Micromechanical model of stage I to stage II crack growth transition for aluminium alloys

Stage I to Stage II crack growth transition is a kinetic process that is particularly studied in this work. Crack growth transition is modelled to occur when small fatigue crack growth is deterred by an effective barrier that reduces the crack growth rate to a minimum. Effective blockage of small crack growth due to barriers is characterised by pile-up of dislocations. Crack tip pile-up sliding displacement is formulated by adopting a continuous configuration of dislocation pile-up. Transition condition is quantitatively determined when a crack tip sliding displacement of Stage I cracks just meets a crack tip opening displacement of Stage II cracks. As a result, a dislocation-based micromechanical model is systematically developed that enables kinetic predictions of crack growth transition and growth rates of small fatigue cracks. Moreover, the concept of microstructurally-affected-zone is further interpreted in terms of local microstructure and load levels, leading to good explanations for scatters of small crack growth. All model-based growth rate predictions show a good coincidence with experimental results.     

Evolution of fatigue damage using the fatigue damage map method

Using only readily available material properties and the concept of the fatigue damage map the work attends to develop a methodology able to predict crack tip propagation rates characterising each of the fatigue stages, namely crack arrest, microstructurally and physically short crack (Stage I), long crack growth (Stage II) and Stage III growth. Crack tip propagation rates are predicted through the combination of an Elasto-Plastic crack tip opening displacement model and the crack blunting theory. The methodology provides a theoretical framework for a 3D version of the fatigue damage map for damage tolerance design. In addition, the work attends to explain a number of fundamental problems starting from crack tip propagation discrepancies, found in the short cracking stage, as well as to provide an insight towards the effect of grain size on the fatigue limit/threshold stress intensity factor.     

The influence of tempering martensite containing microstructures on the near threshold fatigue crack propagation behaviour

Fatigue crack growth studies have been conducted in a humid air environment for various martensite containing microstructures under low and high R-ratio testing conditions.Tempering reduced the yield strength properties; the greater the amount of martensite the greater the reduction.Tempering generally (i) increased the threshold for fatigue crack growth ΔK_th, and (ii) decreased near threshold fatigue crack growth rates for both low and high R-ratio testing conditions. Also tempering inhibited the occurrence of subcritical transgranular cleavage in the high R-ratio tests of the ferrite-martensite microstructures and consequently affected Stage II fatigue crack growth behaviour.Finally the fully martensitic microstructure did not exhibit cracking and the present ΔK_th data exhibited good agreement with other data for steels in the tempered condition.     

Edge cracks in plastically deforming surface grains

A selection of surface crack problems is presented to provide insights into Stage I and early Stage II fatigue crack growth. Edge cracks at 45^o and 90^o to the surface are considered for cracks growing in single crystals. Both single crystal slip and conventional plasticity are employed as constitutive models. Edge cracks at 45^o to the surface are considered that either (i) kink in the direction perpendicular to the surface, or (ii) approach a grain boundary across which only elastic deformations occur.     

Predicting the fatigue life and crack aspect ratio evolution in complex structures

This paper discusses a computationally efficient method for determining the behaviour of complex structures containing three-dimensional cracks. A simple method is presented for calculating the mode I stress intensities for semi-elliptical cracks emanating from the saddle point of two intersecting tubular members. This method, which gives results in good agreement with published values, uses the finite element technique, but does not require the crack to be modelled explicitly. The technique is then used, in conjunction with FASTRAN II, to study fatigue crack growth and the results are compared to experimental data. Good agreement is achieved between both the predicted and measured fatigue crack growth and the evolution of the crack aspect ratios.     

Effect of humidity and R-ratio on the near threshold fatigue crack growth of two granular bainitic microstructures

The present report has shown that in ferrite-martensite microstructures, the relative humidity of an air environment can affect both the near threshold fatigue crack growth behaviour and the intermediate Stage II fatigue characteristics. The magnitude of the threshold stress intensity, ΔK_th, was not affected by relative humidity and the significant effect of R-ratio on ΔK_th was suitably demonstrated.The relative humidity affected the nature of both the subcritical static failure mode and the final stage III static failure mode. A direct relationship between the degree of fatigue crack growth enhancement and the extent of transgranular cleavage was evidenced.     

CTS试件中复合型疲劳裂纹扩展

针对复合型循环载荷作用下的金属构件中的裂纹扩展问题进行了实验分析和理论建模. 首先 采用紧凑拉剪试件(CTS)和 Richard研制的复合型载荷加载装置，对承受复合型循环载荷的裂纹进行了实验研究. 实验选择了两种金属材料试件，分别承受3种形式的复合型循环载荷的作用，在裂纹尖端具 有相同的初始应力场强度的条件下考察复合型循环载荷对裂纹扩展规律的影响. 实验结果表明，疲劳裂纹的扩展速率与加载角度有关. 对于同样金属材料的试件，当裂尖处 初始应力场强度相等时，载荷越接近于II型，裂纹增长速率越快. 采用等效应力强度 因子(I型和II型应力强度因子的组合)、裂纹扩展速率及复合强度等参数，以实验数据为 基础，建立了一个疲劳裂纹扩展模型，用来预测裂纹在不同模式疲劳载荷作用下的扩展速率. 为验证其有效性，该模型被应用于钢制试件的数值模拟计算中. 实验结果与模拟计算曲线保 持一致，表明该模型可以用来估算带裂纹金属构件的寿命.     

