NEUBER’S RULE: A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

Lucas F. R. C. da Silva1*, Paulo M. S. T. de Castro1

1
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, R. Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal
*
Corresponding author: lucasfrc_silva@[Link]

ABSTRACT

The history of deformation at critical points is of paramount importance in low cycle fatigue. In parts with sudden changes
in geometry, due to the stress concentration effect plasticity may occur close to the notches even under nominal stress
much lower than the yield strength of the material. This paper aims to analyze the stress and strain state near the notches
using the Neuber rule and the Ramberg-Osgood description of the stress/strain relationship.

MATLAB software routines were developed to analyze theoretical results, and these results will be compared with finite
element method results using Abaqus software.

In order to evaluate Neuber 's rule both analytically and numerically, a plate with a central circular hole, subjected to
monotonic and cyclic loading, was analyzed to evaluate the behavior near the notch. Two different materials were
considered. One of the materials has no hardening, i.e., elastic perfectly plastic material; the other material was the S355
steel, displaying substantial hardening.

While the stress concentration factor Kσ and the strain concentration factor Kε have the same value in elastic regime, in
the elasto-plastic regime the stress concentration factor Kσ tends to decrease and the strain concentration factor Kε tends
to increase with increase in plastic deformation.

For the cases analyzed, Neuber’s rule gives accurate results for stresses and deformations near notches for σ/σy<0.6. The
errors for stress and strain resulting from the use of Neuber’s rule, taking as reference the non-linear Abaqus analyses,
are discussed and presented in this article.

KEYWORDS: Neuber rule; Ramberg-Osgood; stress concentration factor; strain concentration factor; Abaqus

INTRODUCTION RAMBERG-OSGOOD

The history of deformation at critical points is of Ramberg-Osgood equation aims to evaluate the non-
paramount importance in low cycle fatigue. In parts with linear relationship between stress and strain in plastic
sudden changes in geometry, due to the stress regime. In other words, Ramberg-Osgood is useful to
concentration effect, plasticity may occur close to the model material hardening. Deformations can be divided
notches even under nominal stress much lower than the in elastic and plastic deformation. Elastic deformation is
yield strength of the material. This paper aims to analyze the one that once the load is removed the deformation
the stress and strain state near the notches using the disappear while the plastic deformation remains.
Neuber’s rule and the Ramberg-Osgood description of According to Ramberg-Osgood the relation between total
the stress/strain relationship. MATLAB software deformation, elastic and plastic deformations can
routines were developed to analyze theoretical results, analyzed from equation (1).
and these results were compared with finite element
1
method results using Abaqus software. 𝜎
𝜀 = 𝜀𝑒 + 𝜀𝑃 = + ( ) 𝑛
𝜎
(1)
𝐸 𝐾
In order to evaluate Neuber’s rule both analytically and
numerically, a plate with a central circular hole, subjected
to monotonic and cyclic loading, was analyzed to NEUBER’S RULE
evaluate the behavior near the notch. Two different
materials were considered. One of the materials has no In uniaxial linear elastic case Neuber verified that
hardening, i.e., elastic perfectly plastic material; the other Kt=Kε =Kσ. After the material’s yield stress, the relation
material was the S355 steel, displaying substantial between stress/strain is no longer linear. On plastic
hardening. regime for elastic-perfectly plastic materials equations
(2) is used.

𝐾𝜎 . 𝜎𝑛 = 𝜎𝑌 ; 𝐾𝑡 > 𝐾𝜎 (2)

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It becomes important to highlight that the effect of the 3.2. Cyclic Loading
stress concentration factor during fracture depends on
material behaviour. In ductile materials will occur In cyclic loading cases turns out to be necessary to use
deformation on notches decreasing the value of the stress nominal stress amplitude ∆𝜎𝑛 instead of nominal stress.
concentration factor while fragile materials will break. Ramberg-Osgood equation will become:
High resistance materials are harder to deform next to
1
notches, thus the stress concentration factors will remain 𝛥𝜀
=
𝛥𝜎
+( )𝑛
𝛥𝜎
(5)
high while in low resistance materials deformation will 2 2𝐸 2𝐾
occur. The notches on low resistance materials will
become less sharp decreasing the stress concentration. And Neuber’s Rule for cyclic loading will become:
Further explanations can be found, for e.g., in de Castro 𝛥𝜎.𝛥𝜀
and Meggliolaro [1]. 𝐾𝑡2 = (6)
𝛥𝜎𝑛 .𝛥𝜀𝑛

In ductile parts is possible to analyze that the relation Combining equations (5) and (6) makes possible to
𝐾
between 𝜎 tends to decrease while the relation between obtain an equation that relates nominal stress and stress
𝐾𝑡
𝐾ԑ and strain next to notches.
tends to increase.
𝐾𝑡

