Digital Control for Fatigue Testing Machine Applied to Additively Manufactured Thermoplastics

A system that outputs force and number of applied force cycles with respect to time was designed to make a fatigue analysis machine. The design of electric circuit and the microcontroller Arduino code was developed and tested. The two subsystems comprise of a load cell for force readings and an electric motor for outputting cyclical forces to a test coupon. The subsystems should minimize error and maximize experimental modulation to validate the output data. The testing data of the subsystems of the fatigue apparatus was presented and analyzed to verify the design.