The aim of this paper is to propose a flexible multiaxial modelling framework that is capable of combining two fatigue damage mechanisms so as to continuously describe the Kitagawa-Takahashi diagram. It is proposed that this diagram represents two distinct fatigue damage mechanisms: one associated with crack initiation (or microstructurally small cracks) and the other with crack propagation (or long cracks). It is further postulated that these damage mechanisms are more appropriately modelled using di erent fatigue criteria. A probabilistic modelling framework is proposed in which any two suitable fatigue criteria can be combined in order to simultaneously model both damage mechanisms and the transition between them. This framework is based on the weakest link hypothesis and results in a probabilistic Kitagawa-Takahashi type diagram

Argillites are considered worldwide as potential host rock for high level radioactive waste given the low permeability and strong adsorption potential. However, the excavation of the galleries of a repository would produce a disturbed zone around the boundaries rich of new fractures which may enhance the conductivity of the rock along the gallery axis. Several mine-by experiments have been performed in underground rock labs to investi- gate the features of the disturbed zone. In Mont Terri URL (Kanton Jura, Switzerland) the EZ-B experiment was specifically conceived for the measurement of excavation induced fractures around a small chamber. The host rock of the URL is a particularly compact and resistant argillite, known as the Opalinus Clay (OPA) excavated and OPA samples were subjected to fracture mechanics tests at the rock mechanics lab of IGAG-CNR in Torino, Italy. The tests aimed at the understanding aspects of the fracturing process occurring in OPA of Mont Terri, which may be considered a transversely isotropic geomaterial, whose planes of isotropy coincide with the beddin

Forged components are known to show high cyclic and monotonic mechanical properties. This is mainly due to a better compactness and a finer microstructure introduced by the forming process. However, this good mechanical behaviour is sometimes a source of anisotropy especially when the microstructural heterogeneities are not randomly distributed and/or oriented. This study aims at describing the high cycle fatigue response of a forged bainitic steel. This material contains a lot of elongated manganese sulphide (MnS) inclusions, oriented as a function of the rolling or forging direction. Specimens with different orientations relative to the rolling direction are tested in fatigue under push-pull uniaxial and torsion loads. The influence of “inclusion clusters” is clearly demonstrated via the observation of the failure surfaces. Experiments show that the anisotropic fatigue behaviour is due to a change in the crack initiation mechanism. At 0°, when the inclusions are parallel to the applied stress, micro-crack initiation is controlled by the material matrix. At 45° and 90°, elongated manganese-sulfide inclusion clusters are the origin of crack initiation and the fatigue strength drops significantly. A statistical approach based on the competition between two different crack initiation mechanisms is proposed. One mechanism is modelled by local elastic shakedown concepts and the other by linear elastic fracture mechanics. This approach leads to a Kitagawa type diagram and explains the anisotropy in the material. The approach developed in this study demonstrates a framework using both the elastic shakedown concept and the weakest link theory to account for the loading mode, loading path and data scatter in High Cycle Fatigue

This paper deals with the fatigue of the through the-thickness crack propagation in thin notched composite laminates made of two glass woven plies. It highlights the different crack growths between warp and weft directions of the woven ply. Experimental results show a decrease of the crack growth rate per cycle with the increase of the crack initiation time. Moreover, it has been shown that it is necessary to take into account the fatigue damage of the woven plies in term of loss of rigidity in the initiation phase. The fatigue crack growth rates are then quantified using Paris law type equations and linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM)

In the present paper, a new approach is developed in order to take into account the stress gradient effect on fatigue life of structural components. The proposed approach is based on the weakest link concept in which the shape coefficient of the Weibull distribution becomes a function of a local damage parameter. The function simulates the experimentally observed relationship between the shape of the fatigue life distribution and the stress level. Such an approach allows one to calculate the global probability distribution of the fatigue life for notched structural components in a wide range of fatigue life regime: 104-107 cycles typically. For comparison purposes, the approach is applied to calculate the number of cycles to crack initiation of structural elements under three probability levels: 5%, 63% and 95%. The calculated lifetimes are compared with the lifetimes obtained from experiments performed on notched cruciform specimens and notched round specimens subjected to constant amplitude loading

Fracture mechanics plays an important role in the material science, structure design and industrial production due to the failure of materials and structures are paid high attention in human activities. This dissertation, concentrates on some of the fractural aspects of shaft and composite which have being increasingly used in modern structures, consists four chapters within two parts. Chapters 1 to 4 are included in part 1. In the first chapter, the basic knowledge about the stress and displacement fields in the vicinity of a crack tip is introduced. A review involves the general methods of calculating stress intensity factors are presented. In Chapter 2, two simple engineering methods for a fast and close approximation of stress intensity factors of cracked or notched beams under tension, bending moment, shear force, as well as torque are presented. New formulae for calculating the stress intensity factors are proposed. One of the methods named Section Method is improved and applied to the three dimensional analysis of cracked circular section for calculating stress intensity factors. The comparisons between the present results and the solutions calculated by ABAQUS for single mode and mixed mode are studied. In chapter 3, fracture criteria for a crack subjected to mixed mode loading of two-dimension and three-dimension are reviewed. The crack extension angle for single mode and mixed mode, and the critical loading domain obtained by SEDF and MTS are compared. The effects of the crack depth and the applied force ratio on the crack propagation angle and the critical loading are investigated. Three different methods calculating the crack initiation angle for three-dimension analysis of various crack depth and crack position are compared. It should be noted that the stress intensity factors used in the criteria are calculated in section 2.1

