International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 12, December-2014

ISSN 2229-5518
17

Study of Fatigue and Life Assessment of Steel Structures:

IS 800:2007 Provision
Husain Hamdulay1, Molly Matthew2,
Swapnil Wani3
1
PG Student, Dept of Civil Engg, Saraswati College of Engineering, Kharghar, India, [email protected]
2
Asst. Prof, Dept of Civil Engg, Saraswati College of Engineering, India, [email protected]
3
Lecturer, Dept of Civil Engg, Saraswati College of Engineering, India,[email protected]


Abstract: Fatigue failures of steel structures have caused Fatigue failure may occur in many different forms:
catastrophic failures, no such fatigue failure has been reported mechanical fatigue, when the components are under only
for concrete structures, although there have been speculations in
fluctuating stress or strain; creep fatigue, when the
components are under cyclic loading at high temperature;
some cases whether the failure might be due to fatigue. In the
thermo mechanical fatigue, when both mechanical loading
design and detailing of steel structures, details that might be and temperature are cyclic; corrosion fatigue, when the
prone to cracking should be minimized, or avoided if possible. components are under cyclic loading in the presence of a
The structures should be inspected for cracks, both during chemically aggressive environment
fabrication to limit the size of initial flaws and also during
service to ascertain any crack growth. However, it is inevitable
that cracks or crack-like discontinuities will be present in
fabricated steel elements. Thus, the engineer is responsible to
consider the consequences of potential fatigue and subsequent

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brittle fracture. Fatigue is the phenomenon of decrease of
resistance of the material to repeated loading and failure take
place at the value of the stresses well below the ultimate tensile
strength of the material Fatigue was incorporated into design
criteria towards the end of the nineteenth century and has been
extensively studied since then specially for mechanical parts.
The fatigue behaviour of a fabricated steel structure is controlled
by the presence of pre-existing cracks or crack-like
discontinuities, which most often occur at welded connections
or other areas of stress concentrations.
Fig 1 Typical striations around sample due to welds

Key words : Crack Propagation, Fatigue Fracture, S-N Curve Fatigue failures may be classified as high-cycle and
low-cycle fatigue failures. Under high cycle fatigue, the
INTRODUCTION material deforms primarily elastically, and the number of
Fatigue in metals is the process of initiation and cycles for failure, or the failure time, is characterized in terms
growth of cracks under the action of repetitive tensile loads. If of the stress range. Low-cycle fatigue can be characterized by
crack growth is allowed to go on long enough, failure of the the presence of macroscopic cyclic plastic strains as
member can result when the uncracked cross-section is evidenced by a stress–strain hysteresis loop. Depending on
sufficiently reduced such that the member can no longer carry the material strength and ductility, the upper limit of the
the internal forces for the crack extends in an unstable mode. low-cycle fatigue regime may be from 100 to 100,000 cycles
The fatigue process can take place at stress levels that are or more. For common ductile structural materials, the
substantially less than those associated with failure under low-cycle fatigue regime is generally limited to less than
static loading conditions. The usual condition that produces 50,000 cycles
fatigue cracking is the application of a large number of load The major loads that a building is subjected to are dead, live,
cycles. wind, and earthquake loads. Dead and live loads are always
Consequently, the types of civil engineering present. The occurrence of cyclic stresses in buildings is
applications that are susceptible to fatigue cracking include usually caused by machinery and the induced cyclic stresses
structures such as bridges, crane support structures, gantry are typically low. Steel can withstand an infinite number of
girders, stacks and masts, and offshore structures, tower-like load reversals at low stresses. Hence, in buildings, fatigue is
(open) structures(subject to wind oscillations). not considered in the design of members and structures
supporting large rotating equipment. Crack growth in metals
requires two existing conditions: existing flaws and tensile
stresses. This crack growth can be delineated into three

