Low & High Cycle Fatigue

 

Fatigue is the repetitive action of loading and unloading at certain temperatures, i.e. changing stress over time. This causes the material to become weaker due to the effects encountered on the atomic levels. This action causes the material to fail at much lower stresses than their UTS levels. The fatigue life of less than 100,000 cycles is known as ‘low cycle fatigue’. However, above 100,000 cycles, fatigue is termed as ‘high cycle’ fatigue. 

This type of testing is carried out under stress or strain-controlled conditions at any given temperatures. The testing frames are capable of providing a loading capacity up to 250kN. The fatigue performance of materials is important to understand and predict the failure of any structure under loading and unloading conditions. This can save a huge amount of money and lives when it comes to structures in service. This test can be carried out to check the remnant fatigue life of structures and thereupon decide on whether or not the structure has to be re-structured or strengthened.

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