A fatigue life prediction methodology for cylindrical shell with an inclined crack under torsion

Considered is the fatigue life prediction of a cylindrical shell with an inclined crack under torsion. The effects of the initial angles of inclination and shell curvatures on fatigue crack growth rate are investigated. The mixed mode fracture parameters are extended to describe the fatigue crack growth behavior. A methodology for fatigue life prediction is suggested.     

A model for predicting the retardation effect following a single overload

Many engineering components are subjected to variable amplitude loading history. It is well known that retardation in fatigue crack growth occurs due to application of single overloads in a constant amplitude loading block. Many models have been proposed to capture this counter intuitive phenomenon which has resulted in improved understanding of retardation effect following tensile overloads and consequently resulting in better life prediction models. The proposed study is focused on to evaluation of retardation in fatigue life due to application of a single overload. A model for prediction of crack growth and crack growth rate following single overloads is presented. Several modifications to Wheeler’s growth idea are proposed, which incorporate a consideration for effective stress intensity factor, based on Elber’s concept of crack closure, relationship between overload ratio and the Wheeler’s exponent, and fatigue growth rate calculations. The results presented here show that plastic zone interaction following overload and the consideration of crack closure explain retardation effect following a single overload. Correlation between analysis and experimental data obtained from several sources in literature show that the scheme, is robust and provides an insight into the nonlinear aspect of crack growth results. The model has been tested for 2024-T3 aluminum alloy and 6061-T6 aluminum alloy and thorough calibrations performed, established the fidelity of the program.     

Definition of a new predictor for multiaxial fatigue crack nucleation in rubber

From an engineering point of view, prediction of fatigue crack nucleation in automotive rubber parts is an essential prerequisite for the design of new components. We have derived a new predictor for fatigue crack nucleation in rubber. It is motivated by microscopic mechanisms induced by fatigue and developed in the framework of Configurational Mechanics. As the occurrence of macroscopic fatigue cracks is the consequence of the growth of pre-existing microscopic defects, the energy release rate of these flaws need to be quantified. It is shown that this microstructural evolution is governed by the smallest eigenvalue of the configurational (Eshelby) stress tensor. Indeed, this quantity appears to be a relevant multiaxial fatigue predictor under proportional loading conditions. Then, its generalization to non-proportional multiaxial fatigue problems is derived. Results show that the present predictor, which is related to the previously published predictors, is capable to unify multiaxial fatigue data.     

Cohesive zone laws for fatigue crack growth: Numerical field projection of the micromechanical damage process in an elasto-plastic medium

Cohesive zone failure models are widely used to simulate fatigue crack propagation under cyclic loading, but the model parameters are phenomenological and are not closely tied to the underlying micromechanics of the problem. In this paper, we will inversely extract the cohesive zone laws for fatigue crack growth in an elasto-plastic ductile solid using a field projection method (FPM), which projects the equivalent tractions and separations at the cohesive crack-tip from field information outside the process zone. In our small-scale yielding model, a single row of discrete voids is deployed directly ahead of a crack in an elasto-plastic medium subjected to cyclic mode I K-field loading. Damage accumulation under cyclic loading is captured by the growth of voids within the micro-voiding zone ahead of the crack, while the evolution of the cohesive zone law representing the micro-voiding zone is inversely extracted via the FPM. We show that the field-projected cohesive zone law captures the essential micromechanisms of fatigue crack growth in the ductile medium: from loading and unloading hysteresis caused by void growth and plastic hardening, to the softening damage locus associated with crack propagation via a void by void growth mechanism. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the FPM in obtaining a micromechanics-based cohesive zone law in-place of phenomenological models, which opens the way for a unified treatment of fatigue crack problems.     

Numerical analysis of fatigue striations

A computational model was developed to numerically analyse fatigue striations. The inclined strip yield model with continuous distributions of infinitesimal dislocations was utilized to express the crack tip plasticity in this model. The fatigue crack tip blunting process was approximated by sequential activation of two slip lines under loading, and crack closure during unloading was taken into account. The plastic zone at a growing fatigue crack tip at the maximum load was independent of the crack growth up to ten cycles while the reversed plastic zone decreased in a size to one twentieth of that at the maximum load as the crack grew. The ratio of these plastic zone sizes and also the crack tip opening displacement were quite different from the simple prediction by J.R. Rice for a stationary crack. The computed striation spacings were compared with the observed ones and moderate agreement between them obtained.     

