UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
LEE KONG CHIAN FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE
LABORATORY SAFETY RULES
The following rules must be obeyed by all students in the Materials laboratories of the faculty. Willful
or repeated inadvertent noncompliance may result in dismissal or suspension from the laboratories.
I. No entry without permission:
i) Outsiders are not allowed to enter the laboratory without permission.
ii) No student is allowed to enter the laboratory unless permission has been given by a laboratory
staff or a lecturer.
II. At work in the laboratory:
i) Before the experiment start, students must study the information and understand the
procedures mentioned in the given lab sheet.
ii) No experiment may be attempted without the knowledge and permission of a lecturer.
iii) Horseplay, playing with equipment or tool, practical jokes, and pranks are dangerous and
prohibited.
iv) It is compulsory to wear proper attire when working in the laboratory:-
a) Covered shoes (no slippers, sandals, high heels or Crocs shoes)
b) Long pants and tidy attire
c) Neat, collected hair (tied up if long hair)
v) Do not eat or drink in the laboratory.
vi) Any equipment or tools broken or damaged must be reported immediately to the laboratory
staff before any action taken.
III. Before leaving the laboratory:
i) All equipment and benches must be cleaned at the end of each practical session.
ii) Wash hands and arms with soap and water before leaving the laboratory.
iii) No student is allowed to take away any components, equipment, tools or other property of
the laboratory without permission.
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
Faculty Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and
Science
Department: Department of Mechanical and Material
Engineering
Unit Code and Name UEMT2223 Materials Testing and Fracture
Analysis
Experiment No.: 2
Title of Experiment: Fatigue Testing
Laboratory Room No. and Name: KB729 Applied Mechanics 1
Experiment Duration (hour): 3 hours
Number of Student per Group 5 students
Objective
To investigate the fatigue characteristics of two different metals.
Introduction
Fatigue is a form of failure that occurs in structures subjected to dynamic and fluctuating
stresses. It is possible for fatigue failure to occur at a stress level lower than the tensile or yield
strength for a static load.
The compression and tensile stresses are imposed on the specimen as it is simultaneously bent
and rotated. The magnitude of the stress would affect the number of cycles the material is
capable of sustaining before failure.
Fatigue life (Nf) is the total number of stress cycles that will cause fatigue failure at some
specified stress amplitude. Fatigue strength is the maximum stress level that a material can
sustain, without failing, for some specified number of cycles. Fatigue limit is the maximum
stress amplitude level below which a material can endure an infinite number of stress cycles
and not fail.
Fatigue is sensitive to a number of test and material parameters that include specimen
fabrication and surface preparation, metallurgical variables, specimen alignment in the
apparatus, mean stress, and test frequency.
The process of fatigue is characterized by three distinct steps: (1) crack initiation, wherein a
small crack forms at some point of high stress concentration; (2) crack propagation, during
which this crack advances incrementally with each stress cycle; and (3) final failure, which
occurs very rapidly once the advancing crack has reached a critical size. Cracks associated with
fatigue failure almost always initiate (or nucleate) on the surface of a component at some point
of stress concentration. Any notch or geometrical discontinuity can act as a stress raiser and
fatigue crack initiation site; these design features include grooves, holes, keyways, and so on.
The sharper the discontinuity (i.e. the smaller the radius of curvature), the more severe the
stress concentration. Increasing the mean stress level would also lead to a decrease in fatigue
life.
32𝑃𝑙
Maximum bending stress amplitude, 𝑆 = ; where P is the load in Newton (N).
𝜋𝑑 3
d is the diameter of the center of the specimen.
l is the distance from the center of the specimen to the loading point.
N is the number of cycles to failure.
Equipment and Materials
Quantity estimation
Item Description *Item category (e.g. per set/group of
student)
Copper specimen SP 3
Brass specimen SP 3
Vernier Caliper W 1
Fatigue tester E 1
*Item category
SP Sample or specimen
C Consumable
CH Chemical
W Labware, glassware, tool, and
components
E Equipment
S Software
DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS
Fatigue Tester
Load
nut
Inverter speed control
Motor
Dyno
Limit
switch cut
off
Caution Statement
1. Make sure that the main switch of the inverter speed control is turned OFF before mounting
the specimen.
2. Be careful when removing the fractured specimen from the fittings as the specimen would
normally be heated up after it is subjected to rotating load for a large number of cycles.
Specimens
The specimens are of two different types of materials: copper and brass. Each specimen has
the shape of a dumbbell.
Procedures
1. Put one end of the specimen into the shaft and put the other end into the bearing at the load
end.
2. Slowly tighten the grips in the chuck with the tee key provided.
3. Set the required load on the specimen by turning the load nut.
Suggested load:
Copper specimen: 8, 10, 12 kg; Brass specimen: 12, 16, 20 kg
4. Set the revolution counter to zero and turn on the main switch of the inverter speed control.
5. Set the required frequency of the motor.
6. Let the motor run until the specimen fails.
7. Record the number of turns upon failure.
Questions
1. Discuss the effects of increasing applied stress magnitudes on the number of cycles to
failure for both samples.
2. Determine the fatigue strength of copper at 3 x 104 cycles.
3. Determine the fatigue life (Nf) of brass at the applied stress level of 50 MPa.
4. Identify THREE possible sources of error in the experiment and propose how the error can
be minimized to improve the accuracy of the experimental result.
5. Discuss THREE factors that can affect the fatigue life of nonferrous alloys. Then, propose
how to improve the fatigue life of nonferrous alloys.
Report Writing
Report must consist of Objective, Introduction, Equipment and Materials, Procedures, Results,
Discussion, Conclusions, and References.
