Low Cycle Fatigue Crack Research Articles

Fatigue Life Prediction of a SAE Keyhole Specimen as a Subcase of Certification by Analysis.

To advance the technology of Certification by Analysis (CbA), as called for by the aerospace industry, the fatigue problems of SAE keyhole specimens are analyzed to demonstrate a subcase of CbA. First, phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) analysis is performed. Second, modeling of the key phenomena is conducted, and finally, verification and validation with the experimental results are achieved. In particular, the elastic/elastoplastic stress distributions in the keyhole specimens are obtained using the finite element method (FEM). Plasticity correction for stress/strain at the notch root is made using the modified Neuber's rule along with the Ramberg-Osgood equation. The low cycle fatigue (LCF) crack nucleation life is analytically predicted using the modified Tanaka-Mura model, a.k.a. the TMW model, given the material's elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, Burgers vector, and surface energy, without the need for coupon fatigue data regression. The Tomkins equation is used to simulate plastic crack growth within the notch plastic zone. The above analytical life predictions are validated against the SAE keyhole specimen tests, becoming the first successful case of fatigue CbA at a sub-element level.

Fatigue and fracture in dual-material specimens of nickel-based alloys fabricated by hybrid additive manufacturing

The integration of additive manufacturing with traditional processes, termed hybrid additive manufacturing, has expanded its application domain, particularly in the repair of gas turbine blade tips. However, process-related defects in additively manufactured materials, interface formation, and material property mismatches in dual-material structures can significantly impact the fatigue performance of components. This investigation examines the low cycle fatigue and fatigue crack growth behaviors in dual-material specimens of nickel-based alloys, specifically the additively manufactured STAL15 and the cast alloy 247DS, at elevated temperatures. Low cycle fatigue experiments were conducted at temperatures of 950 °C and 1000 °C under a range of strain levels (0.3%–0.8%) and fatigue crack growth tests were conducted at 950 °C with stress ratios of 0.1 and −1. Fractographic and microscopic analyses were performed to comprehend fatigue crack initiation and crack growth mechanisms in the dual-material structure. The results consistently indicated crack initiation and fatigue fracture in the additively manufactured STAL15 material. Notably, fatigue crack growth retardation was observed near the interface when the crack extended from the additively manufactured STAL15 material to the perpendicularly positioned interface. This study highlights the importance of considering yield strength mismatch, as well as the potential effects of residual stresses and grain structure differences, in the interpretation of fatigue crack growth behavior at the interface.

Experimental Research on the Low-Cycle Fatigue Crack Growth Rate for a Stiffened Plate of EH36 Steel for Use in Ship Structures

This paper presents a straightforward approach for determining the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) crack propagation rate in stiffened plate structures containing cracks. The method relies on both the crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) and the accumulative plastic strain, offering valuable insights for ship structure design and assessing LCF strength. Meanwhile, the LCF crack growth tests for the EH36 steel were conducted on stiffened plates with single-side cracks and central cracks under different loading conditions. The effects of stress amplitude, stress ratio, and stiffener position on the crack growth behavior were examined. Fitting and verifying analyses of the test data were employed to investigate the relationship between CTOD and the crack growth rate of EH36 steel under LCF conditions. The results showed that the proposed CTOD-based prediction method can accurately characterize the LCF crack growth behavior for stiffened plate of EH36 steel for use in ship structures.

Experimental Study on Low-Cycle Fatigue Characteristics of Marine Structural Steel

This research focuses on the experimental investigation of the low-cycle fatigue characteristics of marine structural steel. The study aimed to explore the behavior of marine-grade steel under low-cycle fatigue conditions. The experimental parameters include the fatigue life of the material, crack propagation behavior, and a comprehensive analysis of mechanical properties associated with various loading conditions. Based on the experimental results, a low-cycle fatigue crack propagation rate model for marine structural steel plates was established using CTOD as a characterization parameter. The primary objective of this research is likely to enhance the durability and safety of maritime structures, providing valuable technical insights for the field of naval engineering.

