Fatigue mean stress

Fig. 28.5. Fatigue data for a typical structural steel in dry air. Note that, if the fatigue stress range is less than 440 MPa (the fatigue limit] the component should last indefinitely. The data relate to a fatigue stress cycle with a zero mean stress, which is what we have in the case of our tail drum.

Fig. 8.22. Modified Goodman diagram showing fatigue stress amplitude required to cause failure in 10 cycles as a function of mean stress for two carbon-fibre reinforced epoxy resin materials (a) unidirectionally reinforced, stressed parallel to fibres, and (b) cross-plied laminate, with 45% of plies parallel to stress, and 55% transverse. Fibre volume fraction 60% (after R. Tetlow).

A more important effect of prestressiag is its effect on the mean stress at the bore of the cylinder when an internal pressure is appHed. It may be seen from Figure 6 that when an initially stress-free cylinder is subjected to an internal pressure, the shear stress at the bore of the cylinder increases from O to A. On the other hand, when a prestressed cylinder of the same dimensions is subjected to the same internal pressure, the shear stress at the bore changes from C to E. Although the range of shear stress is the same ia the two cases (distance OA = CE), the mean shear stress ia the prestressed cylinder, represented by point G, is smaller than that for the initially stress-free cylinder represented by point H. This reduction in the mean shear stress increases the fatigue strength of components subjected to repeated internal pressure. 

Fig. 17. Effect of mean shear stress on the fatigue strength of EN25 for life of 10 cycles (92). To convert MPa to psi, multiply by 145.

These values are determined by experiment. It is, however, by no means a trivial task to measure the lamina compressive and shear strengths (52,53). Also the failure of the first ply of a laminate does not necessarily coincide with the maximum load that the laminate can sustain. In many practical composite laminates first-ply failure may be accompanied by a very small reduction in the laminate stiffness. Local ply-level failures can reduce the stress-raising effects of notches and enhance fatigue performance (54). 

Fig. 15.5. Goodman s Rule - the effect of a tensile mean stress on initiation-controlled fatigue.

These two laws (given data for a, b, Cj and C2) adequately describe the fatigue failure of unnotched components, cycled at constant amplitude about a mean stress of zero. What do we do when Act, and ct , vary ... 

For convenience, in the previous sections it has been arranged so that the mean stress is zero. However, in many cases of practical interest the fluctuating stresses may be always in tension (or at least biased towards tension) so that the mean stress is not zero. The result is that the stress system is effectively a constant mean stress, a superimposed on a fluctuating stress a a- Since the plastic will creep under the action of the steady mean stress, this adds to the complexity because if the mean stress is large then a creep rupture failure may occur before any fatigue failure. The interaction of mean stress and stress amplitude is usually presented as a graph of as shown in Fig. 2.76. 

This represents the locus of all the combinations of Ca and Om which cause fatigue failure in a particular number of cycles, N. For plastics the picture is slightly different from that observed in metals. Over the region WX the behaviour is similar in that as the mean stress increases, the stress amplitude must be decreased to cause failure in the same number of cycles. Over the region YZ, however, the mean stress is so large that creep rupture failures are dominant. Point Z may be obtained from creep rupture data at a time equal to that necessary to give (V cycles at the test frequency. It should be realised that, depending on the level of mean stress, different phenomena may be the cause of failure. 

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