An Overview of the mechanism-based thermomechanical fatigue method (DTMF) in the design of automotive components

Abstract

The DTMF damage Parameter described in the paper is the generalization of the creep fatigue parameter (DCF) proposed by Riedel, which quantifies the amount of damage produced by a non-isothermal loading cycle. The entire design methodology is outlined in the text, starting with the calibration of Chaboche's viscoplastic model and then the determination of the thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) parameters. Chaboche is generally a good choice for its ability to describe well both kinematic and isotropic hardening behaviors, also enabling stress relaxation and strain rate dependency to be considered. The DTMF method is based on the fracture mechanics concept of cyclic crack tip opening displacement (ΔCTOD) where the effective stress range takes the crack closure effect into account. This method is typically used to describe the thermomechanical low cycle fatigue behavior of cast irons, cast steels, stainless steels, Inconel, HiSiMo and nickel-based alloys. These materials are used in components that need to withstand high temperatures (higher than half of the melting point) in service as exhaust manifolds, cylinder heads, valves, turbochargers and disk brakes. Three failure mechanisms are detailed here: oxidation, creep and fatigue. Oxidation is a complex phenomenon that may occur when the material is hot under tensile in-phase loading or hot under compressive out-of-phase loading. Creep is a time and temperature dependent diffusion process which is incorporated into the DTMF parameter as a multiplicative factor. In this context fatigue life is defined as the number of cycles to propagate an existent microcrack up to an arbitrary size that is defined on a case-by-case basis.