Fatigue Resistance of Plastics

The behavior of materials subjected to repeated cyclic loading in terms of flexing, stretching, compressing or twisting is generally described as fatigue.

Such repeated cyclic loading eventually constitutes a mechanical deterioration and progressive material degradation. Failure life is defined as the number of cycles of deformation required to bring about the failure of the test specimen under a given set of oscillating conditions.

Fatigue data are generally reported as the number of cycles to fail at a given maximum stress level.

At high stress levels materials tend to fail at lower number of cycles and at low stresses the materials can be stressed cyclically for a greater number of times and in some cases the failure point is virtually impossible to establish.

Two basic types of tests have been developed to test fatigue behavior in thermoplastics:

• Flexural Fatigue Test
• Tensile Fatigue Test

For more information on Fatigue Resistance and Plastics, please contact your nearest Dotmar Technical Representative.