Fatigue Analysis Techniques

Darrell Socie Mechanical Engineering University of Illinois

Fatigue Analysis Techniques

Load-Life ! Stress-Life ! BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 ) ! Strain-Life ! Crack Growth
!

Common Features
Constant amplitude test data ! Rainflow ! Linear damage
!

Load-Life Data

1000

Lateral Force, kN

100

10 1E+0

1E+1

1E+2

1E+3

1E+4

1E+5

1E+6

1E+7

Cycles

Stress-Life Data

10000

Stress Amplitude, MPa

1000

100 1E+0

1E+1

1E+2

1E+3

1E+4

1E+5

1E+6

1E+7

Cycles

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 ) Data

400

Stress Range, MPa

Steel
C D

300 200 100 0

F2

105

106

107

108

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 ) Data

125

Stress Range, MPa

Aluminum
B C

100 75 50 25 0
D E

105

106

107

108

Cycles

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 ) Weld Class F

Strain-Life Data - 2Nf

1

Strain Amplitude

0.1 0.01 0.001 0.0001 0.00001 1E+0

1E+1

1E+2

1E+3

1E+4

1E+5

1E+6

1E+7

Reversals

Strain-Life Data

600

Stress Amplitude

500 400 300 200 100 0 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014

Strain Amplitude

Crack Growth Data

Crack Growth Rate, m/cycle
1E-6 1E-7 1E-8 1E-9 1E-10 1E-11 1E-12 1.00E+00

1.00E+01

1.00E+02

Cyclic Stress Intensity, MPa m

Rainflow Counting
G I

H E B D F

Hysteresis Loops
A C G I

H E B D F C G A, I

E H

D, F

Damage Accumulation
!

Miners Linear Damage Rule " Ni / Nf = 1

Load-Life
!

Major Assumption
" Loads

used to generate baseline data are the same as service loading

Load-Life
!

Advantages
" Actual

test of structure " Manufacturing and local stress concentration effects automatically included " Stress analysis is not needed

Load-Life
!

Limitations
" Actual

test of structure " New tests required for each change in material, loading or geometry " Mean stress effects can not be included

Stress-Life
!

Major Assumptions
" Nominal

stresses and material strength control fatigue life " Accurate determination of Kf for each geometry and material

Notched S-N Curve

10000

Stress Amplitude

1000

100

Kt or Kf

10 1E+00

1E+01

1E+02

1E+03

1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

Cycles

Stress-Life
!

Advantages
" Changes

in material and geometry can easily be evaluated " Large emperical database for steel with standard notch shapes

Stress-Life
!

Limitations
" Does

not account for notch root plasticity " Mean stress effects are often in error " Requires emperical Kf for good results

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 )
!

Major Assumptions
" Complex

weld geometries can be described by a standard classification " Crack growth dominates fatigue life " Results independant of material and mean stress for structural steels

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 )

Stress Range, MPa

1000

100

Fatigue Limit

No Fatigue Limit
10 1E+05 1E+06 1E+07 1E+08

Cycles

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 )
!

Advantages
" Manufacturing

effects are directly included " Large emperical database exists

BS 5400 ( Eurocode 3 )
!

Limitations
" Difficult

to determine weld class for complex shapes " No benifit for improving manufacturing process

Welded Structure

Strain-Life
!

Major Assumptions
" Local

stresses and strains control fatigue behavior " Accurate determination of Kf

Strain-Life
!

Advantages
" Plasticity

effects " Mean stress effects

Mean Strain Example

Tensile Mean Stress

Compressive Mean Stress

Neubers Rule
1000 800 Stress 600 400 200 0 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 Strain

2 Kf

S e =

Strain-Life
!

Limitations
" Requires

emperical Kf " Long life situations where surface finish and processing variables are important

Crack Growth
!

Major Assumptions
" Nominal

stress and crack size control fatigue life " Accurate determination of initial crack size

Crack Growth
!

Advantage
" Only

method to directly deal with cracks

Crack Growth
!

Limitations " Sequence effects

Keff = f ( K ) " K = E e Y( a ) a " Accurate determination of ai

Crack Closure

Crack Opened

Crack Closed

Crack Opening Load

Damaging portion of loading history

Opening load

Nondamaging portion of loading history

Applications
Material Selection / Improvement ! Fillet Weld ! Scaling / Editing Load Histories ! Crack Size / Shape
!

Transmission History
1000 800 600

Nominal Strain

400 200 0 -200 -400 -600

Material Properties
BHN
'f ,MPa

187 1668 -0.149 0.556 -0.522 1460 0.234 206

277 2978 -0.158 0.700 -0.578 1743 0.189 206

336 3902 -0.159 0.563 -0.595 2051 0.163 208

410 4593 -0.167 0.381 -0.589 2381 0.172 206

545 5666 -0.170 0.068 -0.603 4438 0.169 205

b
'f

c K, MPa n E, GPa

Strength Variation
600 500

Hardness, BHN

400 300 200 100 0 1E+03

1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

Blocks

Kf Variation
4.5 4

Fatigue Notch Factor

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1E+03

1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

Blocks

Scale Factor Variation

2

1.5

Scale Factor

0.5

0 1E+03

1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

Blocks

Cycle Histogram

25

counts 0 0
ran ge (uE ) a me ) ( uE n

-1000

1500

1000

-N Damage

10 % damage 0 0
ran ge (uE ) a me ss stre n

-50

1500

50

Weld Geometry

Crack Depth

Geometry Factor
3.0

2.5

2.0

Y ( a/W )

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

a/W

Crack Length
0.005

0.004

Crack Length, m

0.003

0.002

0.001

0 0 200 400 600 800 1000

Blocks