A reexamination of plasticity-induced crack closure in fatigue crack propagation

The crack closure concept is often used to consider the R-ratio and overload effects on fatigue crack growth. The presumption is that when the crack is closed, the external load produces negligible fatigue damage in the cracked component. The current investigation provides a reassessment of the frequently used concept with an emphasis on the plasticity-induced crack closure. A center cracked specimen made of 1070 steel was investigated. The specimen was subjected to plane-stress mode I loading. An elastic–plastic stress analysis was conducted for the cracked specimens using the finite element method. By applying the commonly used one-node-per-cycle debonding scheme for the crack closure simulations, it was shown that the predicted crack opening load did not stabilize when the extended crack was less than four times of the plastic zone size. The predicted opening load was strongly influenced by the plasticity model used. When the elastic–perfectly plastic (EPP) stress–strain relationship was used together with the kinematic hardening plasticity theory, the predicted crack opening load was found to be critically dependent on the element size of the finite element mesh model. For R = 0, the predicted crack opening load was greatly reduced when the finite element size became very fine. The kinematic hardening rule with the bilinear (BL) stress–strain relationship predicted crack closure with less dependence on the element size. When a recently developed cyclic plasticity model was used, the element size effect on the predicted crack opening level was insignificant. While crack closure may occur, it was demonstrated that cyclic plasticity persisted in the material near the crack tip. The cyclic plasticity was reduced but not negligible when the crack was closed. The traditional approaches may have overestimated the effect of crack closure in fatigue crack growth predictions.     

冲击载荷下两裂纹间的连通规律

脆性材料内部含有大量裂纹,当某一裂纹扩展时,其他裂纹会对扩展裂纹产生影响。为了研究冲击载荷下,脆性材料内两裂纹的相互影响、连通规律及裂纹尖端应力强度因子的变化规律,利用有机玻璃板制作了含非平行双裂纹的实验试件,利用落板冲击设备进行了中低速冲击实验,结合有限元分析软件ABAQUS计算出裂纹尖端应力强度因子,利用有限差分软件AUTODYN进行了动态数值模拟研究,并将其模拟结果与实验结果进行对比分析。实验及模拟结果表明:裂纹破坏形态与AUTODYN数值模拟破坏形态基本一致;试件的断裂形态随着两裂纹间距不同而不同;裂纹间的相互影响程度随着裂纹间间距增大而减小;裂纹尖端应力强度因子K_I随着裂纹间距的增大而减小,而K_II随着裂纹间距增大而增大。     

A novel method for residual strength prediction for sheets with multiple site damage: Methodology and experimental validation

A unified method for solving the strip yield model for collinear cracks in finite and infinite sheet is proposed. The method is based on the weight function of a single crack. Two collinear cracks in finite and infinite sheets are used to apply and verify this method. The plastic zone size, crack opening displacement and stress distribution along the ligament between cracks obtained by using the present method are extensively compared with existing available results and finite element solutions, and very good agreements are observed. Combined with the Crack Tip Opening Angle (CTOA) criterion, the unified method is used to predict the crack growth behavior and residual strength for 2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheet with Multiple Site Damage (MSD). Thirty-two sheets with four types of MSD are designed and tested to verify this method. It is shown that the present method is able to predict various crack growth behaviors observed in experiment. The predicted residual strengths are within 9% of the corresponding test results. Compared to the elastic–plastic finite element method, the present method is much more efficient.     

缺口根部塑性区和拉应力场对循环压缩疲劳裂纹止裂长度的影响

本文采用激光显微像面全息和散斑照像分离技术检测了双缺口试件在不同压缩应力条件下缺口根部塑性区的形状及大小,并采用有限元分析法计算了相同应力下的塑性区和裂端应力场.结果表明:用显微像面全息法测量塑性区的大小及形状简单易行,且有比较满意的工程精度. 对在不同压缩循环加载条件下测得的瘦劳裂纹止裂长度与所测压缩塑性区相比较表明:疲劳裂纹止裂长度和塑性区大小之间不存在简单的对应关系.止裂长度主要由缺口根部在循环压缩卸载过程中所产生的拉伸应力区控制.     

