FME 451

Materials Science & Engineering IV

Fourth Year
Semester I

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About the Class
What are some of the general expectations?

➢ 100% attendance.
➢ Do the weekly 10 min quiz administered at the beginning of the class.
➢ Do and submit all the assignments on time.
Should not be
plagiarised
➢ Sit according to your groups.
➢ Contact group a member who is not in class.
➢ Take short notes in class.

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About the Class
Learning outcome

Knowledge:

➢ Knowledge of basic fatigue and fracture mechanics theories and their physical
failure mechanisms.
➢ Understanding of the application of fatigue and fracture mechanics to specific
engineering problems.
➢ Detailed knowledge of experimental and FE-based numerical tools for evaluating
the failure due to fatigue and fracture in materials and structures.
➢ Methodology for designing against fatigue.

Skills:

➢ Capability to use traditional and numerical methods for designing mechanical

components against fatigue.

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Contents of the Class
Reference Books

Budynas, R.G., Nisbett, J.K. and Shigley, J.E. (2015) Shigley’s Mechanical
Engineering Design. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Khurmi, R.S. and Gupta, J.K. (2008) A textbook of machine design (S.I.
Units): A textbook for the students of B.E. Ram Nagar, New Delhi: Eurasia
Pub. House.

Spotts, M.F., Shoup, T.E. and Hornberger, L.E. (2007) Design of Machine
Elements. Beijing: Publishing House of Machine Industry.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Lecture 1 topics

➢ Introduction
➢ Type of Fatigue
➢ Types of Damage Progression
➢ Fatigue Fracture
➢ Total Life Approach
➢ Categories of Total Life Approach

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Understanding Fatigue in Machine Members (Metals)

Recap of static loading conditions

➢ Key Point: Gradual load application allows time for strain development.

➢ Testing Scenario: Materials tested until destruction.

➢ Conditions:
Static Testing simulates conditions close to real-life machine operations.
Used when stress is applied only once.
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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Understanding Fatigue in Machine Members (Metals)

Variable and Fluctuating Stresses

➢ Key Point: Not all stresses are constant.

➢ Example: Rotating shafts under bending loads face alternating tension and
compression.

➢ Scenario: Sections of the shaft experience fluctuating stresses.

➢ In service, components often see fluctuating stresses: ∆σ = σmax – σm𝑖𝑛

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Understanding Fatigue in Machine Members (Metals)

➢ Repeated or fluctuating stresses may cause machine components to fail

➢ Failure Mechanism: Occurs despite stresses being below the material’s
ultimate or yield strength.

∆σ < σys or σUTS or σf

➢ This type of failure is referred to as fatigue failure.

➢ Static failure often provides advance warning through visible deflection.
➢ Fatigue failure occurs suddenly, without warning, making it more dangerous.
(1) Like brittle fracture (2) No necking 8
Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What stages are associated with fatigue failure?

Stage I: Microcrack Initiation (usually at the surface)

➢ Microcracks form due to cyclic plastic
deformation.
➢ crystallographic propagation of the
crack(microscopic, not visible to the naked eye).

Stage II: Macrocrack Development

➢ Cracks extend into larger, visible fractures.
➢ Fracture surfaces become plateau-like and
parallel (beach markings)

Stage III: Fracture

➢ Remaining material cannot support the loads
➢ A sudden, fast fracture (Catastrophic rupture)

Fatigue Fracture Surface 9

Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What are some of the relevant terminology for S-N Tests

➢ S-N test is a fatigue test that is used to develop the S-N curve.

An SN-Curve is a plot of the

amplitude of the stress versus the
number of cycles to failure for a
given material.

cyclic stress range, σ = σmax - σmin

cyclic stress amplitude, σa = (σmax - σmin)/2

mean stress, σm = (σmax + σmin)/2
stress ratio, R = σmin/σmax

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What are the different nomenclature of the S-N curve
Case a: Completely reversed stressing

Case b: has non-zero mean stress

Case c: is zero to tension stressing

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What factors influence/initiates the fatigue failure?

The mechanics of fatigue failure depend on

➢ The environment: Corrosive Environments, Humidity and Temperature

➢ Loading conditions: Stress Amplitude, Frequency of Loading, Loading Type

➢ Microstructure: Grain Size, Inclusions and Defects, Material Phases

➢ Component geometry: Stress Concentrations, Surface Finish, Size and Shape

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What are the classifications of fatigue

Mechanical fatigue
➢ Due to mere fluctuations in externally applied stresses or strains on a material
Contact fatigue (sliding or rolling)
➢ Due to cyclic loading along with sliding or rolling contact between materials

Fretting fatigue
➢ Due to pulsating stresses in conjunction with oscillatory relative motion and frictional
sliding between faces.

