fatigue of materials

In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localised structural damage

that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The maximum stress
values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield
stress limit of the material.

Stress vs. Strain curve typical of aluminum.

1 Ultimate Strength
2 Yield Strength
3 Proportional Limit Stress
4 Rupture
5 Offset Strain (usually 0.002)

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Lecture Power Points
to accompany
Beer/Johnston/DeWolf
MECHANICS OF MATERIALS, 3rd ed.
2

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 Characteristics of fatigue

The process starts with dislocation movements, eventually forming persistent slip bands that
nucleate short cracks.
The greater the applied stress, the shorter the life.
Damage is cumulative. Materials do not recover when rested.
Fatigue is a stochastic process, often showing considerable scatter. Fatigue life scatter tends
to increase for longer fatigue lives.
Fatigue life is influenced by a variety of factors, such as temperature, surface finish, presence
of oxidizing or inert chemicals, residual stresses, contact (fretting), etc.
Some materials (e.g., some steel and titanium alloys) exhibit a theoretical fatigue limit below
which continued loading does not lead to failure.
In recent years, researchers have found that failures occur below the theoretical fatigue limit
at very high fatigue lives (109 to 1010 cycles). An ultrasonic resonance technique is used in
these experiments with frequencies around 10-20 kHz.
High cycle fatigue strength (about 103 to 108 cycles) can be described by stress based
parameters. A load-controlled, servo-hydraulic test rig is commonly used in these tests, with
frequencies of around 20-50 Hz. Other sort of machines like resonant magnetic machines can
also be used, achieving frequencies up to 250Hz.
Low cycle fatigue (typically less than 103 cycles) is associated with widespread plasticity, thus
a strain based parameter should be used for fatigue life prediction. Testing is conducted with
constant strain amplitudes at 1-5 Hz. 3

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The process starts with dislocation movements,
eventually forming persistent slip bands that nucleate short cracks.

Micrographs showing how surface fatigue cracks grow as material is further cycled.
From Ewing & Humfrey (1903) 4

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 The greater the applied stress, the shorter the life.

Fatigue properties are shown on S-N diagrams.

Lecture Power Points
to accompany
Beer/Johnston/DeWolf
MECHANICS OF MATERIALS, 3rd ed.
5

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 Complex loadings

In practice, a mechanical part is exposed to a complex, often random, sequence of loads,

large and small.
In order to assess the safe life of such a part:
1. Reduce the complex loading to a series of simple cyclic loadings using a technique
such as rainflow analysis;
2. Create an histogram of cyclic stress from the rainflow analysis;
3. For each stress level, calculate the degree of cumulative damage incurred from the S-
N curve; and
4. Combine the individual contributions using an algorithm such as Miner's rule.

Miner's rule is also called the Palmgren-Miner linear damage hypothesis. It is used to calculate cumulative
damage due to k different stress magnitudes each contributing ni cycles at stress magnitude Si. Failure is
assumed to occur when the summation of the damage fractions for all the events experienced by the
structure is equal to or larger than a damage criterion, C . Mathematically this theory is stated as,

Where n is the number of cycles at stress S applied to the specimen and Ni is the life corresponding to stress
magnitude Si . The constant C is determined by experiments and is usually 0.7 < C < 2.2. For most 6
analysis, the value of C = 1 is used.

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 Creep / Fluncia
Creep is the term used to describe the tendency of a 'solid' material to slowly
deform permanently to relieve stresses.
It occurs as a result of long term exposure to levels of stress that are below
the yield strength or ultimate strength of the material.
Creep is more severe in materials that are subjected to heat for long periods,
and near the melting point.

Typical creep curve for steel

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http://www.twi.co.uk/j32k/protected/band_3/jk81.html

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 Typical creep curve of a single crystal Ni-base super alloy

http://sakimori.nims.go.jp/MP/creep.html 8

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 Atrito entre materiais
e
Desgaste ou eroso de materiais

atrito: friction

desgaste: wear = loss of material from a surface by means of some mechanical action

eroso: erosion = wear due to mechanical interaction between a surface and a fluid, a
multicomponent fluid, or impinging liquid or solid particles

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Em fsica, o atrito uma fora natural que actua apenas quando um objecto est
em contacto com outro e sofre a aco de outra fora que tende a coloc-lo em
movimento.