Low-cycle fatigue crack growth in brittle materials: Adaptive phase-field modeling with variable-node elements

This work presents an adaptive phase field framework for the simulation of crack nucleation and propagation in brittle materials subject to low-cycle loading. We introduce a fatigue history strain parameter within the phase-field framework to capture the fatigue effect. The resulting coupled differential equations are solved using a staggered iteration scheme. In order to improve the computational efficiency of the phase-field model, an adaptive refinement scheme is introduced. This scheme utilizes an artificial threshold that takes into consideration of both phase-field variables and cumulative fatigue history field variables to determine the elements to be refined. The handling of the hanging nodes resulting from mesh refinement is accomplished through the application of the variable-node element technique, offering a flexible and efficient mesh integration technique. We validate our proposed numerical scheme through five representative numerical examples: single-edge cracked specimen, compact tension specimen, double-edge cracked panel, plate with a hole and plate with multi-cracks and hole. The results demonstrate that the adaptive mesh refinement scheme significantly reduces computational costs without compromising the accuracy of the numerical predictions.

Initiation and growth of fatigue cracks in sheets with U-shaped notches in the first and mixed modes of fracture

Initiation and growth of fatigue cracks in sheets with U-shaped notches in the first and mixed modes of fracture

Evaluations and enhancements of fatigue crack initiation criteria for steels subjected to large shear deformations

While large accumulated plastic deformations occur in the rail surface layer where rolling contact fatigue cracks initiate, many available Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) crack initiation criteria focus on small plastic strains. Accordingly, this paper evaluates available fatigue crack initiation criteria for highly shear-deformed R260 steels, reflecting the conditions in the surface layer of rails. Furthermore, modified crack initiation criteria are suggested. The evaluation is based on three different experiments: Large shear strain increments under varying axial loading (predeformation), strain-controlled LCF tests after some predeformation, and axial High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) experiments. For the predeformation, Finite Element (FE) simulations, with a large-strain plasticity model for cyclic and distortional hardening, provide predictions of the local stress and strain histories. A cross-validation procedure is used to assess the accuracy and reliability of both established and modified fatigue crack initiation criteria. The proposed modifications to one of the criteria show an improved fit to the experimental data. However, there is a tendency to overfitting, which can be improved by including more experimental data.

Fatigue Life and Crack Growth Rate Prediction of Additively Manufactured 17-4 PH Stainless Steel using Machine Learning

The present work is focused on machine learning-assisted predictions of the low cycle fatigue behaviour and fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) of 17- 4 PH SS processed through L-PBF and post-processing. Various machine learning techniques reported in the literature provided a flexible approach for explaining the complex mathematical interrelationship among processing-structure-property of the materials. In the present work, four machine learning (ML) algorithms, such as K- Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Decision Trees (DT), Random Forests (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) algorithms, are implemented to analyze the Fatigue Crack growth rate (FCGR) of 17-4 PH SS alloy. After optimizing the hyper parameters for these algorithms, the trained models were found to estimate the unseen data as equally well as the trained data. The four tested ML models are compared among each other over the training as well as the testing phase based on their mean squared error and R2 scores. Extreme Gradient Boosting model has performed better for the FCGR predictions providing the least mean squared errors and higher R2 scores compared to other models.

Fatigue and anisotropic behavior of wire-arc additive manufactured TC17 titanium alloy

Wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) was used in aeronautical engineering due to its low equipment cost and ability to create complex shapes. However, the fatigue behavior of WAAM titanium alloy, specifically for low cycle fatigue (LCF), was poorly studied. This paper investigated the microstructure and mechanical behavior of WAAM TC17 in both vertical and horizontal orientations. Fully reversed LCF tests were conducted on specimens with varying strain amplitudes from ±0.4 % to ±1.2 %. The results found that the ultimate tensile and yield strength were similar for both vertical and horizontal samples, but the elongation in the horizontal orientation was approximately 60 % lower than that in the vertical orientation. Considering the cyclic loading behavior, both vertical and horizontal samples exhibited cyclic softening characteristics at high strain amplitudes (0.8%–1.2 %). Additionally, the cyclic softening rate (CSR) of horizontal samples exhibited a higher than that of vertical samples at high strain amplitude. The LCF cracks of WAAM TC17 were initiated from the surface and internal defects of the samples. The LCF performance of the horizontal samples was found to decrease than that of vertical samples. Specifically, the fatigue performance of the horizontal samples is lower by 36.7 % compared to the vertical samples when the number of cycles is 103.

