This practice provides supplemental instructions for using Test Method D 5961/D 5961M to obtain bearing fatigue data for material specifications, research and development, material design allowables, and quality assurance. The primary property that results is the fatigue life of the test specimen under a specific loading and environmental condition. Replicate tests may be used to obtain a distribution of fatigue life for specific material types, laminate stacking sequences, environments, and loading conditions. Guidance in statistical analysis of fatigue data, such as determination of linearized stress life (S-N) curves, can be found in Practice E 739.

This practice can be utilized in the study of fatigue damage in a polymer matrix composite bearing specimen. The loss in strength associated with fatigue damage may be determined by discontinuing cyclic loading to obtain the static strength using Test Method D 5961/D 5961M.

Note 2—This practice may be used as a guide to conduct spectrum loading. This information can be useful in the understanding of fatigue behavior of composite structures under spectrum loading conditions, but is not covered in this standard.

Factors that influence bearing fatigue response and shall therefore be reported include the following: material, methods of material fabrication, accuracy of lay-up, laminate stacking sequence and overall thickness, specimen geometry, specimen preparation (especially of the hole), fastener-hole clearance, fastener type, fastener geometry, fastener installation method, fastener torque (if appropriate), countersink depth (if appropriate), specimen conditioning, environment of testing, time at temperature, type of mating material, number of fasteners, type of support fixture, specimen alignment and gripping, test frequency, force (stress) ratio, bearing stress magnitude, void content, and volume percent reinforcement. Properties that result include the following:

Hole elongation versus fatigue life curves for selected bearing stress values.

Bearing stress versus hole elongation curves at selected cyclic intervals.

Bearing stress versus fatigue life curves for selected hole elongation values.

1.1 This practice provides instructions for modifying static bearing test methods to determine the fatigue behavior of composite materials subjected to cyclic bearing forces. The composite material forms are limited to continuous-fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites in which the laminate is both symmetric and balanced with respect to the test direction. The range of acceptable test laminates and thicknesses are described in 8.2.

1.2 This practice supplements Test Method D 5961/D 5961M with provisions for testing specimens under cyclic loading. Several important test specimen parameters (for example, fastener selection, fastener installation method, and fatigue force/stress ratio) are not mandated by this practice; however, repeatable results require that these parameters be specified and reported.

1.3 This practice is limited to test specimens subjected to constant amplitude uniaxial loading, where the machine is controlled so that the test specimen is subjected to repetitive constant amplitude force (stress) cycles. Either engineering stress or applied force may be used as a constant amplitude fatigue variable. The repetitive loadings may be tensile, compressive, or reversed, depending upon the test specimen and procedure utilized.

1.4 The values stated in either SI units or inch-pound units are to be regarded separately as standard. Within the text the inch-pound units are shown in brackets. The values stated in each system are not exact equivalents; therefore, each system must be used independently of the other. Combining values from the two systems may result in nonconformance with the standard.

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.