1 1
𝛥𝜎𝑛 𝛥𝜎𝑛 𝛥𝜎 𝛥𝜎
𝐾𝑡2 . 𝛥𝜎𝑛 ( +( ) 𝑛 ) = 𝛥𝜎 ( + ( ) 𝑛) (7)
𝐸 𝐾 𝐸 𝐾

ANALYZED MODEL

In order to analyze Neuber’s rule numerically and

analytically was developed a finite element model of a
plate with a hole loaded remotely. The plate is squared
with dimensions 100 mm and a center hole with radius of
Figure 1. Schematic figure of 𝐾𝜎 , 𝐾ԑ and product of 10mm. The plate will be submitted to different
𝐾𝜎 . 𝐾ԑ behaviour. monotonic loadings of up to 350 MPa. It will also be
submitted to a cyclic loading in order to analyze the
Neuber, while investigating strain concentration in behaviour next to the notch.
plastic regime in prismatic parts of non-linear material
under torsion and low deformation, proved that: Two different materials were studied. One of them will
𝜎.𝜀 have no hardening and will be considered as an elastic
𝐾𝑡2 = (3) perfectly plastic material, EPP. The other will be steel
𝜎𝑛 .𝜀𝑛
S355 with great hardening. Mechanical properties can be
It became common to generalize the effect of stress analyzed on table 1.
concentration to any kind of part or load under plane
stress. This relation became known as Neuber’s Rule. Table 1. Mechanical Properties of elastic perfectly
plastic material and Steel S355
3.1. Monotonic Loading
Elastic Perfectly S355
According to previously shown equations becomes Plastic
possible to evaluate stress and strains next to notches as Young’s Modulus (GPa) 200 207
function of nominal stress. Combining equations (1) and Yield Strength (MPa) 400 460
(3) is possible to obtain the relation between nominal and
real stress under monotonic loading
The plate geometry was modelled on software Abaqus in
a 2D model of 1/4 of the plate. Symmetry condition was
𝜎𝑛 𝜎 1
𝜎 𝜎 1 applied in axis X and Y. The loading was applied as a
𝐾𝑡2 . 𝜎𝑛 ( + ( 𝑛) 𝑛 ) = 𝜎 ( + ( ) 𝑛 ) (4) pressure. A structured mesh with refining next to the
𝐸 𝐾 𝐸 𝐾
notch was used. Quadratic elements with reduced
Since the left-hand side of the equation is known is integration and plane stress CPS8R were applied to the
possible to calculate local stress. Strains for monotonic model. Boundary conditions and mesh can be analyzed
loading can be evaluated from equation (1). from figure 2.

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 Figure 4. Comparison between experimental and
Figure 2. (A) Boundary conditions applied to the model; Ramberg-Osgood modelling.
(B) Mesh used in Abaqus.
It is important to highlight that the results are so precise
4.1. Evaluation of 𝐾𝑡 that in part of the domain the curves superimpose each
other.
The proposed geometry has a stress concentration factor
Kt=3. In order to estimate Kt numerically in elastic
regime was applied a 100 MPa load to EPP material. The MONOTONIC LOADING RESULTS
100 MPa load was chosen because theoretically should
not have any plastic strain, thus Kt=Kσ =Kε. Figure 3 5.1. Material Elastic Perfectly Plastic
shows that the maximum stress is 299.9 MPa on the hole
border. The Kt evaluated as 3 has an error of 0.033%. Figure 6 shows the graphic results of Neuber’s rule for
different loadings applied on EPP material obtained in
software MATLAB. Tables 3 and 4 shows the
comparison between results obtained from ABAQUS
and MATLAB and the error.

Table 3. Overview of stress results for ABAQUS

simulations and Neuber’s rule on MATLAB routine for
material EPP

Load Abaqus Neuber’s Error (%)

(MPa) stress rule stress
Figure 3. Numerical results for material EPP and load (MPa) (MPa)
of 100 MPa. 100 299.9 300 0.033
150 400.93 400 0.23
3.2. Ramberg-Osgood Modelling
200 400.70 400 0.175
In order to model material hardening Ramberg-Osgood 250 400.72 400 0.18
was used. Parameters for material S355 were extracted 300 400.74 400 0.185
from a work made by Jesus et al. [2]. Figure 5 shows the
comparison between experimental and Ramberg-Osgood
results. Parameters K and n can be evaluated from table Table 4. Overview of strain results for ABAQUS
2. simulations and Neuber’s rule on MATLAB routine for
material EPP
Table 2. Parameter used in Ramberg-Osgood model
Load Abaqus Neuber’s Error (%)
Elastic Perfectly S355 (MPa) strain rule strain
Plastic 100 0.0015 0.0015 0
K 401 595.85 150 0.00283 0.00254 10.24
n 0.001 0.0757 200 0.00458 0.0045 1.74
250 0.00818 0.00703 14.06
300 0.0184 0.01013 44.94

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 Table 6. Overview of strain results for ABAQUS
simulations and Neuber’s rule on MATLAB routine for
material S355

Load Abaqus Neuber’s Error (%)