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 12, December-2014
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distinct regimes: initiation, steady-state propagation and concentration and increases the fatigue strength. At low range
unstable fracture. of stress intensity factor the fatigue life increases rapidly and
its trend is toward infinity. At low stress level, the
accumulation of fatigue crack growth is very low and the
fatigue life increases toward infinity.
L.N.Ojha and R. K. Dube in their paper Fatigue: A
disastrous failure of welded structures have reviewed a
general history of failure caused due to fatigue, its
development, causes and remedial measures. A study of
fatigue failures reveals that not all the failures are caused by
inappropriate design. In majority of the cases the failure could
be attributed to geometric factors and imperfections in the
structure. Obviously, then attention to design details alone is
not sufficient to ensure against failure. Careful workmanship
is essential in welding. It has become increasingly evident that
defects introduced through poor workmanship or by accident
must bedetected by deligent and well trained inspectors prior
to the time that the structure is put into service.
Fig 2 Graph for Regimes of Cracks

The Fig-2 shows a graph identifying the regimes of crack Phases in the fatigue process
growth in metals. The horizontal axis is the number of load
The process of fatigue failure starts with dislocation
cycles, N. the vertical axis is the flaw size, a. the graph shows
movements, eventually forming persistent slip bands that
that as the number of cycles increase, the flaw size increases,
nucleate short cracks. The essential conditions for fatigue
and increases more rapidly as the number of cycles increases
failure are cyclic tensile loads, stress levels above a threshold
until fracture occurs. There are three regimes shown as the
value, and a flaw in the material.
number of cycles increases: crack initiation, crack growth,
The phases of fatigue, as illustrated by Figure 1, are:
and then fracture
1. Crack initiation

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2. Crack growth
LITERATURE REVIEW
3. Crack propagation
Nawir Rasidi, Agoes Soehardjono MD and Sri Murni
4. Final rupture
Dewi , Mar. 2011 in their paper stated that stress
concentrations may occur in the material due to some
discontinuities in the material itself. At the time of static
failure, the average stress across the entire cross section
would be the yield stress. However when the load is
repeatedly applied or the load fluctuates between tension and
compression, the centre points experience a higher range of
stress reversal than the applied average stress. These
fluctuations involving higher stress ranges, cause minute
cracks at these points, which open up progressively and
spread with each application of the cyclic load and ultimately
lead to rupture.
Henning Agerskov, 2000 in their paper have carried out
fatigue tests and the fracture mechanics analyses using load
histories. Both the fracture mechanics analysis and the fatigue
test results indicate that Miner‟s rule, which is normally used
in the design against fatigue in steel structures, may give
results, which are unconservative.
M. Al-Emrani & R. Kliger, 2009 in their paper have
concluded after investigation of more than 100 fatigue
damage cases reported for steel and composite bridges. It was
found that more than 90% of all reported damage cases are of
the deformation-induced type and are generated by some kind
of unintentional or otherwise overlooked interaction between
different load-carrying members or systems in the bridge.
Poor detailing, with unstiffened gaps and abrupt changes in
stiffness at the connections between different members, also
contributed to fatigue cracking in most details.
Mohammad Shah Alam, 2005 in his dissertation have
concluded that weld imperfections significantly reduce the
fatigue crack propagation life and fatigue strength of welded
join Improvement of weld geometry decreases the stress Fig 2 Initiation and propogation of crack

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 12, December-2014
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Crack propagation

• This further increases the stress levels and the process

continues, propagating the cracks across the grains
or along the grain boundaries, slowly increasing the
crack size.

• As the size of the crack increases the cross sectional

area resisting the applied stress decreases and
reaches a thresh hold level at which it is insufficient
to resist the applied stress.

Final fracture

• As the area becomes too insufficient to resist the

induced stresses any further a sudden fracture results
in the component.

