Fatigue Limit vs No Fatigue Limit Materials

Dec 26, 2005 1 Replies

Unless you could control the stresses to always be below a certain value, there isn't necessarily any advantage to using a fatigue limit material like steel for structures as far as overall reliability is concerned.



You could always obtain as good or better reliability over any lifespan simply by keeping the the average stresses sufficiently low in a material like aluminum that has no fatigue limit, that is, it gets weaker every time you bend it.


Bret Cahill



I don't see where it matters much. Few structures can be designed so the max stress to be below the endurance limit for steels. Besides most structures see a spectrum of loads ranging from near zero to the max once in a lifetime load.

For similar quality alloys, steels generally have better ductility and fatigue/fracture properties than aluminums.

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