A fora de atrito causada pelo contacto dos dois corpos ou meio em que se move
o corpo em movimento (neste caso especial, pela viscosidade do meio).

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrito 10

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 F = .N

Coefficient of friction
Coeficiente de atrito

The coefficient of friction is a dimensionless quantity used to calculate the

force of friction (static or kinetic).

The coefficient of static friction is defined as the ratio of the maximum static
friction force (F) between the surfaces in contact to the normal (N) force.

The coefficient of kinetic friction is defined as the ratio of the kinetic friction
force (F) between the surfaces in contact to the normal force.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_friction

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 Pin-on-Disk Tribometer

Pin-on-Disk Tribometer operates on the following principal:

- a flat, pin or sphere is loaded onto the test sample with a precisely known weight
- the highly stiff elastic arm insures a nearly fixed contact point and thus a stable position in the friction
track
- the friction coefficient is determined during the test by measuring the deflection of the elastic arm of by
direct measurement of the change in torque
- wear coefficients for the pin and disk material are calculated from the volume of material lost during the
test
This simple method facilitates the study of friction and wear behaviour of almost every material combination
with or without lubrication.

Users can easily control test parameters such as: speed, frequency, contact pressure and varying time. Real-life conditions
of a practical wear situation can be closely simulated by precise control of humidity, temperature and gas composition.
Specialized options have been developed for operations at high/low temperature, high load and high rotational speed. Other
options include a unique tri-mode lubrication system, a real-time depth of track, an electrical conductivity detector and a
motorized radial positon.
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Multiple test configurations are available to extend the capabilities of the instrument including Linear Reciprocating, Block-on-
Ring, Thrust Washer Testing and Four Ball Wear.

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The study of the processes of erosion is part of the discipline of tribology.

The principal erosion processes are:

Adhesive wear (desgaste adesivo)

Abrasive wear (desgaste abrasivo)
Surface fatigue: a process by which the surface of a material is weakened by
cyclic loading, which is one type of general material fatigue)
Fretting (or fretting corrosion): a special wear process that refers to corrosion
damage at the asperities of contact surfaces. This damage is induced under
load and in the presence of repeated relative surface motion, as induced for
example by vibration
Erosion wear : wear due to mechanical interaction between a surface and a
fluid, a multicomponent fluid, or impinging liquid or solid particles

Erosion wear 13

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Adhesive wear occurs when two solid surfaces slide over one another under
pressure.

Surface projections, or asperities, are plastically deformed and eventually welded

together by the high local pressure. As sliding continues, these bonds are
broken, producing cavities on the surface, projections on the second surface, and
frequently tiny, abrasive particles, all of which contribute to future wear of
surfaces.

For adhesive wear to occur it is necessary for the surfaces to be in intimate

contact with each other. Surfaces which are held apart by lubricating films,
oxide films etc. reduce the tendency for adhesion to occur.
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http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/wear.htm

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Abrasive wear occurs when material is removed by contact with hard particles.

The particles either may be present at the surface of a second material (two-body wear) or
may exist as loose particles between two surfaces (three-body wear).

The abrasive wear mechanism is

basically the same as machining,
grinding, polishing or lapping that
we use for shaping materials. Two
body abrasive wear occurs when
one surface (usually harder than
the second) cuts material away
from the second, although this
mechanism very often changes to
three body abrasion as the wear
debris then acts as an abrasive
between the two surfaces.

Abrasives can act as in grinding

where the abrasive is fixed relative
to one surface or as in lapping
where the abrasive tumbles
producing a series of indentations
as opposed to a scratch.
http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/wear.htm 15

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 Examples of
Reducing Wear by using Thermal Spray Coatings

for Soft Bearing Surfaces, the following coatings are commonly used:
- aluminium bronze
- phosphor bronze
- white metal or babbitt (an alloy of tin, lead, copper, and antimony, used to reduce friction in
bearings, developed by the US inventor Isaac Babbit in 1839)
- aluminium bronze/polymer composites

for Hard Bearing Surfaces, the following coatings are commonly used:
- cermet coatings like tungsten carbide/cobalt and chromium carbide/nickel
chromium
- oxide ceramics like chromium oxide and alumina
- molybdenum
- various hard alloys of iron, nickel, chromium or cobalt
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