FACTORS AFFECTING FATIGUE LIFE

 Material defects

 Surface roughness and surface treatments

 Imperfection in assembly or functionality

requirements in design

 Size

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 Loading types

 Harsh environments

 Damage in service
 Poor maintenance and improper repair.
 The number of cycles of loading to which the
member is subjected to.
 The stress range at the location
Size Effect
Fig 3 Component failed due toFatigue Failure Example
Crack initiation and Growth The large the component, the more initial imperfections
within the component. Experiments done on carbon steel
Areas of localized stress concentrations such as fillets, alloy found that the diameter of steel rod does affect the
notches, key ways, bolt holes and even scratches or tool fatigue life when the rod is under axial (tension-compression)
marks are potential zones for crack initiation. Cracks also loading.
generally originate from a geometrical discontinuity or
metallurgical stress raiser like sites of inclusions. As a result Surface Roughness
of the local stress concentrations at these locations, the
For many common types of loading, such as bending and
induced stress goes above the yield strength (in normal
torsion, the maximum stress occurs at the surface.
ductile materials) and cyclic plastic straining results due to
Furthermore, the surface is exposed to harsh environments
cyclic variations in the stresses. On a macro scale the
such as corrosion, or unexpected loads such as scratch and
average value of the induced stress might still be below the
impact. In addition, experiments show that even the failure of
yield strength of the material. During plastic straining slip
axial loading usually begins at the surface. With all the
occurs and (dislocation movements) results in gliding of
evidences pointing to the surface, it is necessary to understand
planes one over the other. During the cyclic stressing, slip
the effect of surface roughness and the treatments improving
saturation results which makes further plastic deformation
surface properties
difficult.As a consequence, intrusion and extrusion occurs
creating a notch like discontinuity in the material.

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 12, December-2014
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particular structural part, the allowable strain, or the

permissible change in the compliance of the component. The
prediction of fatigue life is mainly based on linear elastic
fracture mechanics. The crack propagation method, which is
a conservative approach to fatigue, has been widely used in
fatigue-critical applications where catastrophic failures will
result in the loss of human lives, such as aerospace and
nuclear industries.
We will confine our attention to the stress method, which is
followed by the IS: 800-2007.
The relation between stress and the number of cycles for
failure could be written as

log N = log C – m log S

where „N‟ is the number of cycles to failure, „C‟ is the

constant dependant on detailing category, „S‟ is the applied
constant amplitude stress range and „m„ is the slope of the S-N
curve.

Fig 4- Factors Affecting fatigue life of component ANALYSIS PROCEDURES AND DESIGN
PHILOSOPHY (IS 800-2007)
DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF FATIGUE
ANALYSIS An improved design philosophy to make allowances
Wohler‟s experiments with axles during 1852–60 were the for the shortcomings in the Working Stress Method was
first known laboratory tests with the objective to derive and developed in the late 1970‟s and has been extensively

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quantitatively describe the limits for fatigue. incorporated in design standards and codes. The probability
The approaches for fatigue analysis can be classified into of operating conditions not reaching failure conditions forms
(1) The stress method, the basis of Limit State Method (LSM).
(2) The strain method, and Fatigue Limit State is important where distress to the structure
(3) The crack propagation method. by repeated loading is a possibility. Stress changes due to
fluctuations in wind loading normally need not be considered.
Stress and Strain Methods: These methods characterize the Fatigue design shall be as per Section 13 of IS 800:2007.
total fatigue life in terms of cyclic stress range or strain range. When designing for fatigue, the load factor for action, γf,
In these methods, the number of stress or strain cycles to equal to unity shall be used for the load causing stress
induce fatigue failure in an initially uncracked or smooth fluctuation and stress range.
surfaced laboratory specimen is estimated under controlled
cyclic stress or strain. The resulting fatigue life includes the S-N curves and fatigue resistant design
fatigue crack initiation life to initiate a dominant crack and a The common form of presentation of fatigue data is by using
propagation of this crack until catastrophic failure. Normally, the S-N curve, where the total cyclic stress (S) is plotted
the fatigue initiation life is about 90% of the total life due to against the number of cycles to failure (N) in logarithmic
the smooth surface of the specimen. Under a high-cycle (> 102 scale.
to 104) low-stress fatigue situation, the material deforms As per IS 800-2007
primarily elastically and the failure time has traditionally been The values obtained from the standard S-N curve shall be
described in terms of stress range. However, stresses modified by a capacity reduction factor p
2 4 0.25
associated with low-cycle fatigue (< 10 to 10 ) are generally µt = (25/ tp ) ≤ 1.0
high enough to cause plastic deformation prior to failure.
Under these circumstances, the fatigue life is described in Fatigue Strength
terms of the strain range. The low-cycle approach to fatigue The fatigue strength of the standard detail for the normal or
design has found particularly widespread use in ground shear fatigue stress range, not corrected for effects discussed
vehicle industries. in 13.2.1, is given below (see also Fig. 22 and Fig. 23):
Crack Propagation Method (Fracture mechanics approach):
The basic principle of this method is that all engineering a) Normal stress range
components are essentially flawed. The size of a pre-existing when Nsc ≤ 5 X 106
flaw is generally determined from non-destructive flaw
detection techniques, such as visual, dye-penetrant, or x-ray
techniques, or the ultrasonic, magnetic, or acoustic emission When 5 x 106 ≤ Nsc ≤ 108
methods. The fatigue life is then defined as the number of
cycles to propagate the initial crack size to a critical size. The
choice of the critical size of cracks may be based on the
fracture toughness of the material, the limit load for the

