Initiation and propagation behaviour of fatigue cracks in hard-shot peened Type 316L steel in high cycle fatigue

Observations of fatigue crack growth behaviour were made during rotating‐bend testing of hard‐shot peened Type 316L steel. From the results of these observations, the crack that developed in the axial direction was observed and the mechanism of the fatigue crack properties was clarified as follows: (1) Small circumferential surface fatigue cracks were detected at 60% of the fatigue lifetime. These cracks propagated very slowly in both the circumferential and radial directions. (2) When a radial crack reached a depth of between 150 and 350 μm, axial fatigue cracks were formed. (3) In the next stage, either the radial or the axial fatigue cracks continued propagating, or an inwards growing radial crack formed from the axial crack. (4) In the final stage, the circumferential surface crack began to grow rapidly and resulted in fracture. (5) The fracture type of hard‐shot peened Type 316L is a particular type of surface fracture.     

Probabilistic fatigue crack growth analysis of spot‐welded joints

This paper presents a probabilistic fatigue crack growth life prediction methodology for spot‐welded joints under variable amplitude loading history. The loading is multi‐axial and is obtained from transient response analysis of a vehicle model using finite‐element analysis. A three‐dimensional (3D) finite element model of a simplified joint with four spot welds is developed, and the static stress analysis of this joint is performed. Then the fatigue crack inside the base material sheet is modelled as a surface crack. Probabilistic crack growth model is combined with the stress analysis result to develop a probabilistic fatigue crack growth life prediction methodology for spot welds. This new method is implemented with MSC/NASTRAN and MSC/FATIGUE and is useful for the reliability assessment of spot‐welded joints against fatigue crack growth.     

Residual stress effects on fatigue crack growth in a Ti‐6Al‐4V friction stir weld

Recent studies have illustrated a predominant role of the residual stress on the fatigue crack growth in friction stir welded joints. In this study, the role of the residual stress on the propagation of fatigue cracks orthogonal to the weld direction in a friction stir welded Ti‐6Al‐4V joint was investigated. A numerical prediction of the fatigue crack growth rate in the presence of the residual stresses was carried out using AFGROW software; reasonable correspondence between the predictions and the experimental results were observed when the effects of residual stress were included in the simulation.     

A cumulative damage model for fatigue life estimation of high‐strength steels in high‐cycle and very‐high‐cycle fatigue regimes

A cumulative fatigue damage model is presented to estimate fatigue life for high‐strength steels in high‐cycle and very‐high‐cycle fatigue regimes with fish‐eye mode failure, and a simple formula is obtained. The model takes into account the inclusion size, fine granular area (FGA) size, and tensile strength of materials. Then, the ‘equivalent crack growth rate’ of FGA is proposed. The model is used to estimate the fatigue life and equivalent crack growth rate for a bearing steel (GCr15) of present investigation and four high‐strength steels in the literature. The equivalent crack growth rate of FGA is calculated to be of the order of magnitude of 10^?14–10^?11 m/cycle. The estimated results accord well with the present experimental results and prior predictions and experimental results in the literature. Moreover, the effect of inclusion size on fatigue life is discussed. It is indicated that the inclusion size has an important influence on the fatigue life, and the effect is related to the relative size of inclusion for FGA. For the inclusion size close to the FGA size, the former has a substantial effect on the fatigue life. While for the relatively large value of FGA size to inclusion size, it has little effect on the fatigue life.     

Assessing the accuracy of fatigue life in surface‐cracked straight pipes

The demonstration of leak before brake (LBB) based on fracture mechanics requires information on the initial size of a defect, initiation of crack growth from the inherent defect and subsequent crack growth rates. In the present paper the prediction methodologies have been tested for three different full scale pipes geometry experimentally tested data. The prediction accuracy of two SIF solutions available in the literature has also been judged. The effect of fatigue crack closure and corrections needed in the numerical prediction methodology using FEM have also been included. The results showed that the FEM could fairly predict the fatigue crack initiation and crack growth life of full‐scale piping components having a constant depth crack profile.     

