Techniques and Equipment for Axial Fatigue Testing of Sheet Steel

The techniques and equipment discussed in this paper were developed in order to characterize the fatigue behavior of sheet steels ranging in thickness from 0.10-0.20 in. The unique developments consist of a specimen gripping and alignment device, and an inexpensive, highly sensitive diametral extensometer.

Test results indicate that the combination of specimen geometry and specially designed grips performed satisfactorily, and that longitudinal and diametral specimens are satisfactory for strain amplitudes up to 0.75 and 7%, respectively. The techniques could be used to obtain axial fatigue data on sheet steel as thin as 0.100 in.