What is a fatigue test?
November 29, 2009 2:10 am TechnologyA common method of doing afatigue test on materials is to apply repetitive loading to a test specimen in order to determine how the material will perform on actual use. Machines are used to apply a continuous and repetitive load where a hundred repetitions a second is a typical use scenario. A common instrument for fatigue test is a servohydraulic machine consisting of an actuator on top of a high stiffness frame. The specimen is placed on top of the frame and the actuator is used to apply a determined load on the test material. The machine is equipped with a data recorder that is able to take measurements at high frequencies. For guidance, the following standards are used: E1820, E399, E606, E647. There are two basic type of fatigue tests, tests for low cycle fatigue and test for high cycle fatigue. Both tests mimic conditions on the field and give engineers useful data that can be incorporated in the design.