2. Resistance to low-cycle fatigue initiation

2.1 Introduction

In contrast to endurance fatigue [M 4 170] , when the stress amplitude is high, each stress cycle results in macroscopic plastic deformation, leading to a limited number of cycles to failure.

This range can be situated from the stress corresponding to the macroscopic yield strength to that corresponding to the static failure load (which would cause failure in a quarter of a cycle) of the metal under consideration, stressed under the same conditions. In this field, the number of cycles to failure generally extends up to 10 ⁴ or 10 ⁵ (Low Cycle Fatigue), depending on the...