A mixed-mode energy-based elastoplastic fatigue induced damage model for the peridynamic theory

Abstract

In recent years a considerable effort has been dedicated to the development of analysis tools that enable the design of damage tolerant structures, particularly in aerospace applications where weight reduction is a crucial requirement. One of these tools developed in recent years is the peridynamic theory, employed to solve numerically complex elastodynamics problems. One of its advantages reported in the literature is the natural ability to simulate the initiation and crack growth without the need for additional numerical procedures commonly employed in other numerical approaches, like in the conventional finite element formulation. Within this context, this paper presents a novel elastoplastic fatigue-induced damage model whose formulation is based on a strain energy framework combined with a smeared crack approach to simulate the damage process without the need of knowing the location of the crack tip and its length within the domain. The proposed model also can predict the mixed-mode damage propagation in ductile materials without knowing a priori the mixity mode ratio. This approach incorporates an analytical methodology based on the material properties that correlate the strain energy calculated away from the crack tip to the expected propagation rate predicted by the Paris Law. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing the results obtained using an in-house peridynamic FORTRAN code with the experimental results available in the open literature. Some improvements for the peridynamic material parameters are also presented in this paper, which is also verified by using the in-house code.