Finite element analysis of damage accumulation for structure under impact

Abstract

Responses of structure under impact load are different from quasi-static process and fatigue. Especially when the impact load is cyclic loading and unloading, damage of structure is different form that of structure under single continuous load. Random impact load usually has high peak value, thus material in structure may contain plastic strain, and damage evolution is non-linear. For cyclic loading and unloading, elastic recovery process should be considered. These characteristics make it difficult to compute damage in FEA. In the paper, we use FEM and damage theories to compute cumulative damage of certain metal structure under cyclic loading and unloading, and statistic method is used in load setting. A series of experiments were carried out to verify the simulated results. It is proved that FEM can be used to acquire cumulative damage of structure under cyclic loading and unloading, and the results may be referenced in engineering design. © 2011 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.