FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

Mechanics of Materials
EME 3046

TRIMESTER 2 (2015/2016)
Experiment 1 :

Fatigue Testing

Prepared by:

NAME Mursal Ahmed Saleh

ID : 1122702931
 Objective

 To study the influence of bending stress on the failure of test specimens

Introduction

This experiment is designed to study the effects of fatigue on three different materials .
We will be using rods made of Aluminium, steel and Brass and using them as rotating
cantilevers.

Spindle specimen is attached to one end of the rotating shaft held to the base by self
aligned bearings. Load is applied on the spindle producing a sinusoidal bending stress.
Digital revolution counter keeps account of number of revolution when failure occurs. A limit
switch is provided to stop the rotation when specimen fails.

Technical Data:

- Motor (2800 rpm, 0.5HP)

- Revolution counter (8 digits)
- Loading mechanism (Spring balance, 30kg)
- Power supply (220V, 1 Ph, 50Hz)

Methodology

- The test specimen (rod)’s dimensions were measured.

- One end of the specimen was inserted into the bearing while the other end was
inserted to the specimen grip of the motor and tightened using a wrench.
- After turning on the power and setting the revolution counter to zero the load (spring
balance) was adjusted by adjusting the screw above the spring as required.
- The motor was turned on and the number of revolutions that it took for the specimen
to fail was recorded.
- The experiment was repeated for the three different specimens (with three trials each).
Strut + Spring
balance
Revolution
counter
Bearing + beam
support
Motor Spindle

Protective
Figure1 Rotating Cantilever Beam Machine barrier
Results and analysis

Specimen: Brass 122.4mm ` Diameter: 8mm

Specimen no. Net load (N) No. of revolutions to Alternating stress.

fail σa (N/mm2)

1 245.25 573 597.20

2 196.2 5960 477.76
3 147.15 36106 358.32

No. of revolutions to fail (Brass)

40000
35000 36106

30000
25000
20000 No. of revolutions to fail
15000 (Aluminium)

10000
5000 5960

0 573
0 200 400 600 800

As we can see from the graph of brass (revolutions VS stress) higher stress/load will fail the specimen
with fewer revolutions. As the stress decreases, the number of revolutions increases.

Figure 2 (Brass)
Specimen: Aluminium L= 170mm ` Diameter: 8mm

Specimen no. Net load (N) No. of revolutions to Alternating stress.

fail(RPM) σa (N/mm2)

1 147.15 1179 497.66

2 98.1 6743 331.77
3 49.05 49896 165.88

No. of revolutions to fail (Aluminium)

60000

50000 49896

40000

30000 No. of revolutions to fail

(Aluminium)
20000

10000
6743
0 1179
0 200 400 600

Even in the aluminium test we can clearly see it is like the previous tests but as the
aluminium is brittle so the numbers of revolutions for 15kg (147.15 N) were less than the
brass.

Figure 3 (Aluminum)
Sample calculation
𝑀𝑐
How to calculate σa alternating stress: by using this formula:𝜎𝑎 = where M is the
𝐼
moment created and I is the moment of inertia

𝜋𝑟 4
𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎 (𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 − 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎), 𝐼 =
4

𝑑
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑖𝑑, 𝑐 = 𝑟 = = 4𝑚𝑚
2

𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑀 = 𝑃𝐿 = load X length

𝑀𝑐 196.2∗122.4∗4
For example:σa = = 𝜋 = 477.76N/mm^2
𝐼 (4)4
4

Discussion

As we can see from the two graphs of the alternating stresses/no. of revolutions to fail, it
is very clear that in all materials, the increase in bending stress makes the material fail faster.

a) Comparing the other two materials, Brass comes out as the strongest material as it
takes a higher amount of revolutions until it fails.

b) Aluminium is the most brittle of the materials used.

Other than the yield strength of the material, other factors such as the surface condition,
environment, geometry residual stresses, temperature and internal defects.

This experiment is designed as to show a basic understanding of how a beam will fail
under cyclic loading due to fatigue. It is for this reason that the values presented in this report
do not reflect full accuracy; however it shows the relation of bending stresses and fatigue. To
get the actual fatigue limit of materials we need to run a greater number of trials and
statistically determine the expected number of cycles to failure at that stress level.

 ALL deferent materials will have different load and bending stress before fail
 The number of revolution is very high for brass and then aluminium
 The parameters that will affect the fail is the bending stress and the strength f the
materials as will the number of revelations
 The endurance limit for every materials is different so if the applied stress is always
below the endurance limit the material will never fail
 According to the pictures of fracture, all three specimens exhibit brittle fracture in
fatigue failure. There is little or no necking occurring to the specimens unlike in
tensile tests. From the picture, the fracture shows that cracks occur initially at the side
of the specimen. The crack slowly propagates until the center area of the specimen
where it abruptly snaps off from the other piece.

Figure 4 Fracture of Figure 5 Fracture of Brass

Aluminum specimen specimen

There are some problems occur during doing the experiment such as:

 The screw is not tighten when sting up the experiment

 The side spring is not settled some times
 Horizontal shaft – The shaft could not be accurately installed horizontally as there
was no levelling tool available. This problem may cause the bending load to have a
certain angle, changing the actual perpendicular load to the specimen
 The measuring of the effective length of the specimen.
 Surface roughness – The surface finish of the specimen was not completely smooth
and it will affect the stress acting on the
specimen.
 Effects of vibration – Vibration itself may produce heat and deformation that can
assist in a quicker fracture of the specimen
Conclusion

This experiment is an excellent way of displaying the effects of bending stresses on beams;
namely the fatigue that occurs from cyclic loading we can be able to measure and compare
the load and the specimen life before fail. We learn how to calculate the bending stress of
every material to compare with others and we determined that steel has longest time before
fail comparing to brass second and aluminium third.

The objective and learning outcome of this experiment has been achieved.

References

1. http://www.epi-eng.com/mechanical_engineering_basics/fatigue_in_metals.htm
2. http://www.wikipedia.org
3. http://gnatchung.tripod.com/Mechanics/id5.html