Fatigue growth prediction of center slant crack in rectangular plate

This paper presents a numerical prediction model of mixed‐mode crack fatigue growth in a plane elastic plate. It involves a formulations of fatigue growth of multiple crack tips under mixed‐mode loading and a displacement discontinuity method with crack‐tip elements (a boundary element method) proposed recently by Yan is extended to analyse the fatigue growth process of multiple crack tips. Due to an intrinsic feature of the boundary element method, a general growth problem of multiple cracks can be solved in a single‐region formulation. In the numerical simulation, for each increment of crack extension, remeshing of existing boundaries is not necessary. Crack extension is conveniently modelled by adding new boundary elements on the incremental crack extension to the previous crack boundaries. At the same time, the element characters of some related elements are adjusted according to the manner in which the boundary element method is implemented. As an example, the present numerical approach is used to analyse the fatigue growth of a centre slant crack in a rectangular plate. The numerical results illustrate the validation of the numerical prediction model and can reveal the effect of the geometry of the cracked plate on the fatigue growth.     

Local strain accumulation in fatigue crack propagation process of Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy

Fatigue crack growth behaviours of the titanium alloy Ti‐6Al‐4V, with two different microstructures, at different maximum stresses were identified by digital image correlation technique. Full‐field strains were monitored around fatigue cracks after consecutive cycles in fatigue crack growth experiments. Results indicated that the Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy with a bi‐modal microstructure had a better fatigue resistance than that with a primary‐α microstructure. Typical behaviours of small cracks and the evolution of multi‐scale fatigue cracks were clarified. The strain accumulations around the micro‐notch and fatigue crack increased with increasing number of load cycles. On the basis of von Mises strain mapping, it was found that crack growth rate could be characterized by crack‐tip plastic zone size.     

Prediction of fatigue crack growth path in mechanical joints using a weight function approach

Cracks often initiate from the mechanical joints which are widely used in structural components. It has been reported that cracks in mechanical joints are under mixed‐mode condition and there is a critical angle at which mode I stress intensity factor becomes maximum. The crack propagates in an arbitrary direction and the prediction of fatigue crack growth path is needed to provide against crack propagation and examine safety. In this study, mixed‐mode fatigue crack growth tests are performed for horizontal and critical inclined cracks in mechanical joints. Fatigue crack growth paths are predicted using a weight function approach and maximum tangential stress criterion.     

Fatigue‐life prediction of additively manufactured material: Effects of heat treatment and build orientation

In this study, the crack‐growth approach is used to predict the fatigue life of 17‐4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel (SS) fabricated via an additive manufacturing (AM) system in different orientations (ie, vertical and horizontal) before and after heat treatment. To perform fatigue‐life calculations, the effective stress intensity factor as a function of crack‐growth rate was obtained from testing modified compact specimens with different crack orientations in as‐built and heat‐treated conditions. The plasticity‐induced crack closure model, FASTRAN, was used to calculate fatigue lives based on the size of process‐induced defects. Results indicated that in the presence of large voids (ie, lack‐of‐fusion defects), the total fatigue life of AM 17‐4 PH SS in as‐built and heat‐treated conditions is dominated by crack growth. Effect of build orientation on fatigue life of AM 17‐4 PH SS was also captured based on the size of defects projected on a plane perpendicular to the loading direction.     

Vorhersagemodell für die Wachstumsraten kurzer Risse auf der Basis von Kmax‐konstant‐Versuchen an M(T)‐Proben

