The classical theory of elasticity, as is well known,fails to supply an adequate

description of the fatigue behavior of machine parts or other structural elements

involving high stress concentrations. Since the endurance limit in fatigue is usually
well below the macroscopic elastic limit of many materials, the inadequacy cannot be
due to inelastic (plastic) effects.

The classical theory of elasticity is not adequate in the presence of large stress (or
strain) gradients.

In view of the discontinuous nature of polycrystalline engineering materials, such an

explanation would seem quite plausible. Indeed, experimental evidence 11 indicates
that the discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and fatigue-test results is
more pronounced for materials with a coarse-grain structure.

To correct this evidently unsatisfactory situation, it appears natural to incorporate into

the theory of elasticity the effects of strain gradients, and this is precisely what the
Cosserat theory, at least in part, accomplishes. Stress concentrations using this theory
have been calculated first by Mindlin[], Sternberg [12] and Neuber [].

Even in the simplest version of a Cosserat theory there is one additional, nonclassical
material constant which influences the stress distribution. This constant is analogous
to the bending stiffness in a beam and may be termed the modulus of curvature. The
ratio of this modulus to the shear modulus will define the square of a length I.
Alternatively, this length I may be considered as the new material constant and the
influence of couple-stresses depends strongly on its magnitude. As pointed out
succinctly by Mindlin, if the ratio of the smallest dimension of a body to l is large, the
effect of couple-stresses is negligible.

However, when there are strain gradients and a dimension of a body approaches,
couple-stresses, according to the Cosserat theory, may produce effects of appreciable
magnitude. For example, in the two dimensional problem of plane strain in an infinite
region with a cylindrical hole subjected to uniaxial tension, stress-concentration
factors (i.e., ratio of the maximum value of the force-stress to the nominal stress) of
2.9, 2.7, 2.3, and 1.8 for the values 10, 4, 2, and 0 of the ratio of hole radius to
characteristic length of the material were calculated. Thus the reduction in the stress-
concentration factor from the classical value 3 does not become appreciable until the
hole radius is reduced to the same order of magnitude as the characteristic length.
Similar results have been obtained for the case of pure shear at infinity.

Koiter 10 has suggested simple but crucial tests for the determination of the additional
constant l. These tests concern torsion of cylindrical bars, cylindrical bending of fiat
plates, and pure bending of a bar with rectangular cross section.

Experience in fatigue tests indicates, Koiter points out, that a noticeable effect of
stress gradients in the vicinity of notches or holes appears in most materials when the
notch or hole radius is reduced to the order of magnitude of 2 to 5 mm. Thus the
characteristic length I cannot be smaller than 1/2 to 1 mm if the stress gradient effect
is to be explained by the influence of couple-stresses in an isotropic material.

Koiter's example of cylindrical bending of flat plates, on the other hand, indicates that
the flexural rigidity of a plate, due to the effect of couple-stresses, is of the magnitude
24(1- v)12/h 2 where v is Poisson's ratio (= 0.3) and h is the thickness of the plate.
This increase amounts to 17 percent for a plate thickness h = 5 mm, if l = 1/2 ram,
and even 70 percent for a plate thickness of 2-1/2 mm. It seems highly unlikely that
such large deviations from the predictions of the classical theory ~could have
remained unnoticed.

Koiter ventured the conjecture that the stress gradient effect in fatigue cannot be
described satisfactorily by allowing for the presence of couple-stresses in an isotropic
elastic continuum. Bending tests on aluminum-alloy sheet specimens to study the
influence of sheet thickness on the flexural rigidity reported by Schijve 14 did not
reveal anything other than that predicted by the classical theory. Similarly negative
results were arrived at by Ellis and Smith 15 in similar experiments.