Low cycle fatigue behavior and crack initiation mechanism of Ni-based single crystal curved thin-walled blade simulator specimen with film cooling holes

A novel curved thin-walled blade simulator (CTWBS) specimens was used to investigate low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior and crack initiation mechanism nearby film cooling holes (FCHs) in Ni-based single crystal superalloy. LCF tests were conducted under two loading stress levels at 700 °C and 1000 °C. Experimental results demonstrated that LCF lifetime reduced as the fatigue load increased at both temperatures. Crack modes were characterized on macroscopic fracture paths, and the analysis of fatigue crack early propagation revealed its microscopic mechanism. The fracture morphology and microstructure evolution also showed temperature dependence, and oxidation played a role at high temperature. The finite element calculation was based on the crystal plasticity theory considering the back stress and slip damage. The resolved shear stress (RSS) distribution law under two temperatures led to the identification of the octahedral slip system activation type respectively. In addition, the resulting fatigue damage increased in direct proportion to the slip systems activated numbers locally surrounding the FCH. The damage distribution around the FCH was in good agreement with the experimental observation. Finally, the temperature dependence of LCF crack initiation mechanism was discussed from three perspectives: crack nucleation around the FCHs, microstructure evolution and dislocation motion near crack.

A prediction method for fatigue crack growth under high stress levels using accumulative plastic damage properties

The objective of this research is to elucidate the characteristics of low-cycle fatigue crack propagation from the perspective of accumulative plastic damage, proposing a reliable prediction model for assessing the crack growth in EH-36 steel subjected to high stress levels. The plastic damage of the crack-tip is measured by the plastic energy at the critical distance point from the crack-tip. And, a prediction program is developed to calculate the fatigue damage accumulation and fatigue crack growth rates. In order to verify the validity of the prediction method, a sequence of quantitative loading experiments is conducted on specimens consisting of cracked plates and stiffened plates (made of EH-36 steel). The findings show that the prediction model effectively represents the fatigue crack growth behavior in high stress conditions. Increasing the mean stress and stress amplitude is beneficial to increase plastic energy increments, thereby accelerating the progression of fatigue damage towards the critical threshold.

Controlled Creation of Contact Cracks in Additive Manufactured Components

Techniques for the controlled seeding and growth of cracks are urgently required for non-destructive testing technique evaluation, particularly for additive manufactured (AM) samples. This paper describes a method that uses a combination of the tensile load and the resonance excitation of notched AM samples, with in situ monitoring of the resonance frequency serving to track the crack dimensions. Mechanical low-cycle fatigue cracks, ranging in length from ~0.3 mm to ~5 mm, were successfully created in five AM samples using this technique. The samples were non-destructively characterized using optical microscopy and Nonlinear Resonance (NLR) testing. The exploitation of resonance enabled the concentration of a significant number of stress cycles on the samples in much shorter timespans than conventional fatigue testing, enabling a high throughput while utilizing compact components. Furthermore, the tracking of the resonance frequency shift throughout the process enabled non-invasive and no-contact real-time condition monitoring.

Effect of surface crack dimension on very low cycle fatigue crack growth behavior of circumferential cracked pipes

In this study, the effects of surface crack depth and length on the fracture behavior of circumferentially cracked pipes under very low cyclic loading were investigated via finite element (FE) damage analysis using an energy-based damage model. The FE analysis method was first validated by comparison with the SA508 Gr.1a surface-cracked pipe test results. Using FE damage analysis, a parametric study was conducted for a surface-cracked pipe with cracks of different depths and lengths, giving the same limit load. The variations in crack penetration and unstable fracture cycles depending on crack depth and length are discussed.

