Course content

Fatigue in machinery and load-carrying structures. High- and low-cycle fatigue. Corrosion fatigue. Initiation and growth of fatigue cracks. Paris' law. Threshold value. S-N curve. Fatigue limit. Scatter. Short cracks. Kitagawa diagram. Surface condition. Notches. Size effects. Probabilistic design. Multiaxial fatigue. Cyclic plasticity. Neuber's rule. Load spectra. Cumulative damage. Sequence effects. Composites. Welded joints. Design principles. Design codes.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
- Fatigue mechanisms.
- Methodology for designing against high-cycle fatigue.
- Methodology for designing against low-cycle fatigue.
- Methodology for fatigue-crack-growth analysis.

Skills:
- Capability to use traditional methods for designing mechanical components against fatigue.
- Capability to use crack-growth analysis for life assessment of mechanical components containing cracks and crack-like defects.

General competence:
To be capable to design machines and structures against fatigue and to predict the expected life of components in service.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, exercises and demonstrations. If there is a re-sit examination, the examination form may be changed from written to oral.

Recommended previous knowledge

Advanced Materials Technology.

Course materials

N. E. Dowling, Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 3rd edition, April 2006. Supplementary notes.

Credit reductions