Mean stress effect in stress-life for hard steels

Abstract This paper examines the effect of mean stress on the fatigue behavior of very hard carburized steels. Current theories suggest that the maximum stress at the fatigue limit continuously decreases with decreasing minimum stress whereas the results of this study indicate that the maximum stress remains constant for minimum stresses less than the fully reversed constant amplitude fatigue limit minimum stress. The theory proposed by the authors corrects this error by maintaining the maximum stress at the fatigue limit constant with decreasing minimum stress in the compressive mean stress region.