Lien vers la version éditeur: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142112306003240The aim of this paper is to present new modelling dedicated to multiaxial high cycle fatigue (HCF), and applied to polycrystalline metals. The model presented is based on the experimental characterization of damage during HCF tests, under pure tension and torsion modes. The origin of this approach is a mesoscopic model considering three plastic behaviour stages (hardening, saturation and softening) suggested by Papadopoulos [Papadopoulos I.V. Fatigue limit of metals under multiaxial stress conditions: the microscopic approach. Technical Note No. I.93.101, Commission of the European Communities, Joint Research Centre; 1993. [ISEI/IE 2495/93].], and used by Morel [Morel F. A critical plane approach for life prediction of high cycle fatigue under multiaxial variable loading. Int J Fatigue 2000;22:101–119.]. The principal evolution brought in by this study is a competition description during all the sample lifetime of the plasticity and damage effects. The plasticity mechanisms induce a hardening saturating effects (resulting from movement and accumulation of dislocations), especially significant at the beginning of the crystal life. Damage, present at the end of crystal lifetime, is considered as a degradation process inducing a strong reduction of the crystal ductility, leading to its failure (decohesion). The coexistence and the competition between these two effect (hardening and damage-induced softening) describe cyclic crystal behavior, including shakedown phase. The model is formulated in the framework of the continuum damage mechanics, according to the identified physical mechanisms during the tests. The second purpose is to compare the model predictions with experimental data, after identification of the parameter for a ferritic-pearlitic steel. The case of in-phase loading is merely studied here. In particular, the evolution of a few internal variables is discussed and correlated with the available physical features. It is shown that this model provides a complementary insight into a crystal with respect to the endurance criterion of Dang Van. The model predicts, in a particular stress amplitude range, the damage growth arrest

The authors acknowledge Arts et Métiers ParisTech and Foundation Arts et Métiers for the financial support of P.C. Paris’ stay at LAMEFIP. They acknowledge Vicinay Cadenas S.A. for its financial support, and both the PCP France-Mexique and the CONACYT for their financial support too.This paper is devoted to the effect of corrosion on the gigacycle fatigue strength of a martensitic–bainitic hot rolled steel used for manufacturing offshore mooring chains for petroleum platforms. Smooth specimens were tested under fully reversed tension between 1E6 and 1E10 cycles in three testing conditions and environments: (i) in air, (ii) in air after precorrosion and (iii) in air under real time artificial sea water flow. The fatigue strength at greater than 108 cycles is reduced by a factor more than five compared with non-corroded specimens. Fatigue cracks initiate at corrosion pits due to pre-corrosion, if any, or pits resulting from corrosion in real time during the cyclic loading. It is shown that under sea water flow, the fatigue life in the gigacycle regime is mainly governed by the corrosion process. Furthermore, the calculation of the mode I stress intensity factor at hemispherical surface defects (pits) combined with the Paris–Hertzberg–Mc Clintock crack growth rate model shows that fatigue crack initiation regime represents most of the fatigue life.PCP France Mexique, Conacyt, Arts et Métiers ParisTech (professeur invité Paul C Paris

This paper assesses and quantifies the detrimental effects of complex tri-dimensional notches subjected to uniaxial and multiaxial fatigue loading. A number of experimental results taken from the technical literature and generated by testing specimens containing complex geometrical features were reanalysed using a critical distance/plane method. The investigated notched samples were tested under uniaxial and multiaxial constant amplitude load histories, considering also the effects of non-zero mean stresses as well as non-proportional loading. The common feature of the considered notched geometries was that the position of the critical location changed as the degree of multiaxiality of the applied loading varied. The relevant linear-elastic stress fields in the vicinity of the crack initiation points were calculated by the Finite Element method and subsequently post-processed using the Modified Wöhler Curve Method in conjunction with the Theory of Critical Distances (the latter theory being applied in the form of the Point Method). This validation exercise confirms the accuracy and reliability of our multiaxial fatigue life assessment technique, which can be efficiently used in situations of practical interest by directly post-processing the relevant linear-elastic stress fields calculated with commercial Finite Element software packages.Safe Technology Limite

In accidents some structures should be fully plastic, even during extensive crack growth, to help share the load. K and J fracture mechanics apply to initial but not extensive growth. Plane strain, rigid-plastic, non-hardening plasticity often gives just two symmetrical slip lines at the crack tip for Mode I; one for mixed mode. These lines are the basis for the new slip line fracture mechanics, SLFM2,1. In SLFM2, the crack tip driving parameters CTDP are the angle of, and the normal stress and slip displacement across, the two slip lines. The response functions of the CTDPs can be taken as the crack tip opening displacement for initiation, CTODi, and the angle CTOA for growth. SLFM1 has different response functions of only the stress and slip as driving parameters. Slip line analyses for exact and approximate stress and deformation fields are given for typical specimens that provide data for structures. For structural steels the CTOA is typically 8 to 25°. The relations to K, J, and FEA are discussed, as are instability and cleavage.

Generalised fatigue durability diagrams are considered for a material under multi-axial loading given by a (non-regularly) oscillating function of time. Phenomenological strength conditions under such loading are presented in terms of the normalised equivalent stress functionals both for quasi-ductile rupture and brittle fracture. Examples of the functionals are presented for some known and new durability models including those sensitive to the load sequence. Some complex strength conditions applicable to the durability description at fatigue, creep, dynamic loading and their combinations are presente