Cyclic Stress-Strain and Strain-Life Data for Aerospace Materials

Local strain-based fatigue analysis has been in use since the 1970s, its applications being initially rooted  in the military aircraft and automotive industries of the US where much of the developmental work was based.  The technique tracks conditions of local stress and strain at a notch root and in order to estimate life two sets of data are required for each material - cyclic stress-strain data and strain-life data.  Most of the large number of data initially produced are held privately by industry, and relatively few data have entered the public domain.  The technique is now widely accepted throughout the aerospace industry, yet the extent of published data, whilst increasing, remains limited and much of the testing continues to be done on a private basis.  In many cases this can involve duplicating tests carried out by another company on the same material.

ESDU began work in 2006 on the collection and collation of raw cyclic stress-strain and strain-life data points for aerospace metallic materials.  Beside the data available in the literature and other readily-accessible sources, efforts were made to encourage organisations with their own data to contribute to a database from which they would then benefit.  Considerable support and enthusiasm were expressed for this project and generous donations of data were received from a number of companies.  The ESDU Data Item containing the data is nearing completion and will be issued shortly.