Numerical simulation of fatigue crack propagation in heterogeneous geomaterials under varied loads using displacement discontinuity method

Heterogeneous brittle geomaterials are highly susceptible to cyclic loads.They contain inherent flaws and cracks that grow under fatigue loads and lead to failure.This study presents a numerical model for analyzing fatigue in these materials based on the two-dimensional(2D)boundary element method and linear elastic fracture mechanics.The process is formulated by coupling the displacement discontinuity method with the incorporation technique of dissimilar regions and the governing equations of fatigue.The heterogeneous media are assumed to consist of materials with different properties,and the interfaces are assumed to be completely bonded.In addition,the domains include multiple cracks exposed to constant and variable amplitude cyclic loads.The stress intensity factor is a crucial parameter in fatigue analysis,which is determined using the displacement field around crack tips.An incremental crack growth scheme is applied to calculating the fatigue life.The growth rate values are employed to estimate the length of crack extension when there are multiple cracks.The interaction between cracks is considered,which also includes the coalescence phenomenon.Finally,various structures under different cyclic loads are examined to evaluate the accuracy of this method.The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach in modeling fatigue crack growth and life estimation.The behavior of life curves for the heterogeneous domain was as expected.These curves illustrate the breakpoints caused by utilizing discrete incremental life equations.At these points,the trend of the curves changed with the material properties and fatigue characteristics of the new material around the crack tips.

PROBABILISTIC MINER’S RULE IN FATIGUE RELIABILITY

Firstly, constant amplitude P-S_a-S_m-N_c surface family is established.Secondly, four basic assumptions, i.e., monotonically increasing, non-coupling, separability andnonintersecting of fatigue damage accumulation are proposed from the viewpoint of both damagemechanics and fracture mechanics. Then the individual isodamage D-S_a-S_m-N surface under constantamplitude loading is constructed and the two-dimensional individual Miner's rule is derived.Consequently, the two-dimensional probabilistic Miner's rule (TPMiner) is established and proved fora population subjected to variable amplitude loading. Finally, with successfully experimentverification, TPMiner proves be to very useful and feasible in fatigue reliability theory.

Fatigue damage rule of LY12CZ aluminium alloy under sequential biaxial loading

A series of biaxial two-level variable amplitude loading tests are conducted on smooth tubular specimens of LY12CZ alumin- ium alloy. The loading paths of 90° out-of-phase, 45° out-of-phase and 45° in-phase are utilized. The fatigue damage cumulative rules under two-level step loading of three loading paths are analyzed. By introducing a parameter a which is a function of the phase lag angle between the axial and the torsional loading, a new multiaxial nonlinear fatigue damage cumulative model is proposed. The proposed model is evaluated by the experimental aluminium alloy, and multi-level loading of 45 steel. Fatigue lives data for two-level loading, multi-level loading of LY12CZ predicted are within a factor of 2 scatter band.

Simplification approaches for multi-level load spectra by using equivalent damage rule

Reasonable and effective fatigue load spectrum is key of aircraft structural fatigue test.Two kinds of load spectra simplification approaches based on statistical consistent fatigue damage model are proposed in the paper.One method is to simplify the original multi-level load spectra to spectral load with fewer level and was verified by the experimental data of five levels and seven levels load spectra.The equivalent damage here is not equivalent fatigue life,but equivalent number of spectral blocks.Moreover,it was proved that a section of low stress load cannot be converted into the highest stress load considering equivalent damage.The other is to convert the life distribution under multi-level load spectra into that of constant amplitude spectrum according to a certain principle,that is,equivalent damage is achieved through equivalent fatigue life,and two groups of three levels spectral data were used for experimental verification.The results show that equivalent damage simplification approach of multi-level load spectra is feasible,and it achieve that the damage of one loading block before and after the simplification is equal in probability statistics.The life distribution of load simplified as constant amplitude spectrum is consistent with test data.The simplification method presented in this paper can be generalized and is a predictive engineering method which does not depend on experimental data.