Prediction model for the growth rates of short cracks based on K_max‐constant tests with M(T) specimens The fatigue crack growth behaviour of short corner cracks in the Aluminium alloys Al 6013‐T6 and Al 2524‐T351 was investigated. The aim was to determine the crack growth rates of small corner cracks at stress ratios of R = 0.1, R = 0.7 and R = 0.8 and to develop a method to predict these crack growth rates from fatigue crack growth curves determined for long cracks. Corner cracks were introduced into short crack specimens, similar to M(T)‐specimens, at one side of a hole (Ø = 4.8 mm) by cyclic compression (R = 20). The pre‐cracks were smaller than 100 μm (notch + precrack). A completely new method was used to cut very small notches (10–50 μm) into the specimens with a Focussed Ion Beam. The results of the fatigue crack growth tests with short corner cracks were compared with long fatigue crack growth test data. The short cracks grew at ΔK‐values below the threshold for long cracks at the same stress ratio. They also grew faster than long cracks at the same ΔK‐values and the same stress ratios. A model was developed on the basis of K_max‐constant tests with long cracks that gives a good and conservative prediction of the short crack growth rates.     

Short‐crack thresholds and propagation in an AISI 4340 steel under the effect of SP residual stresses

The effect of residual stresses induced by shot‐peening in a high‐strength AISI 4340 steel has been studied with the purpose of deriving a consistent fatigue model incorporating the results of fatigue crack growth experiments in the threshold region for a broad range of load ratio (R‐ratio ranging from ?2.5 to 0.7), and the effect of short cracks by means of a modified El‐Haddad model. The proposed model, taking into account the effect of crack closure and being capable to assess the conditions for fatigue propagation of short cracks partially embedded in the shot‐peened surface layer, was validated against constant amplitude fatigue experiments conducted in the endurance strength region, ie, for fatigue lives up to 10⁷ cycles, with micronotched specimens in the presence of shot‐peening residual stresses. The proposed model was also validated by comparing the results of fatigue crack propagation simulations with fatigue crack growth experiments under variable amplitude loading, experimentally reproducing the combined effect of service fatigue loads and shot‐peening residual stresses.     

Non‐planar mixed‐mode growth of initially straight‐fronted surface cracks,in cylindrical bars under tension,torsion and bending,using the symmetric Galerkin boundary element method‐finite element method alternating method

In this paper, the stress intensity factor (SIF) variations along an arbitrarily developing crack front, the non‐planar fatigue‐crack growth patterns, and the fatigue life of a round bar with an initially straight‐fronted surface crack, are studied by employing the 3D symmetric Galerkin boundary element method‐finite element method (SGBEM‐FEM) alternating method. Different loading cases, involving tension, bending and torsion of the bar, with different initial crack depths and different stress ratios in fatigue, are considered. By using the SGBEM‐FEM alternating method, the SIF variations along the evolving crack front are computed; the fatigue growth rates and directions of the non‐planar growths of the crack surface are predicted; the evolving fatigue‐crack growth patterns are simulated, and thus, the fatigue life estimations of the cracked round bar are made. The accuracy and reliability of the SGBEM‐FEM alternating method are verified by comparing the presently computed results to the empirical solutions of SIFs, as well as experimental data of fatigue crack growth, available in the open literature. It is shown that the current approach gives very accurate solutions of SIFs and simulations of fatigue crack growth during the entire crack propagation, with very little computational burden and human–labour cost. The characteristics of fatigue growth patterns of initially simple‐shaped cracks in the cylindrical bar under different Modes I, III and mixed‐mode types of loads are also discussed in detail.     

Fatigue crack growth law of API X80 pipeline steel under various stress ratios based on J‐integral

Load‐controlled three‐point bending fatigue tests were conducted on API X80 pipeline steel to investigate the effects of stress ratio and specimen orientation on the fatigue crack growth behaviour. Because of the high strength and toughness of X80 steel, crack growth rate was measured and plotted versus ΔJ with stress ratio. The fatigue crack length is longer in the transverse direction, whereas the fatigue crack growth rates are nearly the same in different orientations. Finally, a new fatigue crack growth model was proposed. The effective J‐integral range was modified by ΔJ_p in order to correlate crack closure effect due to large‐scale yield of crack tip. The model was proved to fit well for fatigue crack growth rate of API X80 at various stress ratios of R > 0.     

