Free Fatigue Life Calculator

Estimate fatigue life in cycles using the Basquin power-law relationship between stress amplitude and number of cycles.

MPa
MPa

Fatigue Life (N)

59,049 cycles

log10(N)4.77

Fatigue Life (N) vs Stress Amplitude (Sa)

Basquin's Law for Fatigue Life

Fatigue failure occurs when a material is subjected to repeated cyclic loading below its static strength. Basquin's equation relates stress amplitude to the number of cycles to failure.

Formula

Sa = Sf' × (2N)^b or equivalently N = (Sa / Sf')^(1/b) / 2

Sf' is the fatigue strength coefficient (approximately the true fracture strength), b is the fatigue exponent (typically -0.05 to -0.15 for metals), and N is the number of reversals to failure (2N = cycles).

Example Calculation

A steel component with Sf' = 900 MPa, b = -0.1, subjected to 300 MPa stress amplitude.

  1. 01Sa/Sf' = 300/900 = 0.3333
  2. 02N = (0.3333)^(1/(-0.1)) = (0.3333)^(-10)
  3. 03N = (1/0.3333)^10 = 3.0^10 = 59,049 cycles

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