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 12, December-2014
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Fatigue Assessment
The design fatigue strength for Nsc life cycles may
be obtained from the standard fatigue strength for Nsc cycles
by multiplying with correction factor, for thickness and
dividing by partial safety factor given in code

where

, = Partial safety factors for strength and load,

respectively , and
f = actual fatigue stress range for the detail.

NECESSITY FOR FATIGUE ASSESSMENT

a) Fatigue assessment is not normally required for building

structures except as follows:

1) Members supporting lifting or rolling loads,

2) Member subjected to repeated stress cycles from vibrating
machinery, Fig-4 S-N Curve for Normal Stress (IS 800-2007)

3) Members subjected to wind induced oscillations of a large REFERENCES

number of cycles in life, and [1] Nawir Rasidi1, Agoes Soehardjono and Sri Murni Dewi,
“Performance of Steel Structures under Fatigue Cyclic
4) Members subjected to crowd induced oscillations of a large Loading”, Mar. 2011, Volume 5, No. 3 (Serial No. 40), pp.

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number of cycles in life 265-272 Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, ISSN
1934-7359, USA
USING S-N METHOD TO EVALUATE FATGUE LIFE [2] Henning Agerskov, “Fatigue in steel structures under random
loading” Journal of Constructional Steel Research 53 (2000) Pg
Several S-N methods are available for estimating the
283–305
fatigue life of welded components: nominal stress method, [3] M. Al-Emrani1 & R. Kliger “Fatigue prone details in steel
structural hot spot stress method, notch stress method, bridges” NSCC2009
notch stress intensity method, and notch strain method [4] L.N. Ojha R.K. Dube “Fatigue: A Disastrous Failure Of welded
(Fricke 2003). Fatigue assessment according to the structures” international conference on Shot Peening and blast
nominal stress method uses several S-N curves together Cleaning. Pg 231-241.
with detail classes of basic joints. This is the simplest and [5] Mohammad Shah Alam “Structural Integrity And Fatigue Crack
Propagation Life Assessment Of Welded And Weld-Repaired
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method. No.46 Up/Mid Line Near Bilaspur, Secr.” by Government Of
India, Ministry Of Railways.
The fatigue strength in IS: 800 is defined by a series of [7] Dimitris Kosteas, “Design Example in Fatigue Based on
log ff – log N or log tf – log N curves, each applying to a European Standard ENV 1999-2 (Eurocode 9)”, 1999
typical detail category. Each category is designated by a [8] N. Subramanian, “Design of Steel Structures”, Oxford
number which represents the reference value ffn (normal University Press 2011.
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thick steel structures with piezoelectric wafer active sensors”
stress cycles, Nsc = 2 x 106. The values are rounded values. Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials,
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[10] IS 800 (2007): General Construction In Steel - Code ofPractice
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