Influence of changes of the bending plane position on the fatigue life

The paper concerns influence of changes of the bending plane position on the fatigue life. The obtained results were analyzed and compared with the fatigue results for oscillatory bending. The applied specimens were smooth, they had round sections, and they were made of the leaded brass CuZn40Pb2 (MO58). The results obtained under cyclic bending with the plane position change were compared with the results obtained for the specimens with the same parameters under pure oscillatory bending. A change of the bending plane position occurred every 10% fatigue life determined under pure oscillatory bending at the given amplitude of the bending moment, according to the defined fatigue characteristics. Calculated values of nominal stress in a cross section were recalculated according with cyclic material properties and values of elasto‐plastic stress were obtained.     

Influence of surface residual stresses on gigacycle fatigue response of high chromium cold work tool steel

The effect of surface compressive residual stresses (RS) induced by surface grinding and polishing on the gigacycle fatigue behavior of medium‐carbon high‐chromium alloy cold work tool steel was evaluated. Two test series were performed: Specimens of series I revealed high compressive RS of about ‐800 MPa at the surface, resulting from grinding with fine emery paper, which treatment had definitely a beneficial influence on the fatigue endurance strength. The existence of surface RS was also revealed to be responsible for the location of the fatigue crack initiation. High compressive RS favored internal crack origins. In this case crack nucleation sites were primary carbide clusters in the interior of the specimen, forming so‐called fish‐eyes at the fracture surface. In contrast, specimens of test series II had only very low RS, which enabled crack initiation near/at the surface at primary carbides/clusters. Furthermore, it has been shown that the high initial RS are prone to partial relaxation through cyclic loading for which the mechanisms are currently unknown. In this case near‐surface induced failure was obtained. It was possible to confirm the experimentally obtained data by the use of the concept of local fatigue strength as function of effective RS. The relaxation of high initial RS was experimentally confirmed through RS measurements at runout specimens (10¹⁰ cycles without failure).     

Multiaxial fatigue behaviour of AA6068 and AA2017A aluminium alloys under in‐phase bending with torsion loading condition

This paper presents an analysis of the multiaxial fatigue properties of two selected aluminium alloys. Several experimental results were used to perform the analysis e.g. the latest experimental results done in Opole University of Technology on PA6 (2017 A), PA4 (6068) under bending, torsion, and combined bending with torsion. Analyses of the results were done to find similarities of the multiaxial fatigue behaviour of selected aluminium alloys. Based on the (σ_a – τ_a) curves, prepared for a fixed number of cycles, it was possible to show some tendencies of the multiaxial fatigue behaviour of selected material group. This is an important indicator while selecting proper multiaxial fatigue failure criterion suitable to perform fatigue life assessment of aluminium alloys.     

Analysis of powder steel material,laser sintering technology and machining on surface parameters and fatigue

The technology of selective laser melting (SLM) is booming in all engineering applications today and tends to expand production of statically and dynamically loaded parts, not only for the prototypes but also for direct metal end–use parts. However, apart from design and type of loading, there still is a number of real material and technological parameters that contribute to the final quality of the produced parts and affect or improve the surface integrity and life of the parts. This paper expands the results and conclusions made in some previous works and presents all data from the tests expressed in their technological relations. The main conclusion is that a suitable machining process did not affect the surface integrity and fatigue of the tested samples, and the key role in assessments were the material structure, its homogeneity and defects.     

Fatigue properties of self‐piercing riveted multi‐rivet joints in steel and aluminum sheets

Self‐piercing riveting (SPR) is an important joining technology for connecting steel and aluminum sheets. In this paper, AA6111 aluminum alloy and DP780 high‐strength steel were adopted to study the influence of fatigue on remaining static strength and energy absorption properties on self‐piercing riveting multi‐rivet joints. The results showed that energy absorption capacity of the specimens decreased significantly after high cycle fatigue. Fatigue reduced the remaining static lap shear strength of riveted specimens. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the cross section of fatigue specimens fractured by static tension. The results showed that fretting wear was found at the contact area between rivet and aluminum sheets. Fatigue bands and fatigue cracks appeared in fatigue specimens after high cycle fatigue, while those with low cycle fatigue specimens did not appear. Small cracks weaken the strength of the aluminum sheet, resulting in the static tensile strength of the riveted specimen with high cycle fatigue is lower than that of other fatigue specimens.     

