Fig. 2
From: The effect of contouring on fatigue resistance of three types of fracture fixation plates
Each step consisted of 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz in the four-point bending configuration. Upper and lower load level targets for each cycle were F max and F min, respectively, where F min = 10 % F max for each step. F max was increased from one step to the next by a constant load increment corresponding to 10 % M y,min, determined in preliminary tests to failure for each plate type. These F max load increase increments differed for the plate types due to geometry differences and are listed in Table 1. For example, for BFS Reconstruction Plates, F max,b+1 − F max,b = 12.5 N, where b = step number. Tests continued with subsequent steps of incrementally increased F max until conditions of failure were met (plate fracture or plastic deformation beyond 10° bend of the plate at 10-N load, applied between steps)