Experimental and numerical study of fretting fatigue in dovetail assembly using a total life prediction model

Abstract

The fretting fatigue in dovetail assembly was investigated by experiments and finite element method. A sub-scaled specimen and its fixture were designed and tested under cyclic loading of three load levels. The stress distribution in the contact zone was calculated and several fatigue parameters including SWT and FS parameter were employed to predict the direction and the location of the crack initiation and predict the initiation life. The crack growth path was determined by extended finite element method and crack growth life was predicted after introducing the effect of fretting-contact-induced crack closure. Then based on a total fatigue life prediction model, the total life was obtained by summing up the crack initiation life and the crack growth life using a fixed initial crack length, and the predicted results agreed well with experiments.