Determination of Fatigue Limit by Locati Methodusing S-N Curve Determined by Means of Thermographic Method

Abstract

Selected results of experimental research showing possibilities to combined accelerated methods, i.e. thermographic determination of the fatigue curve and estimating the fatigue limit, were presented in this paper. The tests were performed using the reversed bending fatigue-testing machine with a rotational frequency of 77 Hz. The main item of the test station was the thermographic camera. Test specimens were made of C45 (1.0503) steel drawn bars. The full tests results were presented for the fatigue S-N curve (23 specimens at 10 load levels) and fatigue limit by the Staircase method (25 specimens) based on 107 cycles to failure was determination. The accelerated test for determining the slope of the S-N curve and the fatigue limit were made by a single specimen based on gradually increasing loading. Methods previously presented in the literature are based on the phenomenon of temperature stabilization during most of the fatigue process. The results presented in this work did not show the occurrence of such a phenomenon. For that reason, the new approach to the determination of the slope of S-N curve was proposed. Combined application of both experimental methods, Locati and thermographic, with a new approach to the determination of this slope might allow one to develop automatic equipment for the accelerated determination of the fatigue limit which would contribute to significant reduction of the test costs and time, thus increasing availability of such tests.