An Energy Based Fatigue Life Prediction Framework for In-Service Structural Components

Abstract

An energy based fatigue life prediction framework has been developed for calculation of remaining fatigue life of in service gas turbine materials. The purpose of the life prediction framework is to account aging effect caused by cyclic loadings on fatigue strength of gas turbine engines structural components which are usually designed for very long life. Previous studies indicate the total strain energy dissipated during a monotonic fracture process and a cyclic process is a material property that can be determined by measuring the area underneath the monotonic true stress-strain curve and the sum of the area within each hysteresis loop in the cyclic process, respectively. The energy-based fatigue life prediction framework consists of the following entities: (1) development of a testing procedure to achieve plastic energy dissipation per life cycle and (2) incorporation of an energy-based fatigue life calculation scheme to determine the remaining fatigue life of in-service gas turbine materials. The accuracy of the remaining fatigue life prediction method was verified by comparison between model approximation and experimental results of Aluminum 6061-T6. The comparison shows promising agreement, thus validating the capability of the framework to produce accurate fatigue life prediction.