Total life approach analysis of ductile cast iron smooth specimens

Abstract Ductile cast irons (DCIs) offer an interesting combination of good castability and high mechanical properties, with acceptable costs. DCI structural components are widely used in important applications like automotive components (e.g. crankshafts and truck axles), wind turbines components and pipelines components (e.g., valves, fit-tings and pipes). In this paper, several sets of fatigue tests, available in the literature, are simulated by using a total life approach, and the fatigue lifetime is computed. The examined ductile cast iron EN-GJS-400-18 specimens were alternatively subjected to tensile and torsional loading, and to in-phase and out-of-phase combined bending and torsion. The obtained results are compared with experimental ones, and a quite good accuracy of the criterion used is observed for the simulated tests