ProCrackPlast: a finite element tool to simulate 3D fatigue crack growth under large plastic deformations

Many structural components and devices in combustion and automotive engineering undergo highly intensive cyclic thermal and mechanical loading during their operation, which leads to low cycle (LCF) or thermomechanical (TMF) fatigue crack growth. This behavior is often characterized by large scale plastic deformations and creep around the crack, so that concepts of linear-elastic fracture mechanics fail. The finite element software ProCrackPlast has been developed at TU Bergakademie Freiberg for the automated simulation of fatigue crack growth in arbitrarily loaded three-dimensional components with large scale plastic deformations, in particular under cyclic thermomechanical loading. ProCrackPlast consists of a bundle of Python routines, which manage finite element pre-processing, crack analysis, and post-processing in combination with the commercial software Abaqus . ProCrackPlast is based on a crack growth procedure which adaptively updates the crack size in finite increments. Crack growth is controlled by the cyclic crack tip opening displacement varDelta CTOD, which is considered as the appropriate fracture-mechanical parameter in case of large scale yielding. The three-dimensional varDelta CTOD concept and its effective numerical calculation by means of special crack-tip elements are introduced at first. Next, the program structure, the underlying numerical algorithms and calculation schemes of ProCrackPlast are outlined in detail, which capture the plastic deformation history along with the moving crack. In all simulations, a viscoplastic cyclic material law is used within a large strain setting. The numerical performance of this software is studied for a single edge notch tension (SENT) specimen under isothermal cyclic loading and compared to common finite element techniques for fatigue crack simulation. The capability of this software is featured in two application examples showing crack growth under mixed-mode LCF and TMF in a typical austenite cast steel, Ni-Resist. In combination with a crack growth law identified in terms of varDelta CTOD for a specific material, the tool ProCrackPlast is able to predict the crack evolution in a 3D component for a given thermomechanical loading scenario.

Microstructural statistics for low-cycle fatigue crack initiation in α+β titanium alloys: A microstructure based RVE assessment

(0001) twist grain boundaries (BTGB) have been identified as critical microstructure configurations regarding fatigue crack initiation in titanium alloys. In the presently reported study, Ti-Al-V based alloys with different microstructures were tested in the low-cycle fatigue regime. Early cracking occurred at BTGB for all investigated alloys and microstructures. Microstructural statistics collected at crack initiation sites revealed a weak sensitivity to moderate differences in α and β stabilizers content and microstructural features. Criteria for the identification of crack initiation sites were then defined using this dataset. An automatic processing routine was applied on large-scale electron back-scattered diffraction maps to analyze the spatial distribution of BTGB susceptible to cracking. The low associated density implies that large microstructural regions, i.e., typically > 1 mm2, must be considered to include microstructural configurations prone to crack nucleation. It is likely to play a critical role in the high lifetime variability of Ti alloys.

Experimental and Numerical Study on Crack Propagation of Cracked Plates under Low Cycle Fatigue Loads

The traditional study on fatigue strength for ship structures usually focuses on high cycle fatigue and ignores low cycle fatigue. However, given the recent trend towards large-scale ship development, the stress and deformation experienced by ship structures are becoming increasingly significant, leading to greater attention being paid to low cycle fatigue damage. Therefore, experimental and numerical studies on crack propagation behavior of cracked plates under low cycle fatigue loads were carried out in this paper, in order to explain the fatigue crack propagation mechanism. The effect of the stress ratio and maximum applied load on the crack propagation behavior was investigated by conducting experimental research on the cracked plate of AH32 steel. The experimental results show that an increasing maximum applied load and decreasing stress ratio will shorten the fatigue life of the cracked plate. Meanwhile, based on the finite element method, the distribution of the stress–strain field at the crack tip and the effect of crack closure were evaluated. The influencing factors such as the stress ratio and crack length were considered in numerical studies, which provided a new way to study the low cycle fatigue crack propagation behavior.

Fatigue behavior of low-temperature hot isostatic pressed electron beam powder bed fusion manufactured Ti-6Al-4 V

Ti-6Al-4 V finds application in the fan and compressor modules of gas turbine engines due to its high specific strength. Ti-6Al-4 V components manufactured using one of the additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, the electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB) process, has been an active area of research in the past decade. The fatigue life of such PBF-EB built Ti-6Al-4 V components is improved by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment typically performed at about 920 ˚C. The HIP treatment at 920 ˚C results in coarsening of α laths and reduced static strength and therefore a low-temperature HIP treatment is performed at about 800 ˚C to limit the impact on static mechanical properties. In the present work, the low cycle fatigue and fatigue crack growth behavior of such a modified HIP (low-temperature HIP) treated material is assessed and compared with the respective data for the standard HIP-treated material. The modified HIP-treated material has fatigue performance comparable to the standard HIP-treated material. This work suggests that the modified HIP treatment improves the static mechanical properties without significantly impacting the fatigue performance. Also, fatigue life predictions were made from the measured defect size at the crack initiation site using a linear elastic fracture mechanics tool. The life predictions show good agreement with the experimental values for defects greater than the intrinsic crack length, where life is well predicted by large-crack growth methodology.