Fatigue crack propagation under in‐phase and out‐of‐phase biaxial loading

Fatigue damage characteristics of aluminium alloy under complex biaxial loads such as in‐phase and out‐of‐phase loading conditions and different biaxiality ratios have been investigated. The effects of microscale phenomena on macroscale crack growth were studied to develop an in‐depth understanding of crack nucleation and growth. Material characterization was conducted to study the microstructure variability. Scanning electron microscopy was used to identify the second phase particles, and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy was performed to analyse their phases and elements. Extensive quasi‐static and fatigue tests were conducted on Al7075‐T651 cruciform specimens over a wide range of load ratios and phases. Detailed fractography analysis was conducted to understand the crack growth behaviour observed during the fatigue tests. Significant differences in crack initiation and propagation behaviour were observed when a phase difference was applied. Primarily, crack retardation and splitting were observed because of the constantly varying mode mixity caused by phase difference. The crack growth behaviour and fatigue lives under out‐of‐phase loading were compared with those under in‐phase loading to understand the effect of mixed‐mode fracture.     

Crack closure in friction stir weldment using non‐linear model for fatigue crack propagation

The fatigue crack propagation in a friction stir‐welded sample has been simulated herein by means of two 3‐dimensional finite element method (FEM)‐based analyses. Numerical simulations of the fatigue crack propagation have been carried out by assuming a residual stress field as a starting condition. Two initial cracks, observed in the real specimen, have been assessed experimentally by performing fatigue tests on the welded sample. Hence, the same cracks have been placed in the corresponding FE model, and then a remote load with boundary conditions has been applied on the welded specimen. The material behaviour of the welded joint has been modelled by means of the Ramberg‐Osgood equation, while the non‐linear Kujawski‐Ellyin (KE) model has been adopted for the fatigue crack propagation under small‐scale yielding (SSY) conditions. Owing to the compressive nature of the residual stress field that acts on a part of the cracked regions, the crack closure phenomenon has also been considered. Then, the original version of the KE law has been modified to fully include the closure effect in the analysis. Later, the crack closure effect has also been assessed in the simulation of fatigue propagation of three cracks. Finally, an investigation of the fracture process zone (FPZ) extension as well as the cyclic plastic zone (CPZ) and monotonic plastic zone (MPZ) extensions have been assessed.     

A study of fatigue crack growth from artificial corrosion pits at welded joints under complex stress fields

The paper studies the effects of artificial corrosion pits and complex stress fields on the fatigue crack growth of full penetration load‐carrying fillet cruciform welded joints with 45° inclined angle. Parameters of fatigue crack growth rate of welded joints are obtained from S‐N curves under different levels of corrosion. A numerical method is used to simulate fatigue crack growth using different mixed mode fatigue crack growth criteria. Using polynomial regression, the crack shape correction factor of welded joints is fitted as a function of crack depth ratios. Because the maximum circumferential stress criterion is simple and easy to use in practice, fatigue crack growth rate is modified using this criterion. The relationship of effective stress intensity factor, crack growth angle and crack depth is studied under different corrosion levels. The simulated crack growth path obtained from the numerical method is compared with the actual crack growth path observed by fatigue tests. The results show that fatigue cracks do not initiate at the edge or bottom of pits but at the weld toes where the maximum stress occurs. The artificial corrosion pits have little effect on the effective stress intensity factor ranges and crack growth angle. The fatigue crack growth rates of welded joints with pits 1 and 2 are 1.15 times and 1.40 times larger than that of the welded joint with no pit, respectively. The simulated crack growth path agrees well with the actual one. The fatigue life prediction accuracy using the modified formulation is improved by about 18%. The crack shape correction factor obtained using the maximum circumferential stress criterion is recommended being used to calculate fatigue life.     

