Patent — available for licensing
Fully Reversible Bending Test Apparatus for Characterization of Material Fatigue Behavior and Performance
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
Traditional uniaxial fatigue systems require precise alignment and symmetric specimen geometries, limiting their effectiveness for asymmetric cross-sections (e.g., lap welds), thin-walled structures, additively manufactured parts, and brittle materials such as ceramics. Testing these materials often requires cumbersome or custom fixtures and workarounds, which slow evaluations and add cost, delay, and uncertainty. In response to this issue, researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have developed a compact bending fatigue apparatus that applies fully reversed flexural loading, generating alternating tensile and compressive strains on the same specimen face through pure bending (no shear forces). This approach eliminates the need for symmetric specimens and enables reliable fatigue characterization of geometries and materials that are difficult to test with conventional methods. It has been advanced through prototyping and early evaluations to help teams assess materials faster and inform design decisions across numerous specimen types.