With the rapid progress in the fracture mechanics, machines and structures, in recent years, have often been designed based on the damage-tolerance design principle in many fields.
Under such situations, it would go without saying that the elucidation of precise properties of fatigue failure is undoubtedly one of the most important themes in the reliability-based design of structures. It is well-known, however, that the fatigue failure involves many random factors; therefore, it necessarily follows that studies based on the probability theory are required.
The probability of failure and the distribution of fatigue life data in rotating bending fatigue tests were investigated for SM45C, using the normal, log-normal, exponential, and Weibull distributions, and comparison has been made with the results of fatigue tests.
Calculated results in this analysis were in good agreement with the experimental results obtained through the constant rotating bending stress test using a number of specimens at each stress level.