Hysteresis and Mechanical Fatigue

Abstract

The material dumping, known also as inner friction or, simply hysteresis, is considered to be related to energy dissipation in the volume of a macro-continuous medium. This phenomenon takes place when a more or less homogeneous volume of material is subjected to cyclic stresses of constant amplitude. The dumping mechanism is usually associated with material microstructure. Hysteresis can be obtained theoretically within an elastic-plastic model, when fixing dynamic stress and deriving strain response. This paper shows theoretical and experimental results obtained in the investigation and leads to discussions and conclusions of practical applicability.