Fatigue and fractures of RG7 bronze after cyclic torsion and bending

•Determine the stresses according to the model of an elasto-plastic body for bending and torsion loading.•Bronze RG7, incorporation of the plasticity results in a reduction of the determined stresses.•The morphology of fracture surface of investigated bronze display the multi crack initiation origins, which are shallow surface damages.•Bending and torsion the cracks always occurred on one side only, which is the consequence of the very high plasticity of the material.