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The constant amplitude, zero-mean stress, axial-fatigue behaviour of plain and bluntly notched AISI 304 L stainless steel specimens is investigated in terms of strain energy density. Concerning plain material, it was found that at the fatigue knee the plastic strain energy density is 1.49 times higher than the elastic strain energy density. In the authors’ opinion, the presence of plasticity at the fatigue knee is responsible for the unsuitableness of classical stress - based approaches to synthesise the fatigue behaviour of this material. On the contrary, the elastic-plastic strain energy density was found an efficient parameter to rationalise in a single scatter band fatigue data of plain and bluntly notched specimens. Based on this result, the classic stress-and the point stress-based approaches were revisited taking into account the presence of plasticity at the fatigue knee, by introducing an equivalent fully elastic material having a linear elastic strain energy density at the fatigue knee equal to that of the actual material. Accordingly, a coefficient of plasticity Kp was successfully introduced to modify the classical definition of fatigue strength reduction factor, Kf.

In the recent past, Atzori and Lazzarin proposed a diagram able to include the geometrical effects on the fatigue limit of defects, short cracks, long cracks and U-shaped notches of whatever severity. The diagram shows that defect sensitivity and notch sensitivity can be considered as two sides of the same medal, thus creating a bridging between Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics and Notch Mechanics. The fundamental material parameter, dependent on the load ratio, necessary to define the diagram is the El Haddad-Smith-Topper length parameter a0 defined by the plain material fatigue limit and the threshold value of the mode I stress intensity factor for long cracks. It is worth noting that a0 does not contain any geometry-related parameter. The diagram has been validated in the past against a number of experimental results and has been subsequently extended to sharp and blunt V-shaped notches, dependent on their absolute dimensions. After summarising the theory supporting the approach, some application examples relevant to both defect and notch sensitivity will be given

Heat energy dissipation is a manifestation of damage accumulation in fatigue-loaded components. Once recognized that some mechanical energy has to be expended to fatigue a material, energy partition into heat and stored energy is thought of as a material property in the present testing conditions. However, most of the mechanical input energy is dissipated as heat; therefore, the stored energy is difficult to estimate as difference between the expended and the dissipated energy. In this article heat energy is assumed as an index of fatigue damage. Since it reflects the material response to external loading, heat energy was seen to reduce the scatter of constant amplitude fatigue test results with respect to the use of the stress amplitude. Moreover, two-level fatigue test results could be interpreted with a higher level of accuracy when Miner’s rule was applied in terms of energy rather than stress amplitude. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper regards the rapid determination of fatigue limit by using thermal data analysis. Different approaches available in the literature to estimate the fatigue limit of cold-drawn AISI 304L bars are analyzed and compared, namely, temperature- and energy-based methods. Among the temperature-based approaches, the Risitano Method (RM) and the method based on material temperature evolution recorded during a static tensile test were analyzed. Regarding the energy-based approaches, the input mechanical energy density stored in the material per cycle (i.e., the area of the hysteresis loop), the heat energy dissipated by the material to the surroundings per cycle, and the "2nd-harmonic-based" methods were considered. It was found that for the material analyzed, all the considered energy-based approaches provided a very good engineering estimation of the material fatigue limit compared to a staircase test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is concerned with the use of the modified Manson-Coffin curve method to estimate the lifetime of notched components subjected to multiaxial cyclic loading. The above criterion postulates that fatigue strength under complex loading paths can efficiently be evaluated in terms of maximum shear strain amplitude, provided that the reference Manson-Coffin curve used to predict the number of cycles to failure is defined by taking into account the actual degree of multiaxiality/nonproportionality of the stress! strain state damaging the assumed crack initiation site. The accuracy and reliability of the above fatigue life estimation technique was checked by considering about 300 experimental results taken from the literature. Such data were generated by testing notched cylindrical samples made of four different metallic materials and subjected to in-phase and out-of-phase biaxial nominal loading. The accuracy of our criterion in taking into account the presence of nonzero mean stresses was also investigated in depth. To calculate the stress!strain quantities needed for the in-field use of the modified Manson-Coffin curve method, notch root stresses and strains were estimated by using not only the well-known analytical tool due to Kottgen et al. (1995, "Pseudo Stress and Pseudo Strain Based Approaches to Multiaxial Notch Analysis," Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater Struct., 18(9), pp. 981-1006) (applied along with the ratcherting plasticity model devised by Jiang and Sehitoglu (1996, "Modelling of Cyclic Ratchetting Plasticity, Part I: Development and Constitutive Relations. Transactions of the ASME," ASME J. Appl. Mech., 63, pp. 720-725; 1996, "Modelling of Cyclic Ratchetting Plasticity, Part I: Development and Constitutive Relations," Trans. ASME J. AppI. Mech., 63, pp. 720-725)) but also by taking full advantage of the finite element method to perform some calibration analyses. The systematic use of our approach was seen to result in estimates falling within an error factor of about 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes an attempt to devise an engineering method suitable for predicting fatigue lifetime of metallic materials subjected to both proportional and nonproportional multiaxial cyclic loadings. The proposed approach takes as a starting point the assumption that the plane experiencing the maximum shear strain amplitude (the so-called "critical plane") is coincident with the micro-/mesocrack initiation plane. In order to correctly account for the presence of both nonzero mean stresses and nonzero out-of-phase angles, the degree of multiaxiality/nonproportionalily of the stress state damaging crack initiation sites is suggested here to be evaluated in terms of the ratio between maximum normal stress and shear stress amplitude relative to the critical plane. Such a ratio is used then to define nonconventional Manson-Coffin curves, whose calibration is done through two strain-life curves generated under fully reversed uniaxial and fully reversed torsional fatigue loadings, respectively. The accuracy and reliability of our approach were systematically checked by using approximately 350 experimental data taken from the technical literature and generated by testing 13 different materials under both in-phase and out-of-phase loadings. Moreover the accuracy of our criterion in estimating lifetime in the presence of nonzero mean stresses was also investigated. Such an extensive validation exercise allowed us to prove that the fatigue life estimation technique formalized in the present paper is a reliable tool capable of correctly evaluating fatigue damage in engineering materials subjected to multiaxial cyclic loading paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]