Energy-Derived, Damage-Based Failure Criterion for Fatigue Testing

Determination of the failure limit in a repeated-load fatigue test in the laboratory has relied entirely on the arbitrary selection of a fixed criterion. The constant strain and constant stress modes of fatigue loading have been described by a consistent definition of failure in flexural fatigue testing because of the distinctly different application of energy during the loading history. The most widely accepted definition is a decrease in initial stiffness by 50 percent. Procedures examining energy input and dissipated energy have required different schemes for each mode in an attempt to describe similar states of damage in the mixture. A proposed method is presented for examining dissipated energy to select a consistent level of material behavior that is indicative of the damage accumulation in the mixture. This procedure shows the similarity between the constant stress and constant strain modes of testing and is shown to provide the potential for unifying the now phenomenological description of fatigue with a more rational energy-based description.