Short crack approach for multiaxial fatigue assessment

A significant part of the fatigue life is spent during short crack growth. Therefore, modelling of short fatigue crack growth offers an opportunity to improve the accuracy of numerical life assessment. Besides stating some general remarks on the short crack approach itself and on multiaxial fatigue criteria, a short crack growth based fatigue life prediction approach for multiaxial non‐proportional loading is presented. This approach accounts for the geometrical size effect by considering the geometry correction functions for semi‐elliptical surface cracks in inhomogeneous gradient stress fields. The geometrical size effect is becoming significant for notch radii smaller than four times the defined technical crack size. Additionally, life influencing factors due to the statistical size effect have been taken into account. The comparison of calculated and experimentally observed fatigue lives of shouldered shafts made of S460N with notch radii of 0.2 to 4.0 mm under non‐proportional tension and torsion loading yields a satisfying accuracy.     

Size effects in the fatigue behavior of welded steel tubular bridge joints

Tubular space trusses for bridge applications use thick‐walled tubes. The reduction in fatigue resistance due to geometrical size effects is thus an important issue. In order to carry out a thorough study, both fatigue tests on large‐scale specimens and advanced 3D crack propagation modelling were carried out at ICOM/EPFL. The study is limited to circular hollow sections (CHS) K‐joints. An alternate current potential drop (ACPD) system is used to measure crack depth on nodes of the tested truss specimens. The results obtained from the tests are given in the paper in terms of S‐N data, crack depth versus number of cycles and deduced crack propagation rates. The numerical model was developed using the dual boundary elements method (DBEM), software BEASY?, and was validated with fatigue tests data. The stress intensity factors (SIF) along the doubly curved crack front at different crack depths were obtained. With this model, a parametric study investigates the influence of geometry, size and load case on fatigue life. The results of both proportional and non‐proportional sizing effects on fatigue strength are presented. The paper shows that size effects (proportional and non‐proportional) can be expressed as a function of the non‐dimensional parameters and chord thickness.     

Enhanced assessment of ageing phenomena in steel structures based on materials data and non‐destructive testing

The increasing amount of ageing civil steel infrastructure requests an enhanced assessment of this infrastructure in terms of determining its residual fatigue life in a more realistic way than this has been done in the past. Often the relevant materials data for cyclic loading of such an ageing infrastructure is not available and its retrieval turns out to be relatively cumbersome bearing the urgency in data availability and continuous cost pressure in mind. This article addresses different approaches and techniques on how materials data for cyclic loading can be obtained at a fraction of the effort compared to state‐of‐the‐art techniques, considering load increase tests, non‐destructive testing techniques and finally even a stepped bar specimen allowing a complete set of materials data (stress‐strain behaviour and stress‐ and strain‐life curve) to be obtained with a single specimen in the end only. Options for ’digitizing’ materials data evaluation are discussed and some prospect on application of those novel approaches and techniques in damage accumulation assessments on real steel infrastructure is provided.     

Effects of plate thickness on fatigue fracture behaviors of an aluminum alloy (Al‐Cu‐Mg)

High cycle fatigue properties of 2124 aluminum alloy plates with different thickness were investigated by determining fatigue S?N curves, fatigue crack growth rates and fracture toughness of 2124‐T851 aluminum alloy plates with the thickness of 30 mm, 40 mm and 55 mm, respectively. Fatigue fracture behaviors of alloy plates were also analyzed and discussed using scanning electron microscope morphology observation, energy spectrum analysis, X‐ray diffraction phase analysis and transmission electron microscopy observation in this paper. The results indicate that plate thickness affects the comprehensive fatigue properties of 2124 aluminum alloy plates. Thinner plate achieves better comprehensive fatigue properties. Due to the different amount of deformation during hot rolling, the variation of microstructure of alloy plates with different thickness mainly concentrates on the difference of grain sizes, substructure and volume fraction of grain boundaries. The thinner the plate, the smaller the grain sizes and therefore the thinner plate produces a higher volume fraction of grain boundaries and substructure, and a greater resistance to fatigue crack growth, thus thinner plate exhibits better fatigue properties.     

A general model for stress‐life fatigue prediction

From several factors that influence the fatigue behaviour of a particular material, the stress ratio or mean stress and the stress concentration factor are of great importance for the structural calculation. Since most components and structural members contain notches that could be sites of fatigue crack initiation, fatigue data from specimens with different forms of notches have to be collected. The collection of such data at various stress ratios or mean stresses is not economic and time‐consuming. Based on the Walker equivalent stress model, a general fatigue life model is presented and tested with 2024‐T3 fatigue data, available in the literature. The Walker model considered only the effect of stress ratio or mean stress on the fatigue behaviour. On the other hand, in the proposed model, the combined effect of mean stress and stress concentration factor on fatigue behaviour is demonstrated. The statistical analysis indicates that the presented model is very efficient to interpolate the fatigue life successfully, thereby reducing both time and cost.     

