It is recognized that flaking-type failure due to contact fatigue is closely related to the growth of the shear-mode (Modes II and III) fatigue crack. In our research group, it is demonstrated that a shear mode fatigue crack can be reproduced for the cylindrical specimens by applying the cyclic torsion in the presence of the static axial compressive stress. However, a biaxial servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine used is quite expensive to purchase and costly to maintain. Low testing speed (〜10 Hz) of the testing machine further aggravates the situation. As a result, study on shear mode fatigue crack growth is still in nascent stage. To overcome those difficulties, we have developed a high performance and cost-effective testing machine to reproduce the shear mode fatigue crack growth by improving the available resonance-type torsion fatigue testing machine. The primary advantage of using the resonance-type torsion fatigue testing machine is cost-efficiency. In addition, the testing speed can be effectively improved in comparison with that of a biaxial servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine.
