s]
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Number of cycles, N
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

s
t
r
e
s
s

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
M
P
a
]
Solutions Fatigue 2:

1. Mean lifetime at 300 MPa from graph: 75000 cycles. Lifetimes are Weibull distributed with
modulus 1.5, ie the probability for failure before time t is given by ( ) [ ]
5 . 1
/ exp 1 ) ( T t t P = . The
parameter T derives from the mean lifetime as

83000 ) 5 . 1 / 1 1 ( / 75000 + = T

The time when 2% of rods have failed follows from

( ) [ ]
( )
6115
/ 02 . 0
/ exp 98 . 0
) ( 02 . 0
% 2
5 . 1
% 2
5 . 1
% 2
% 2
=
=
=
=
t
T t
T t
t P


So after 6115 cycles 2% or rods have failed already. This is a consequence of the rather low Weibull
modulus, which makes for a very broad distribution.

2. We introduce 10 classes

class 1 [-500 MPa < stress < -400 MPa]
class 2 [-400 MPa < stress < -300 MPa]

class 10 [400 MPa < stress < 500 MPa]

The rainflow count then gives the following full cycles

Start End NoCycl Mean stress Amplitude Effective Amplitude Lifetime N
[MPa] [MPa] (Goodman)[MPa] (Goodman)

1 1 1 -450 0 0 infinite
1 9 1 -50 400 379 50000
7 7 1 150 0 0 infinite
4 5 2 -100 50 45 infinite
5 9 1 150 200 238 100000
2 10 1 50 400 422 25000
8 9 1 300 50 73 infinite
7 10 1 300 150 219 140000
4 4 1 -150 0 0 infinite

There are four residual half cycles

2 3 -300 50 37 infinite
3 1 -350 100 73 infinite
1 10 0 450 450 15000
10 2 50 400 422 25000


Palmgren-Miner lifetime calculation:

Number of cycles = number N
R
of repetitions times number of cycles in repetition

7660
1
15000
5 . 0
140000
1
25000
5 . 1
100000
1
50000
1
=
=
(

+ + + +
R
R
N
N