Damage evolution in plates subjected to fatigue loading

Abstract

The aim of this paper is the numerical prediction of the cracking path followed by a surface crack front in plates constituted of different materials (determined by the exponent m of the Paris law), subjected to cyclic tension or cyclic bending loading. To this end, a numerical modelling was developed on the basis of the discretization of the crack front (characterized with elliptical shape) and the crack advance at each point perpendicular to such a front, according to a Paris law, using the stress intensity factor (SIF) calculated by Newman and Raju. Results show that the crack leads to a preferential propagation path that corresponds to a very shallow initial crack with a quasi-circular crack front. The increase of the Paris exponent produces a quicker convergence during fatigue crack propagation from the different initial crack shapes.