Using copper thin-walled tubular specimens, the subsequent yield surfaces under pre-tension, pre-torsion and pre-combined tension-torsion are measured, where the single-sample and multi-sample methods are applied respectively to determine the yield stresses at specified offset strain. The rule and characteristics of the evolution of the subsequent yield surface are investigated. Under the conditions of different pre-strains, the influence of test point number, test sequence and specified offset strain on the measurement of subsequent yield surface and the concave phenomenon for measured yield surface are studied. Moreover, the feasibility and validity of the two methods are compared. The main conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) For the single or multi-sample method, the measured subsequent yield surfaces are remarkably different from cylindrical yield surfaces proposed by the classical plasticity theory; (2) there are apparent differences between the test results from the two kinds of methods: the multi-sample method is not influenced by the number of test points, test order and the cumulative effect of residual plastic strain resulting from the other test point, while those are very influential in the single-sample method; and (3) the measured subsequent yield surface may appear concave, which can be transformed to convex for single-sample method by changing the test sequence. However, for the multiple-sample method, the concave phenomenon will disappear when a larger offset strain is specified.

After pre-fatigue cycles at different strain amplitudes with different N/Nf values (33.3%, 50%, and 75%), specimens of HRB335 steel were subjected to uniaxial tension until failure. By this method the mechanical properties of the specimens after pre-fatigue testing were measured, and the fracture morphology and microscopic morphology in the vicinity of the specimen’s neck surface near the fracture were observed. The verification of the characteristics to be used to estimate the damage caused during the loading cycles was conducted. By observing optical microscope images of the surface area near the neck of the specimens, it was found that the images of surface cracks were significantly different and strongly depended on the number of pre-fatigue cycles the specimen had undergone. In response to this phenomenon, both the microscopic images taken directly from the photos of the surface crack distribution and the binary images based on them were statistically analyzed, and then a parameter, S, denoted as the “unit crack area”, characterizing the cumulative fatigue damage was suggested. Furthermore, the test procedure and the calculation formula for determining the image parameters were summarized, and a method for evaluating the remaining life of steel after low-cycles of reversed tension and compression was proposed.