Investigation of low cycle fatigue crack propagation behavior of 316H steel at 550℃ based on cyclic response and damage accumulation: experiment and modelling

In the framework of the unified elastic-plastic constitutive theory, the cyclic response and damage evolution of 316H steel in the low cycle fatigue (LCF) regime was analyzed and modeled. A unified damage-coupled elastic-plastic constitutive model was established based on the results of uniaxial strain-controlled LCF tests, which includes a novel strain-based continuum damage model in the framework of the critical plane theory, an accumulative plastic strain and fatigue damage-related kinematic hardening model, and an isotropic hardening model. The comparison between the simulated and the experimental results indicated that the proposed model is efficient to precisely characterize the cyclic response throughout the whole fatigue process. The model was also used to simulate the fatigue crack growth behavior under different maximum loads and load ratios via finite element (FE) simulation. The effects of the load conditions on the crack growth rate and crack tip parameters were analyzed systematically.

A Computational Technique for Low-Cycle Fatigue of LNG Mixing-Tee Weldment – An Industry Case Study

This research describes a computational method for low-cycle fatigue cracks in LNG mixing-tee weldments. Using a combination of thorough finite element modelling and fatigue life prediction with the finite element software ABAQUS and FE-Safe, the approach is able to simulate the thermal stresses and fatigue damage of a mixing-tee subjected to thermal cycle. The approach consists of three primary phases. First, the thermal distribution at the mixing-tee junction caused by the mixing temperature of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) is predicted. These first-step solutions are then included into second-step modelling, which simulates the thermal stress of the mixing-tee. The next phase entails modelling the fatigue behaviour of the mixing-tee using the thermal stress data. The computed fatigue life cycle achieves a 92.8% accuracy level when compared to real on-site observations. The suggested method enables the accurate prediction of thermal and fatigue behaviours within a tolerable computational time.

Low-cycle fatigue behaviour of hot-rolled titanium-clad bimetallic steel

Titanium-clad (TC) bimetallic steel is able to integrate the superior corrosion resistance of titanium alloy into traditional corrosion-susceptible structural steels, producing prominent life-cycle safety, serviceability and durability. Nevertheless, the relevant seismic performance and fatigue behaviour reported in existing literature are still limited and insufficient to support the codification for structural design of such advanced steel. In order to develop proper plastic/seismic design methodology for TC bimetallic steel structure, the cyclic behaviours and low-cycle fatigue life prediction of such metal must be thoroughly investigated. This paper aims to study the low-cycle fatigue behaviour of hot-rolled bonded TC bimetallic steel manufactured from TA2 titanium alloy and Q355B structural steel. The strain amplitude of low-cycle fatigue (LCF) test ranges from 0.5% to 2.5%, and the strain ratio applied herein includes 0 and -1. The experimental phenomenon, LCF failure mechanism, cyclic stress-strain relationship of different tests are thoroughly compared and discussed. Besides, the influence of strain rate and bond strength are simultaneously demonstrated. The LCF life are fitted and validated through Basquin-Coffin-Manson model, Kuroda model and energy method, respectively. The research outcomes demonstrate that the LCF cracks of TC bimetallic steel tend to be initiated at the cladding layer and propagated into the substrate layer due to a coupled buckling-fatigue failure mechanism. Several representative fatigue behaviour of conventional mild (CM) steels including the three-stage cyclic softening and mean stress relaxation have not been observed in this experimental study. The strain rate exhibits distinct influence on the LCF life and failure mechanism. Both Basquin-Coffin-Manson model and energy method can provide more favourable prediction accuracy for LCF life of TC bimetallic steel than the Kuroda model. Generally the LCF life of TC bimetallic steel is shorter than that of structural steels, stainless steels, titanium alloys and stainless-clad (SC) bimetallic steels. The test records and fatigue-life model parameters obtained can lay a solid foundation for seismic analysis and damage evaluation of TC bimetallic steel structure.