FATIGUE AND CREEP INTERACTION

INTRODUCTION

Fatigue is a progressive, localized, permanent structural change that occurs in

materials subjected to fluctuating stresses and strains that may result in cracks or fracture
after a sufficient number of fluctuations. Fatigue fractures are caused by the simultaneous
action of cyclic stress, tensile stress and plastic strain.
The process of fatigue consists of three stages:
 Initial fatigue damage leading to crack nucleation and crack initiation
 Progressive cyclic growth of a crack (crack propagation) until the remaining un-
cracked cross section of a part becomes too weak to sustain the loads imposed
 Final, sudden fracture of the remaining cross section
Fatigue cracking normally results from cyclic stresses that are well below the static yield
strength of the material. The cracks initiate and propagate in regions where the strain is most
severe. Under the action of cyclic loading, a plastic zone develops at the defect tip. This zone
of high deformation becomes an initiation site for a fatigue crack. The crack propagates under
the applied stress through the material until complete fracture results.
 Characteristics of fatigue
 In metal alloys, and for the simplifying case when there are no macroscopic or
microscopic discontinuities, the process starts with dislocation movements at the
microscopic level, which eventually form persistent slip bands that become the
nucleus of short cracks.
 Macroscopic and microscopic discontinuities (at the crystalline grain scale) as well as
component design features which cause stress concentrations (holes, keyways, sharp
changes of load direction etc.) are common locations at which the fatigue process
begins.
 Fatigue is a process that has a degree of randomness (stochastic), often showing
considerable scatter even in seemingly identical sample in well controlled
environments.
 Fatigue is usually associated with tensile stresses but fatigue cracks have been
reported due to compressive loads.
 The greater the applied stress range, the shorter the life.
 Fatigue life scatter tends to increase for longer fatigue lives.
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  Damage is cumulative. Materials do not recover when rested.
 Fatigue life is influenced by a variety of factors, such as temperature, surface finish,
metallurgical microstructure, presence of oxidizing or inert chemicals, residual
stresses, scuffing contact (fretting), etc.
 Some materials (e.g., some steel and titanium alloys) exhibit a theoretical fatigue limit
below which continued loading does not lead to fatigue failure.

Fig 1 Different fatigue life cycles

1.1 Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF):

(Loading that typically causes failure in less than 104 cycles) is associated with localized
plastic behavior in metals; thus, a strain-based parameter should be used for fatigue life
prediction in metals. Testing is conducted with constant strain amplitudes typically at 0.01–5
Hz.

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 Fig 2. Plots of strain amplitude v/s number of stress reversals for failure.
 Coffin-Manson equation:
This equation gives a relationship between number of cycles and the total strain (elastic +
plastic). In mathematical model the equation can be written as,
From Manson’s-Coffin’s Approach

∆𝜖 ∆𝜖𝑒 ∆𝜖𝑝 𝜎𝑓′

= + = (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜖𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐
2 2 2 2𝐸

 Δεp /2 is the plastic strain amplitude;

 Δεe /2 is the elastic strain amplitude;
 2Nf is the number of reversals to failure (N cycles);
 c is an empirical constant known as the fatigue ductility exponent
 b is material constant

1.2 Fatigue loading:

 Fully reversed

 Repeated

 Fluctuating

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 In practice, a mechanical part is exposed to a complex, often random, sequence of loads,
large and small. In order to assess the safe life of such a part:
 Complex loading is reduced to a series of simple cyclic loadings using a technique
such as rain flow analysis;
 A histogram of cyclic stress is created from the rain flow analysis to form a fatigue
damage spectrum
 For each stress level, the degree of cumulative damage is calculated from the S-N
curve
 The effect of the individual contributions is combined using an algorithm such as
Miner's rule.

1.3 Factor affecting fatigue

Se’ is the value from experiment of laboratory controlled environment (Refer R-R
Moore test specimen) [1]. In reality, difference in material, manufacturing, environment and
design exist. Therefore, modifying factor is introduced, using equation
𝑆𝑒 = 𝐾𝑎 𝐾𝑏 𝐾𝑐 𝐾𝑑 𝐾𝑒 𝐾𝑓 𝑆𝑒′
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Where,
S’e: endurance limit based on R.R. Moore experiment
ka: surface factor
kb: size factor
kc: loading factor
kd: temperature factor
ke: reliability factor
kf: miscellaneous-effects factor

 Surface Factor ka :
Rotating specimen is highly polished without any circumferential scratches.
Therefore, surface factor for other finishes.
𝑏
𝐾𝑎 = 𝑎 𝑆𝑢𝑡

 Size Factor kb:

For rotating circular cross section subjected to bending or torsion.
1.24 𝑑 −0.107 2.79 ≤ 𝑑 ≤ 51𝑚𝑚
𝐾𝑏 = {
1.51 𝑑 −0.157 51 ≤ 𝑑 ≤ 254 𝑚𝑚

kb = 1 (for axial load)

 Loading factor kc:

Bending: kc = 1
Axial: kc = 0.85

 Temperature Factor kd:

𝑆𝑇
𝑘𝑑 =
𝑆𝑅𝑇

ST: tensile strength at T temperature

SRT: tensile strength at room temperature

 Miscellaneous-Effects Factor kf:

This factor will take into account other factors that reduce the endurance limit such as
corrosion, electrolytic plating, metal spraying, cyclic frequency and/or frottage corrosion.