(MPa) strain rule strain
100 0.001792 0.001499 16.35
150 0.003437 0.00276 19.69
200 0.006351 0.00456 28.20
Figure 5. Graphic analysis for stress and strain for 250 0.01679 0.00687 59.08
Neuber’s Rule. Material EPP 300 0.0372 0.0102 72.58
Figure 6 shows values for Kε, Kσ and the product Kε.Kσ 350 0.166 0.0185 88.85
in function of normalized yield strength. It is possible to
𝜎
see that the product of Kε.Kσ is constant up to ≤ 0.6.
𝜎𝑌
𝜎
For values of > 0.6 the product of Kε.Kσ explodes. In
𝜎𝑌
other words, Neuber’s rule seems not to be valid for
𝜎
> 0.6.
𝜎𝑌

Figure 7. Graphic analysis for stress and strain for

Neuber’s Rule. Material EPP

Figure 8 shows values for Kε, Kσ and the product Kε.Kσ

as a function of normalized yield strength. It is possible
𝜎
to see that the product of Kε.Kσ is constant up to ≤ 0.9.
𝜎𝑌
Figure 6. Graphic analysis for stress and strain for 𝜎
For values of ≤ 0.9 the product of Kε.Kσ. In other
Neuber’s Rule. Material EPP 𝜎𝑌
𝜎
words, Neuber’s rule seems not to be valid for ≤ 0.9.
𝜎𝑌
5.2. Material S355

Figure 7 shows the graphic results of Neuber’s rule for

different loadings applied on steel S355 obtained in
software MATLAB. Table 5 and 6 shows the comparison
between results obtained from ABAQUS and MATLAB
and the error.

Table 5. Overview of stress results for ABAQUS

simulations and Neuber’s rule on MATLAB routine for
material S355
Figure 8. Graphic analysis for stress and strain for
Load Abaqus Neuber’s Error (%) Neuber’s Rule. Material EPP
(MPa) stress rule stress
(MPa) (MPa) CYCLIC LOADING RESULTS
100 267.3 291 8.98
150 324.2 354 9.25 In this section will be presented the results to cyclic
loading applied to the plate. For material EPP the applied
200 380.6 381 0.26 load block was (0 →200 →-200 → 200 →-200 →200)
250 426.9 398 6.57 MPa and for S355 the applied loading block was
300 460.9 414 10.0 (0 →150 →-150 → 150 →-150 → 150) MPa. Both cases
were analyzed under R=-1. The loading magnitudes were
350 519.1 436 15.9 selected in order to be lower than 60% of the materials
yield stress.

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Table 7 shows the results for Δε and Δσ and its errors for Table 8. Comparison between hysteresis loop 1 for
material EPP. The obtained results were analyzed in material S355
function of Δε and Δσ since those are the main driving
forces of low cycle fatigue. Abaqus Neuber’s rule Error (%)
Δε 0.005448 0.00552 1.32
Table 7. Comparison between hysteresis loop for
material elastic perfectly plastic Δσ (MPa) 774 709.82 8.29

Abaqus Neuber’s rule Error (%) Table 9. Comparison between hysteresis loop 2 for
Δε 0.009999 0.009 9.90 material S355
Δσ (MPa) 873 800 8.36
Abaqus Neuber’s rule Error (%)
Δε 0.005336 0.00552 3.45
Figures 9 and 10 shows hysteresis loop for load blocks
applied to both materials. Δσ (MPa) 815 709.82 12.9

CONCLUSIONS

From the results obtained in this work is possible to reach

to some conclusions. The stress concentration factor K σ
and strain concentration factor 𝐾𝜀 have the same value in
elastic regime. When plasticity occurs the stress
concentration factor tends to decrease while the strain
concentration factor tends to increase.
Figure 9. Comparison between Stress-Strain obtained
from Abaqus and Neuber’s rule for material EPP Neuber’s rule showed good accuracy for loads lower
than 60% of the materials yield stress. For loads
𝜎
> 0.6 on monotonic loadings Neuber’s rule leads to
𝜎𝑌
wrong calculations.

REFERENCES

[1]de Castro J.T.P, Meggiolaro, M.A., 2016. ”Fadiga:

Técnicas e Práticas de Dimensionamento Estrutural
sob Cargas Reais de Serviço”, Createspace
Figure 10. Comparison between Stress-Strain obtained Independent Publishing Platform
from Abaqus and Neuber’s rule for material S355
[2] de Jesus, A.M.P., Matos, R., Fontoura, B.F.C.,
It is important to highlight that the hysteresis loop
obtained through Abaqus shows material hardening. This Rebelo,C., da Silva, L. S., Veljkovic, M.O., 2012.
phenomenon can be observed through the fact that “A comparison of the fatigue behavior between
besides same stress range applied the strains on the S355 and S690 steel grades”. Journal of
second loop will become smaller. Constructional Steel Research, 79, 140-150.

Since the material behaviour changes from one loop to

another the errors will be calculated to each loop
individually. The results shown on table 6 show good
convergence with those obtained through Neuber’s Rule
and Ramberg-Osgood.

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