HISTORY EFFECT IN FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH UNDER MIXED MODE LOADING CONDITIONS

Abstract: Plastic deformation within the crack tip region introduces internal stresses that modify subsequent behaviour of the crack and are at the origin of history effects in fatigue crack growth. Consequently, fatigue crack growth models should include plasticity induced history effects. A model was developed and validated for mode I fatigue crack growth under variable amplitude loading conditions. The purpose of this study was to extend this model to mixed mode loading conditions. Finite element analyses are commonly employed to model crack tip plasticity and were shown to give very satisfactory results. However, if millions of cycles need to be modelled to predict the fatigue behaviour of an industrial component, the finite element method becomes computationally too expensive. By employing a multiscale approach, the local results of FE computations can be brought to the global scale. This approach consists of partitioning the velocity field at the crack tip into plastic and elastic parts. Each part is partitioned into mode I and mode II components, and finally each component is the product of a reference spatial field and an intensity factor. The intensity factor of the mode I and mode II plastic parts of the velocity fields, denoted by dρI/dt and dρII/dt, allow measuring mixed-mode plasticity in the crack tip region at the global scale. Evolutions of dρI/dt and dρII/dt, generated using the FE method for various loading histories, enabl