Cumulative damage evaluation of steel using infrared thermography

Following the first damage models proposed by Palmgren and Miner, numerous researchers have focused on the problem of predicting the residual life of a material from its load history. Every component dynamically loaded, particularly over the fatigue limit, shows an increase in temperature. The higher the temperature, the higher the load applied. Therefore, in an undamaged material or mechanical component, it is possible to associate each loading stress over the fatigue limit with a temperature value at the hottest point of the surface during the first phase of the test trough a thermo-mechanical characterization (TMC) map. Using the thermoanalysis of steel specimen data, this paper shows that the energetic effect (as a different temperature increments for equal loading uniaxial stress) can be used to evaluate the cumulative damage caused by previous loading. The tests were performed using C40 steel for which traditional fatigue curves in literature are reported.