Fatigue crack initaition and propagation from hole defects

The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction of two hole defects affecting fatigue crack initiation life and propagation behavior. The location of two hole defects was characterized by an angle of alignment and the distance between the centers of two hole defects. The fatigue cracking behavior is studies under bending for AI 5086. When defects are located close to each other, the fatigue crack initiation lives are varied with their relative locations. In the experiments, the area of the local plastic stratin strongly played a role in the fatigue crack initiation lives. Therefore, the authors introduce a parameter which contains the plastic deformation are at stress concentrations and proposed a fatigue crack initiation life prediction curve. In addition, the directions and propagation rates of fatigue cracks initiated at two hole defects were studied experimentally.     

Effect of crack-tip shape on the near-tip field in glassy polymer

The physical nature of a crack tip is not absolutely sharp but blunt with finite curvature. In this paper, the effects of crack-tip shape on the stress and deformation fields ahead of blunted cracks in glassy polymers are numerically investigated under Mode I loading and small scale yielding conditions. An elastic–viscoplastic constitutive model accounting for the strain softening upon yield and then the subsequently strain hardening is adopted and two typical glassy polymers, one with strain hardening and the other with strain softening–rehardening are considered in analysis. It is shown that the profile of crack tip has obvious effect on the near-tip plastic field. The size of near-tip plastic zone reduces with the increase of curvature radius of crack tip, while the plastic strain rate and the stresses near crack tip enhance obviously for two typical polymers. Also, the plastic energy dissipation behavior near cracks with different curvatures is discussed for both materials.     

Fatigue crack growth under anti-plane shear mode deformation

In this paper, the theory of the steady growth of fatigue crack in an infinite medium under the periodic anti-plane remote shear loading has been examined. The criterion of accumulative plastic work for material failure associated with the slip displacement in the fracture process zone of Dugdale type ahead of the crack tip is employed in the analysis. The effect of the locked dislocation in the fracture process zone is considered. Under the assumption that the speed of fatigue crack propagation remains uniform through the fracture process zone, the steady speed of fatigue crack can be expressed as a function of the range of the applied shearing stress and the maximum shearing stress. The effect of the crack size on the fatigue crack speed is discussed. The effect of the finite width of specimen on the speed of fatigue crack speed is investigated. The differences between the present work and the previous studies on fatigue crack speed are discussed.     

考虑混凝土塑性耗散的CDM-XFEM裂缝计算方法

混凝土结构在服役期间受外界载荷的影响容易产生裂缝, 导致结构刚度降低、构件承载性能衰退, 而采用准确的计算方法预测混凝土裂缝的发展是治理裂缝的基本前提, 也是保障结构安全的重要手段. 连续损伤力学方法(continuou damage method, CDM)能够描述微裂缝的扩展过程, 但不能表示离散的开裂面, 且存在网格诱导偏差及虚假应力传递的弊端, 扩展有限单元法(mechanics-extended finite element method, XFEM)能够描述宏观裂纹的扩展过程, 但不能反映微裂缝的动态扩展, 两者计算出的裂纹分布与实际差异均较大. 现有的CDM-XFEM方法已经能够模拟混凝土微裂缝及宏观裂缝发展的整个过程, 但忽略了宏观裂缝出现时混凝土产生的塑性应变, CDM与XFEM的能量转化过程欠缺平衡性. 因此, 本文重点考虑能量转化时的塑性耗散, 选取指数型函数为粘结裂缝的牵引-分离模式, 基于能量及应力等效的条件重新构建了CDM与XFEM之间的能量转化方程. 采用广义逆最小二乘法求解能量转化系数, 确定能量转化时的临界位移, 并给出了裂缝面水平集的更新算法及整体计算方法的程序流程. 以双切口混凝土受剪拉开裂试验为例, 采用多种裂缝计算方法与试验进行了对比. 结果表明, 采用考虑混凝土塑性耗散的CDM-XFEM方法算出的裂缝分布及拉力-张开位移曲线与试验结果差异最小, 说明采用考虑混凝土塑性耗散的CDM-XFEM计算方法能够更好地计算混凝土裂缝.      