Ermüdungsverhalten von Betonstahl unter Korrosionsbedingungen

In the 2001 completely revised version of DIN 1045‐1 for the first time an explicit proof against fatigue, more a fatigue analysis, have been published. A limit on the fatigue strength at two million cycles, as it was formerly common in civil engineering, is no longer in use. The influence of corrosion on the fatigue behaviour has been investigated insufficiently. It is thus not satisfyingly clarified. To fill this gap of knowledge, a research program was launched, in which fatigue tests at steel samples with a diameter of 16 mm were performed under going corrosion. The fatigue behaviour of the reinforcing steel was determined for four different corrosive media. The aim of the investiagtions was to show that the SN lines, which are the result of the fatigue tests, have exposure caused very different patterns. On the other hand it is examined, whether crack initiation and crack growth of the steel specimen can be recorded separately from each other. Therefore, different testing methods for crack detection were used. They differ especially with respect to their methodology. The article briefly describes the use of the testing methods for crack detection, explains the fatigue tests with the different corrosive liquids and discusses the test results.     

Ermüdungseigenschaften von Schraubenverbindungen mit gefurchtem und geschnittenem Gewinde

The fatigue strength of metric steel screws is investigated with regard to the impact of the length of thread engagement and the level of preload as well as the material and type of manufacturing the mating thread. For bolted applications in aluminum with big lengths of thread engagement (t_E>2 ? d) the way of manufacturing the female thread shows a significant impact on the number of cycles to failure depending on the thread formed or cut. In general the amount of the preload is not influencing the fatigue strength in significant way for smaller engagement depths (t_E<1 ? d). Decreasing preloads lead to a higher number of cycles to failure. For screws and nuts both made of steel, the impact on fatigue life becomes dominant in case of over‐elastic tightening and fatigue testing at reduced levels of preload in the elastic range. Based on numerical analysis the load distribution in the engaged thread area is calculated. The analysis of local stresses was made to evaluate the areas of highest notch stress which is decisive for fatigue life.     

Multiaxial fatigue behaviour of a short‐fibre reinforced polyamide – experiments and calculations

This paper deals with the fatigue behaviour of a short fibre reinforced thermoplastic under multi‐axial cyclic stress. Based on experimental results on notched and plain specimens, limits of existing methods for the fatigue life estimation in the design process of components exposed to complex multi‐axial loads were investigated. During the manufacturing process of short fibre reinforced thermoplastic components, a moderately anisotropic behaviour in stiffness and strength arises. Because of the material's anisotropy, classical failure hypotheses for the assessment of multiaxial load cases do not apply. In this study, a fatigue failure hypothesis was implemented that assesses the stress components in accordance with the correlating fatigue strengths in the material coordinate system, considering potential interaction between the stress components. Striving for a verified multi‐usable fatigue life assessment method, multiaxial load cases were examined experimentally. The experimental results on unnotched and notched specimens and the fatigue life estimation on the basis of the Tsai‐Wu‐failure hypothesis will be presented.     

Approaches to fatigue life assessment applied in the very high cycle regime

Designers and calculation engineers are becoming increasingly interested in the latest results on very high cycle fatigue (VHCF). Often, the influence of loading with a very high number of cycles on component behaviour is estimated conservatively, but the exact safety margin is unknown. This paper gives an overview of failure mechanisms in the HCF‐ and VHCF‐regions and of material and component related influences, which have to be considered in the fatigue life assessment. The state of the art of design codes, recommendations from the literature and initial investigations on variable amplitude loading in the VHCF‐regime are presented. This review indicates that further research activities are necessary to improve fatigue life assessment in order to allow a reduction of safety margins.     

Design of a Medical Non‐Linear Drilling Device: The Influence of Twist and Wear on the Fatigue Behaviour of NiTi Wires Subjected to Bending Rotation

This paper considers fundamental and experimental aspects associated with the engineering design of a medical, non‐linear drilling device which exploits shape memory pseudoelasticity of NiTi wires. For this application it is important that the NiTi wires have a good fatigue resistance. This is why the present authors have previously determined the influence of various parameters on cyclic life, crack growth and stress state of pseudoelastic wires subjected to bending rotation fatigue. The actual drilling device has to withstand twist in addition to bending rotation because the free rotation is constrained by friction between the drill head and the bone material. In addition, friction between the wire and a NiTi guiding tube results in wear and this may well promote fatigue crack nucleation. In this paper, we explain the function of the medical drill. We then report results on the effect of the additional parameters (1) twist and (2) wear on the fatigue life of thin pseudoelastic NiTi wires. We finally discuss the implications of our experimental results for the design process of the medical drilling device.     

