Determination of fatigue limit by static thermographic method and classic thermographic method on notched specimens

The aim of the present work is to investigate the possibility to evaluate the fatigue limit of such a component through the so-called Static Thermographic Method (STM). This new approach has been proposed in 2013 by Risitano and Risitano to determinate the fatigue limit of metallic materials through static tensile tests. Investigating the trend of the surface temperature of the material during static tensile test, the method proposes to correlate the first deviation from linearity of the surface temperature to a damage limit that has been proven to have relation with the fatigue limit. Static tensile tests at different stress rate have been carried out on V-notched specimens. Stepwise fatigue tests have been carried out in order to apply the classic Thermographic Method that has been hugely validated to determinate the fatigue limit of metallic components. Static tests at different stress rate showed that the method is dependent on this parameter; anyway, this dependence does not affect the results achieved in terms of fatigue limit. The experimental results showed a good agreement with the energetic methods considered in the present work.