Intergranular strain evolution near fatigue crack tips in polycrystalline metals

The deformation field near a steady fatigue crack includes a plastic zone in front of the crack tip and a plastic wake behind it, and the magnitude, distribution, and history of the residual strain along the crack path depend on the stress multiaxiality, material properties, and history of stress intensity factor and crack growth rate. An in situ, full-field, non-destructive measurement of lattice strain (which relies on the intergranular interactions of the inhomogeneous deformation fields in neighboring grains) by neutron diffraction techniques has been performed for the fatigue test of a Ni-based superalloy compact tension specimen. These microscopic grain level measurements provided unprecedented information on the fatigue growth mechanisms. A two-scale model is developed to predict the lattice strain evolution near fatigue crack tips in polycrystalline materials. An irreversible, hysteretic cohesive interface model is adopted to simulate a steady fatigue crack, which allows us to generate the stress/strain distribution and history near the fatigue crack tip. The continuum deformation history is used as inputs for the micromechanical analysis of lattice strain evolution using the slip-based crystal plasticity model, thus making a mechanistic connection between macro- and micro-strains. Predictions from perfect grain-boundary simulations exhibit the same lattice strain distributions as in neutron diffraction measurements, except for discrepancies near the crack tip within about one-tenth of the plastic zone size. By considering the intergranular damage, which leads to vanishing intergranular strains as damage proceeds, we find a significantly improved agreement between predicted and measured lattice strains inside the fatigue process zone. Consequently, the intergranular damage near fatigue crack tip is concluded to be responsible for fatigue crack growth.     

Material plasticity dependence of mixed mode fatigue crack growth in commonly used engineering materials

In this paper, an investigation of fatigue crack propagation in rectangular plates containing an inclined surface crack is presented. A criterion for the three-dimensional stress state is proposed to predict fatigue crack initiation angles. It is assumed that the direction of crack initiation coincides with the direction of the minimum radius of the plastic zone defined by the von Mises yield criterion. The maximum energy release rate criterion, i.e., G_max criterion, is extended to study the fatigue crack growth characteristics of mixed mode cracks. A modification has been made to this criterion to implement the consideration of the plastic strain energy. Subsequently, this concept is applied to predict crack growth due to fatigue loads. Experiments for checking the theoretical predictions from the proposed criterion have been conducted. The results obtained are compared with those obtained using the commonly employed fracture criteria and the test data.     

Numerical and experimental determination of three-dimensional multiple crack growth in fatigue

This work is concerned with the assessment of propagation of multiple fatigue cracks in three-dimensions. Computational modelling of fatigue crack propagation is made together with detection and monitoring of the crack shape development. The boundary element method (BEM) is used for automating the modelling of crack propagation in linear elastic as well as elastic–plastic regimes. Strain at several positions on the specimen surface near the crack mouth is measured to monitor crack initiation, shape development and closure levels. Examples are provided to validate the model by comparing the experimental results with those obtained by numerical predictions.     

Extended finite element method for fretting fatigue crack propagation

In this paper, the extended finite element method (X-FEM) is considered for the analysis of fretting fatigue problems. A two-dimensional implementation of the X-FEM is carried out within the finite element software ABAQUS? by means of user subroutines, and crack propagation in fretting fatigue problems is investigated. On utilizing the non-linear contact capabilities of this code, the numerical technique is applied to a specimen-indenter model. The use of the X-FEM facilitates very accurate stress intensity factor computations on relatively coarse meshes, and furthermore, no remeshing is required for crack growth simulations. The implementation is applied to complete and incomplete contact fretting problems. A study of crack growth is conducted for several bulk loads applied to the specimen, and the influence of the initial crack angle is ascertained. The numerical simulations reveal the merits of applying the X-FEM to fretting fatigue problems.     