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1.4 Modes of Failure:
Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the
propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate
the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics to characterize the
material's resistance to fracture.
In modern materials science, fracture mechanics is an important tool in improving the
mechanical performance of mechanical components. It applies the physics of stress and
strain, in particular the theories of elasticity and plasticity, to the microscopic crystallographic
defects found in real materials in order to predict the macroscopic mechanical failure of
bodies. Fracture graphic is widely used with fracture mechanics to understand the causes of
failures and also verify the theoretical failure predictions with real life failures. The
prediction of crack growth is at the heart of the damage tolerance discipline.
There are three ways of applying a force to enable a crack to propagate:
 Mode I fracture – Opening mode (a tensile stress normal to the plane of the crack),
 Mode II fracture – Sliding mode (a shear stress acting parallel to the plane of the
crack and perpendicular to the crack front), and
 Mode III fractures – Tearing mode shear stress acting parallel to the plane of the crack
and parallel to the crack front).

Fig 3.Failure modes.

3. NEW DATA COLLECTED

Turbo machinery components are often subjected to fluctuating loads with the presence of
high stress and strain. Various methods have been developed to model high stress effects on

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the fatigue behavior of metals. It is known that the mean stress has a significant influence on
the fatigue life. Tensile stress is known to be detrimental to the fatigue life, while
compressive stress is beneficial. In several past decades, research studies accounting for the
stress effect on fatigue life were based on the strain-life approach, where the response of the
materialis within the elastic–plastic and stress–strain range. The strain-life approach is
represented by the total strain versus life.
1. 3-D analysis for estimation of over-speed margin evaluation.

2. Estimation of over-speed margin in rotating aero engine disc as per the international
authorities for integrity, blending the classical approach with FEA.

Application of 3-D elasto-plastic strain to classical equations to arrive at fatigue life of

disc by Coffin-Manson method.

4. TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED

Fatigue analysis procedures for the design of modern structures rely on techniques,
which have been developed over the last 10 decades. Initially these techniques were relatively
simple procedures, which compared measured constant amplitude stresses (from prototype
tests) with material data from test specimens.
These techniques have become progressively more sophisticated with the introduction of
strain based techniques to deal with local plasticity effects. It is very important to appreciate
the issue of accuracy when performing fatigue life calculations with finite element (FE)
models.
Most finite element analysis (FEA) based fatigue packages have three main life assessment
methods, i.e. Stress-life, Strain-life and Crack-propagation. For the Strain-life method, three
strain-life models, i.e. Coffin-Manson, Morrow and Smith-Watson-Topper (SWT), are
available in most of the FE packages.

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 Fig 4. Zero-Max-Zero loading condition
To estimate the number of life cycle of an aero engine rotor coupling a zero-max-zero
loading condition is considered as shown in fig 4.

5. Fatigue Life of Rotors

In the present work for estimation of number of fatigue cycle Coffin-Manson method
is followed.
From Manson’s-Coffin’s Approach

∆𝜖 ∆𝜖𝑒 ∆𝜖𝑝 𝜎𝑓′

= + = (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜖𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐
2 2 2 2𝐸

 Δεp /2 is the plastic strain amplitude;

 Δεe /2 is the elastic strain amplitude;
 2Nf is the number of reversals to failure (N cycles);
 c is an empirical constant known as the fatigue ductility exponent
 b is material constant

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 Fig 5.Total strain for base line model
= 4.917e5 cycles

Fig 6. Total strain for optimized model

= 3.44e6 cycles
Fig 6.shows the total equivalent strain i.e. summation of elastic strain and plastic
strain. In this Analysis we can observe that the cycles will results in e6 therefore the model
reaches the infinite no of cycles and minimum no of cycle region is identified as bolt-hole
region.

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 Fig 7. Total strain for inner blots model
= 2.94e6 cycles
Fig 7.shows the total equivalent strain i.e. summation of elastic strain and plastic
strain. In this Analysis we can observe that the cycles will results in e6 therefore the model
reaches the infinite no of cycles and minimum no of cycle region is identified as bolt-hole
region.

Fig 8.Total strain for outer bolt model

= 3.94e6 cycles
Fig 8.shows the total equivalent strain i.e. summation of elastic strain and plastic
strain. In this Analysis we can observe that the cycles will results in e6 therefore the model
reaches the infinite no of cycles and minimum no of cycle region is identified as bolt-hole
region.
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