Fatigue resistance of SMA-martensite bars subjected to flexural bending

The experimental results point out that the frequency of loading (i.e. temperature) significantly affects the fatigue life of the specimens. The damage accumulation process seems to follow the “Miner” linear damage theory for low-to-high (L-H) loading sequences, while the same does not hold for high-to-low (H-L) loading sequences. Surprisingly, a small fraction of LCF life consumption seems to enhance the subsequent HCF limits.