考虑应力松驰复合型裂纹顶端塑性区分析

Ｓｈｉｈ［１］应用奇异单元，获得了不考虑应力松驰小范围屈服条件下复合型裂纹尖端塑性区形状。Ｚ．Ｚ．Ｚｕ等［２］采用Ｒｉｃｅ［５］给出的裂纹尖端应力关系式，利用有限元分析获得了不考虑应力松驰下复合型裂纹尖端塑性区，本文基于静力学中内力与外力平衡条件，用线弹性的全场解代替局部解，给出了考虑应力松驰下复合型裂纹尖端塑性区边界方程，获得了考虑应力松驰下的任意方向的塑性区尺寸及塑性区形状     

自适应分析在确定裂纹尖端塑性区中的应用

在分析裂纹扩展及材料强度时对塑性区的估算是很重要的,本文提出采用自适应有限元分析来确定裂纹尖端塑性区的方法,计算结果表明这种方法通过网格自动加密能够有效地跟踪出弹塑性的交界面。     

Uncertainty analysis for rolling contact fatigue failure probability of silicon nitride ball bearings

Uncertainty analysis and parametric studies are presented for estimating the fatigue failure probability of surface cracks in silicon nitride ball bearings subjected to rolling contact fatigue. Uncertainty quantification of input parameters are presented first based on experimental data, inspection capability, and geometric reasoning. Surrogate models for equivalent stress intensity factors are then used for uncertainty propagation, which are built upon high fidelity finite element modeling with half-penny-shaped surface cracks. Instead of black-box type surrogate modeling, physical observations are employed to decompose the high dimensional surrogate model into multiple one-dimensional models. The cross-validation technique is used to find the best surrogate that has the smallest prediction variance. The probability of failure is estimated using Monte Carlo simulation and surrogate models. The parametric studies show that reducing the maximum crack size (by limiting inspection threshold) and increasing the fatigue threshold (by improving fracture toughness of a material) are the most effective ways of reducing the probability of failure. For example, decreasing the maximum crack size by 4.4% and increasing the lowest fracture threshold by 2.8% results in the reduction of probability of failure by 40%. Ball survivability increases with decreasing ball diameter, for a given peak Hertzian stress. In order to apply the current study to hybrid ball bearing design, the survivability results are generalized through non-dimensionalization.     

Mixed mode fatigue crack growth in test coupons made from 2024-T3 aluminum

In this paper, two different fracture criteria are applied to determine the crack trajectory or angle of crack propagation in test specimens containing inclined cracks emanating from open holes. Also, different crack growth rate models are assumed for each criterion. The maximum principal stress criterion is used with a crack growth-rate equation based on an effective stress intensity factor. The strain energy density criterion is used with a crack growth-rate equation corresponding to an effective strain energy density factor. The crack growth-rate models for each criterion were constructed using unpublished fatigue crack growth data for 2024-T3 aluminum.     

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.     

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.     

Reducing the effects of rivet holes on fatigue life by adhesive bonding

Rivet holes are potential sites for fatigue crack initiation in aircraft structures. Several methods for improving the life of such details were investigated including coating the surface of the hole with adhesive, cold-expansion of the holes, the insertion of close-fit rivets and the use of adhesively-bonded rivets. Of the various techniques examined, only that involving adhesively-bonded rivets provided any significant improvements in fatigue life. It resulted in a reduction in fatigue crack propagation rate of about 50% compared with that for specimens incorporating open holes.A finite element analysis indicated that adhesive bonding significantly reduces both the local stress concentration at the hole and the stress intensities at the crack tips, thus retarding crack initiation and reducing fatigue crack propagation rates. However, the effective reduction in stress intensity resulting from bonding (about 17%) is much less than the 50% predicted by the finite element analysis. This discrepancy is attributed mainly to shortcomings in the model for defining the characteristics and behaviour of the adhesive.     

Finite element analysis of the fatigue crack growth rate in transformation toughening ceramics

The fatigue crack growth rate in the zirconia tetragonal polycrystal is analyzed through the finite element method. In order to achieve this purpose, a continuum based constitutive law for materials subjected to phase transformations has been suitably implemented into a commercial finite element code. The fatigue crack growth in a notched beam, subjected to a cyclic four points bending load, has been investigated through a sensitivity analyses with respect to the two most relevant constitutive parameters: one accounting for the amount of the transformation strain and one accounting for the activation energy threshold. The fatigue crack growth rate typical of transforming materials is characterized by two distinct stages: at the beginning of the crack propagation process, the crack growth rate exhibits a negative dependency on the applied stress intensity factor; thereafter, a linear positive dependency is observed. This two stage process is well caught by the finite element model presented in this paper. Moreover, the response of the computational analyses has shown that the strength of the transformation process is determinant for the crack growth process to be arrested.