Fretting fatigue lifetime estimation for heterogeneous material using critical distance with mesh control

Abstract

Fretting fatigue has a wide range of applications in many fields, which have high requirements for accurate prediction of their lifetime. In this paper, the theory of critical distance using volume method and mesh control approach are applied to predict the fretting fatigue lifetime. Considering the existence of heterogeneity and defects in the material, the homogenization method and sub-model technique is used to directly investigate the influence of defects on stress, strain and fatigue lifetime. It is found that the computational cost can be reduced dramatically due to the use of mesh control approach. The prediction accuracy is improved through the implementation of the Unit Cell (UC) models based on a sub-modelling technique. Meanwhile, the Representative Volume Element (RVE) is applied for the estimations of fretting fatigue lifetimes using homogenization method taking into account the heterogeneity of material.