Comparison of Procedures to Evaluate the Cyclic Stress-Strain Curve from Incremental Step Test

The design of structural components in low-cycle fatigue field often requires the knowledge of the cyclic properties of the material, which are commonly described by the classical relation of Ramberg-Osgood. In order to obtain the cyclic curve using experimental data from incremental step tests, four methodologies are described and critically discussed. Three methods differ in the procedure of evaluation of the elastic modulus, while in the last one the experimental data are interpolated with a single non-linear regression. The various techniques were applied to data obtained from tests carried out on stainless steel specimens, and the resulting differences were analysed and quantified. An average behaviour was evaluated considering the total set of data obtained from experimental tests. The choice of the most suitable method is related to both the strain range of interest and the goal for which the results are used.