Impact of compressive hold on out‐of‐phase thermomechanical fatigue crack growth in IN 718

Accurate characterization and understanding of the fatigue crack growth behaviour of components in jet turbine engines is critical for successfully using a damage tolerant design method to maximise safety and efficiency. The hot section components experience changing loads and temperatures, and hence, fatigue crack growth rates are typically studied under thermomechanical loading. One question that remains unclear is the role of the compressive holds that are often part of an aircraft loading‐temperature spectrum. This experimental study was undertaken to investigate a turbine disk alloy, Inconel 718, subjected to different cycling and temperature profiles considering different lengths of hot compressive holds to determine its effect on the fatigue crack growth rate. It was found that the addition of a compressive hold at temperatures from 650 to 725 °C has no significant impact on the fatigue crack growth rate when compared with a cycle without a compressive hold. Fractographic analysis shows that crack growth is primarily transgranular in all cases studied suggesting that grain boundary oxidation, often observed during hot tensile holds, is insignificant.     

Fatigue thresholds of holed components under in‐phase and out‐of‐phase torsional and axial loadings

The resistance‐curve (R‐curve) method was applied to the prediction of the fatigue thresholds of notched components under in‐phase and out‐of‐phase combinations of cyclic torsion and axial loadings. The prediction was compared with the experimental data obtained from thin‐walled tubular specimen of medium‐carbon steel with a hole. The stress was completely reversed and the mean stress was zero. The crack was nucleated at the position of the maximum range of the circumferential stress on the periphery of a hole, and propagated almost straight for all cases examined. The experimental data of the thresholds for crack initiation and fracture agreed well with the predictions for in‐phase and for out‐of‐phase loadings with 45° phase difference. For out‐of‐phase loading with 90°, the threshold for fracture was close to the crack initiation limit, because of the reduction of crack closure due to crack face rubbing by mode II shear cycling.     

Effects of microstructural through‐thickness non‐uniformity and crack size on fatigue crack propagation and fracture of rolled Al‐7075 alloy

Some of the fatigue tests performed using the standard compact tension (CT) and a non‐standard specimen made of rolled 7075 aluminium alloy exhibit fatigue crack growth (FCG) lagging in a small region along the crack front. Through‐thickness microstructural evaluation shows that material grains in this region did not flatten as much as other regions. In the non‐standard specimen, surface cracks are either grown under fatigue loading or broken under monotonically increasing quasi‐static loads at different crack sizes. The aforementioned lagging also exists in a narrow region of 3‐D FCG for specimens with microstructural through‐thickness non‐uniformity. A more important feature for this type of specimen with surface crack is the deflection of fast fracture direction into the grain interfaces, namely from L‐T orientation to S‐L and S‐T directions. It is proved that this is due to significant levels of second principal stresses near the free surface for small cracks and lower fracture toughness of the material in S‐L and S‐T directions.     

Improved test method for very low fatigue‐crack‐growth‐rate data

Currently, in North America, the threshold crack‐growth regime is experimentally defined by using ASTM Standard E647, which has been shown in many cases to exhibit anomalies due to the load‐reduction (LR) test method. The test method has been shown to induce remote closure, which prematurely slows down crack growth and produces an abnormally high threshold. In this paper, the fatigue‐crack growth rate properties in the threshold and near‐threshold regimes for a titanium alloy, Ti‐6Al‐4V (STOA), are determined by using the LR test method and an improved test method. The improved method uses ‘compression–compression’ precracking, as developed by Pippan, Topper and others, to provide fatigue‐crack‐growth rate data under constant‐amplitude loading in the near‐threshold regime, without load‐history effects. Tests were conducted over a wide range in stress ratios (R = 0.1–0.7) on compact C(T) specimens for three different widths (25, 51 and 76 mm). The slitting method was used on 51 mm C(T) specimens to confirm that the material did not contain significant levels of residual stresses from forming and/or machining. A crack‐mouth‐opening‐displacement gage was used to monitor crack growth. Data from the ASTM LR method gave near‐threshold values that were found to be dependent upon the specimen width. However, data from the compression precracking constant amplitude (CPCA) loading method gave near‐threshold data independent of specimen width. A crack‐closure analysis was performed for both the LR and CPCA data, to correlate data at the various stress ratios. The CPCA data correlated well with the effective stress‐intensity factor range against rate relation, whereas the LR data exhibited significant threshold fanning with both stress ratio and specimen width.