Estimation of the fatigue limit on the basis of infrared and potential drop methods

An accurate knowledge of the fatigue limit plays an important role in the fatigue structural design. Traditional experimental methods to estimate this stress level are highly time consuming. In recent years the application of Infrared (IR) technology for accelerated fatigue damage evaluation has increased. However, this technology is not always deployable, e.g. due to lack of space or accessibility, in aqueous environments. Under such circumstances, the Potential Drop (PD) technique has shown to be applicable for crack initiation and crack growth assessment. This paper focuses on the description and comparison of the established IR and a novel PD method to find the fatigue limit of an HSLA steel in an efficient manner. Based on preliminary tests, the results of both methods show good correlation.An accurate knowledge of the fatigue limit plays an important role in the fatigue structural design. Traditional experimental methods to estimate this stress level are highly time consuming. In recent years the application of Infrared (IR) technology for accelerated fatigue damage evaluation has increased. However, this technology is not always deployable, e.g. due to lack of space or accessibility, in aqueous environments. Under such circumstances, the Potential Drop (PD) technique has shown to be applicable for crack initiation and crack growth assessment. This paper focuses on the description and comparison of the established IR and a novel PD method to find the fatigue limit of an HSLA steel in an efficient manner. Based on preliminary tests, the results of both methods show good correlation.C