Fretting fatigue
Rolling fatigue 13
Fatigue and Fracture Crack
What are the classifications of fatigue
Creep-fatigue
➢ Due to cyclic loading of a component at high temperatures.

Thermomechanical fatigue
➢ Due to cyclic loading of a component whose temperature also fluctuates

Corrosion fatigue
➢ Due to cyclic loading of a material in the presence of a chemically aggressive or
embrittling environment.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Damage progression in metals can be divided into two broad stages
Fatigue crack initiation
➢ The initial stages of microstructural damage that lead to the creation of
microscopic cracks and the coalescence of these cracks to form a dominant
crack.
➢ Fatigue crack initiation is, in general, a localised event and occurs in areas
which experience a high concentration of stresses and strains during
cyclic loading

Stable propagation of the dominant fatigue crack

➢ The stable propagation of short cracks and long cracks.

➢ The growth behaviour of short fatigue cracks is fundamentally different from
that of long cracks.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

➢ It’s a method used to predict the total lifespan of a material or component from
the initiation of a crack through to its ultimate failure.

➢ It is often used in engineering to ensure safe design under cyclic loading

➢ Total fatigue life is evaluated based on variables like applied stress/strain

range, mean stress, and environmental factors.
➢ Fatigue data is usually conveniently presented in S-N curves

➢ An SN-Curve is a plot of the amplitude of the stress/strain versus the number of

cycles to failure for a given material.
➢ Shows the number of cycles (life) a specimen can endure before failure.

Testing:
Based on multiple tests at various constant stress amplitude (𝜎𝑎 ) or strain amplitude
(𝜀𝑎 ) levels.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

Schematic of a rotating bend fatigue test assembly.

Smooth polished test pieces are cyclically loaded until fatigue failure occurs, and the
number of loading cycles against stress amplitude is noted.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

In steels, an endurance limit is observed.

i.e., a stress amplitude below which no
fatigue failure is observed

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

➢ The total life approach is typically good for uniform mean and alternating
stress and requires a lot of data to be gathered.

➢ Some of the S-N fatigue testing standards include

ASTM Standards E466-E468

British standards BS 3518-1:1993,

BS 3518-2:1962,
BS 3518-3:1963 &
BS 3518-5:1966

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

➢ It is reported that 𝜎𝑒 is ∼35% to 50% of the tensile strength (UTS) for most steels
and copper alloys.
➢ Many high strength steels and most non-ferrous materials such as aluminium alloys
do not exhibit this behaviour within the conventional loading cycles of 107 .

➢ Instead, the endurance limit (or more preferably, fatigue strength) is specified as the
stress amplitude required to give a nominal life of at least 107 fatigue cycles.

➢ It is suggested that the fatigue limit represents the stress at which a balance occurs
between fatigue damage and localised strengthening due to strain aging.

➢ Therefore, materials which undergo strain aging are expected to have an S-N curve
with a sharp ‘knee’ and a well defined fatigue limit and vice versa.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Total life approach

➢ S-N curves give information on total fatigue life, i.e. no. of cycles to initiation of a crack
(which can be as high as some 90% of the total fatigue life) and no. of cycles to grow
that crack to fast fracture point.
𝑁𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑁𝑖 + 𝑁𝑝
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Fatigue and Fracture Crack
Subcategories of the Total Life Approach in Fatigue

High-Cycle Fatigue (HCF):

Characteristics:
Low cyclic stresses with elastic straining.
Fatigue life typically exceeds 10⁵ cycles.
Examples:
Rotating and vibrating components (e.g., shafts, gears).

Low-Cycle Fatigue (LCF):

Characteristics:
High cyclic stresses causing plastic strains.
Fatigue life is typically less than 10⁵ cycles.
Examples:
Core components in nuclear reactors and gas turbine engines.
Ground vehicle parts and aircraft landing gear, subjected to occasional overloads.

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack

Any Questions??

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack

Next Week: Total life fatigue models

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Fatigue and Fracture Crack

Assignment
1. Explain how grain size affects the fatigue life of a component (4
marks)
2. List down the factors that are to be considered while designing the
components to avoid fatigue failure (10 marks)
3. What is the need to count the cycles? (2 marks)
4. Draw a typical S-N curve and demarcate it with high cycle and low
cycle fatigue. (4 marks)

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