Plastically elastically dominant fatigue interaction in 316L stainless steel and 6061-T6 aluminium alloy

Extensive studies involving multilevel loading have been performed to study the interaction effects of High–Low and Low–High loading sequences on various metals.1–10 High–Low sequences generally yield ‘damage’ sums less than unity while ‘damage’ sums for Low–High sequences are typically > 1. It can be appreciated that the mechanisms governing fatigue behaviour under elastically dominant conditions differ from those observed under predominantly plastic conditions. This paper presents results on the interaction between plastically dominant fatigue (PDF) and elastically dominant fatigue (EDF) in 316L stainless steel and 6061‐T6 aluminium alloy. In addition, overstraining effects coupled with PDF and EDF interaction in 316L stainless steel are also reported.