Crack propagation of CCT foam specimen under low strain rate fatigue

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of holes on the low strain rate fatigue properties of the nickel foam material and to understand the lifetime of this material which is subjected to the repeated loads. Failures of foam materials under single and repeated loads analogous to fatigue are essential to designers and users in military and aerospace structures. The material failure induced by repeated low strain rate loading becomes a critical issue because of significant loss of stiffness and compressive strength in the foam material. Testing methods to study low strain rate (that is, strain rate) fatigue are quite numerous; no single standard testing procedure is defined for studying the low strain rate fatigue property of a material. The increasing application of foam material in aerospace structures, owing to high specific stiffness and strength has attracted a great concern about the high sensitivity to low strain rate damage introduced during manufacture or in service, and the effects of such damage on structural degradation. To investigate this issue, this study sets up an experimental procedure to determine the low strain rate fatigue properties of nickel foam material. This study performs both experimental and numerical investigations to catch the low strain rate fatigue behavior of nickel foam with open-cell type. The experiments are conducted by rod up and down at the strain rate fatigue of loading. The crack length at the specific cycles are measured experimentally by taking pictures with a paper ruler attached on the surface of specimen and these values are apply to the computer simulations as crack seam model. The simulation result of stress intensity factors are compared with a well known theoretical calculation. Design life and probability of failure or survival at specified life can be calculated so that the fatigue life of nickel core material subjected to repeated low strain rate loading is predicted.