一种经验型疲劳小裂纹扩展模型

金属材料疲劳寿命由裂纹萌生和裂纹扩展寿命两部分组成,其中对于萌生寿命中的小裂纹分析是精确描述裂纹萌生寿命的关键．而小裂纹在扩展过程中由于尺寸相对较小,导致传统线弹性断裂力学预测方法失效,需要对其进行改进,考虑裂纹尖端塑性区引起的残余压应力对小裂纹扩展速度的影响．本文针对此问题进行了初步分析,通过对塑性区引起的残余应力的量化,结合小裂纹门槛值特性,提出了一种经验型修正的小裂纹扩展模型,用于定量预测裂纹的萌生寿命．使用铝合金6082-T6缺口试样进行了疲劳实验,并与理论结果进行了对比,验证了所提模型的有效性．     

Fatigue crack growth rate in ferrite-martensite dual-phase steel

An empirical study is made on the fatigue crack growth rate in ferrite-martensite dual-phase (FMDP) steel. Particular attention is given to the effect of ferrite content in the range of 24.2% to 41.5% where good fatigue resistance was found at 33.8%. Variations in ferrite content did not affect the crack growth rate da/dN when plotted against the effective stress intensity factor range ΔK_eff which was assumed to follow a linear relation with the crack tip stress intensity factor range ΔK. A high ΔK_eff corresponds to uniformly distributed small size ferrite and martensite. No other appreciable correlation could be ralated to the microstructure morphology of the FMDP steel. The closure stress intensity factor K_cl, however, is affected by the ferrite content with K_cl/Kmax reaching a maximum value of 0.7. In general, crack growth followed the interphase between the martensite and ferrite.Dividing the fatigue crack growth process into Stage I and II where the former would be highly sensitive to changes in ΔK and the latter would increase with ΔK depending on the R = σ_min/σ_max ratio. The same data when correlated with the strain energy density factor range ΔS showed negligible dependence on mean stress or R ratio for Stage I crack growth. A parameter α involving the ratio of ultimate stress to yield stress, percent reduction of area and R is introduced for Stage II crack growth so that the da/dN data for different R would collapse onto a single curve with a narrow scatter band when plotted against αΔS.     

A theoretical analysis on stochastic behaviour of short cracks and fatigue damage of metals

In this paper, the closed form of solution to the stochastic differential equation for a fatigue crack evolution system is derived, and the relationship between metal fatigue damage and crack stochastic behaviour is investigated. It is found that the damage extent of metals is independent of crack stochastic behaviour if the stochastic deviation of the crack growth rate is directly proportional to its mean value. The evolution of stochastic deviation of metal fatigue damage in the stage close to the transition point between short and long crack regimes is also discussed.     

短裂纹随机行为与金属疲劳损伤的理论分析

近似求解了微裂纹演化系统随机偏微分方程。结果表明：当裂纹扩展速率的随机偏差正比于其平均速率时，材料损伤不随裂纹随机行为而变化。同时，还讨论了金属疲功损伤随机波动程度的变化趋势。     

Influence of the Matrix Type on the Mode I Fracture of Carbon-Epoxy Composites Under Dynamic Delamination

The delamination energy and fracture behaviour under static and dynamic mode I loading of two composites, made of the same unidirectional carbon reinforcement embedded in two different matrices, one tough and the other brittle, was investigated with the aim of analyzing the influence of the employed resin on the fatigue delamination behaviour of both composites. In the case of dynamic loading, the number of cycles necessary for the onset of delamination was determined for a given elastic energy release rate and crack growth rate for different critical energy rates. The double cantilever beam (DCB) test was found to be suitable for promoting the initial delamination. The experimental results confirm the enhanced performance of the tough resin both in terms of crack initiation and growth rate.     

Constitutive behavior of a microcracking brittle solid in cyclic compression

A constitutive formulation is presented to determine the “driving force” for Mode I fatigue crack growth in notched plates of brittle solids stressed in uniaxial cyclic compression. For the particular case of a microcracking medium, it is demonstrated that residual tensile stresses are induced ahead of the notch during unloading from the maximum far-field compressive stress. We propose that it is this region of residual tensile stresses at the notch-tip which promotes fatigue crack growth in ceramics along the notch plane in a direction normal to the compression axis. The predictions of the analysis are compared with new experimental results on compression fatigue in brittle solids. Specifically, it is shown that the numerical estimates of the near-tip tensile zone size for microcracking ceramics compare favorably with the experimentally measured distance of stable Mode I fatigue crack growth after the first compression cycle. Experimental information on the threshold stress for microcracking, transition stress for the inducement of residual tension during unloading, and the effect of mean stress on fracture, as well as direct observations of microcracks and crack growth in compression fatigue, corroborate the assumptions and implications of the analysis.