Some useful approximations for wrought aluminum alloys based on monotonic tensile properties and hardness

The objective of the present paper is to derive some useful approximations for estimating the strain‐controlled fatigue properties and cyclic deformation of wrought aluminum alloys from hardness and monotonic tensile properties. A variety of relationships and correlations among monotonic tensile properties, Brinell hardness, cyclic deformation and strain‐controlled fatigue properties are developed for wrought aluminum alloys. A simple method is proposed for prediction of the strain‐life curve requiring only ultimate tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. Prediction capability of the proposed method is evaluated for 25 kinds of wrought aluminum alloys with ultimate tensile strength between 120 MPa and 650 MPa. The proposed method provides good approximations of the strain‐life curve.     

Ermüdungslebensdauerbewertung von Warmumformwerkzeugen – Ein Überblick über den Stand der Forschung und Anwendung

Hot work tools are subjected to complex thermal and mechanical loads during hot forming processes. Locally, the stresses can exceed the material's yield strength in highly loaded areas. During mass production, this leads to cyclic plastic deformations and thermomechanical fatigue of the tools, which can be a major lifetime limiting factor. However, established concepts for thermomechanical fatigue life assessment of hot work tools do not exist, since this aspect first reached attention in the last years with the needs for higher resource and energy efficiency as well as optimized manufacturing processes (e. g. in the frame of Industrie 4.0). Hence, in this paper, the contemporary industrially used concepts for dimensioning hot forming tools regarding the tooling fatigue life are presented. Furthermore an overview of existing plasticity and lifetime models is given. The models are divided in phenomenological and mechanism based models. The review shows that further research is essential in this field.     

Fatigue damage of stainless steel diffusion-bonded joints

Vacuum diffusion bonding was carried out on 316L stainless steel. Metallographic inspections and micro-hardness testing were conducted near the interface of diffusion-bonded joints. Fatigue tests were performed to investigate the mechanical performance of diffusion-bonded joints under cyclic loading. Results indicate that, although the static strength of joints closes to that of base metal, fatigue life of the diffusion-bonded joint is markedly lower than that of the base metal. Increments of electrical resistance of specimens were monitored and recorded at different cycles. By taking the electrical resistance as a damage parameter, the evolution of fatigue damage of diffusion-bonded joints was interpreted and the relationship between fatigue life and increments of electrical resistance was established. Overall good agreement between the experimental results and predicted life was obtained which provides confidence in the use of the developed approach for life prediction.     

Fatigue assessment of cut edges in high strength steel – Influence of surface quality

The influence of surface roughness on the fatigue strength in high strength steels and different cutting processes are studied. Fatigue testing is conducted on S700 and S960 material for different plate thicknesses cut in dog bone specimens using oxygen, plasma, laser and waterjet cutting. The surface roughness is measured for all specimens and residual stress measurements are carried out. Estimations of the fatigue strength are made based on the measured surface roughness and the ISO 9013:2002 standard for thermal cutting quality tolerances. The testing shows a 15–70 % increase in the fatigue strength compared to the estimation, proving a weak connection between the surface quality levels in ISO 9013:2002 and the fatigue test results. Different codes and design recommendations (IIW, EC3 and EN 13001) for fatigue strength of cut surfaces are compared with the fatigue test results which clearly shows an increased fatigue strength with enhanced quality and steel grades. However, the codes and design recommendations do not allow for any fatigue strength improvement with improved quality and increased yield strength.     

Invarianten‐basierte Mehrachsigkeitshypothese zur Anwendung bei Schwingbeanspruchung

Multiaxial hypothesis based on invariants for the application of fatigue loading Increasing deviations of experimentally determined and calculated fatigue lives can be observed for multiaxially loaded specimens with increasing contribution of shear stresses. An improvement of this situation can be gained by linking the calculation procedure to both constant amplitude life curves for pure push/pull and shear loading. A hypothesis is presented in this paper which is formulated strictly using only the invariants of the stress tensor to interpolate between the border cases. A modification of this hypothesis is able to take nonproportional loading due to a phase shift between the stress components into account.