Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Thermo-mechanical fatigue life prediction based on the simulated

component of cylinder head
Wenjun Yang a, b, Jianchao Pang b, *, Lei Wang c, Xin Kang a, Song Zhou a,
Chenglu Zou b, Shouxin Li b, Zhefeng Zhang b, *
a
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang, China
b
Shi-Changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
c
State Key Laboratory for Aviation Digital Manufacturing Process, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: As the vulnerable component of diesel engine, cylinder head is subjected to the thermo-
Cylinder head mechanical coupling loads more and more heavily. For establishing a simple and effective
Thermo-mechanical loads technology to evaluate the damage degree, a prediction method based on simulated component is
Numerical simulation
developed in the present work. By the comparison of temperature and stress at measured points, it
Failure analysis
shows that the simulation and testing results have a good agreement, verifying the effectiveness of
simulated component. Applying Sehitoglu theory and loading spectrums, the failure locations are
predicted successfully. Then damage characteristics of thermo-mechanical fatigue are analyzed at
failure locations. It indicates that mechanical damage takes a leading role compared with
oxidative damage and creep damage, and thermal load is more sensitive to mechanical damage in
three damage types. This study may provide an effective way to estimate the service life of cyl­
inder head.

1. Introduction

For the high thermal efficiency and large power range, diesel engine has been widely used in shipping and automobile fields [1,2].
In the working process, diesel engine converts the fuel thermal energy into kinetic energy with the combustion chamber. As one of the
key components of combustion chamber, cylinder head takes a heavy thermal load caused by the combusted gas [3,4]. In addition,
cylinder head is connected to cylinder block by bolts, and it is also subjected to the mechanical loads including bolt pre-tightening force
and explosion pressure etc. [5–7]. Due to the coupling action of thermal and mechanical loads periodically, the fatigue damage
behavior of cylinder head is extremely complicated in the service environment [8–10]. With the developing trends of higher power
density and combustion pressure, and the design criteria of lighter weight and lower emission, the reliability and service safety for
modern diesel engines are required more and more strictly [11,12]. It makes traditional test and simulation method facing the severe
challenge. Hence, for further estimating the service life based on the thermo-mechanical damage mechanism, the effective research
technologies are urgent to develop in engineering design and analysis of cylinder head.
Thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) is the failure phenomenon of the material and structure which undergo the change of tem­
perature and mechanical loads [13]. It is induced by cyclic stress or cyclic strain in the external mechanical constraints and internal

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: jcpang@imr.ac.cn (J. Pang), zhfzhang@imr.ac.cn (Z. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2022.106105
Received 23 September 2021; Received in revised form 18 January 2022; Accepted 29 January 2022
Available online 17 February 2022
1350-6307/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Nomenclature

Dtotal Total damage

Dfat Mechanical damage
Dox Oxidation damage
DCreep Total damage
εmech Mechanical strain
E Young’s modulus, MPa
Nffat Cycles to failure due to mechanical fatigue
A Material constant, s− 1
σ ’f Fatigue strength coefficient, MPa
b Fatigue strength exponent
ε’f Fatigue ductility coefficient
c Fatigue ductility exponent
m Material constant
Nfox Cycles to failure due to oxidation fatigue
hcr Critical crack length, μm
ϕox Oxidation phasing factor
Keff
p Effective oxidation constant
β Material constant
δ0 Diffusion coefficient, μm2.s− 1
α Strain-rate sensitivity constant
ε̇mech Mechanical strain rate
Q Activation energy for oxidation, kJ.mol− 1
R Universal gas constant, kJ.(mol*K)− 1
ξox Proportion of damage due to oxidation
ε̇th Rate of thermal strain.
K Drag stress, MPa
ΔH Activation energy for creep, kJ.mol− 1
σH Hydrostatic stress, MPa
ϕcreep Creep phase factor
ξcreep Sensitivity of the phasing shift to creep damage

temperature gradients. Initially experimental methods were applied in the TMF research of cylinder head. Grieb et al. [14] and
Takahashi et al. [15] evaluated the TMF life based on the specimen test and the strain-based life prediction. Recently, the standard
fatigue specimens were made from cylinder head, and the TMF tests were carried out to explore the fatigue life and damage mechanism
of compacted graphite iron in Zhang’s group [16–19]. Minichmayr et al. [20] evaluated the TMF life of aluminum alloy specimens, and
three types of damages (such as, mechanical damage, oxidation damage and creep damage) were considered based on the Sehitoglu
model. Tsuyoshi et al. [21] and Beck et al. [22] explored the effects of artificial aging and Al2O3 fiber on cast aluminum alloys, and
analyzed the relationship between microstructure change and thermal fatigue life. Koch et al. [23] measured the temperature and
strain of flame deck in real machine, and predicted the life of cylinder head based on the range of strain and the area of hysteresis loop.
Zhang and Wang et al. [24–27] established an accelerated thermal fatigue test rig for internal combustion engine, and revealed the
thermal fatigue life and crack behavior of cylinder head. The method of experimental test is relatively accurate and reliable, while up
to now more researches on the TMF tests of cylinder head are still at the stage of standard specimens. However, the effects of structural
feature and working load cannot be completely considered only based on the specimen TMF tests. For the damage mechanism of the
real structure fatigue, it is still unclear under the complex thermo-mechanical loads. Due to the complex structures and working
conditions, TMF tests are difficult and luxurious to carry out on the cylinder head component.
With the rapid development of CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) technologies such as FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics), numerical simulation method has been applied more and more widely in engineering. Compared
with the experimental test method, it has become an important tool for the diesel engine design because of the ability to solve complex
problems visually. Prasad et al. [28] and Jafarabadi et al. [29] simulated the temperature field of cylinder head based on the fluid­
–structure coupling method. Chen et al. [30] and Kim et al. [31] developed the numerical analysis method for thermal growth and
residual stress, and illustrated the effects on fatigue durability by a real case. Chamani et al. [32] and Xia et al. [33] conducted a
detailed finite element analysis of cylinder head, and discussed the notch effects on fatigue life assessment. Thalmair et al. [34] and
Trampert et al. [35] took a numerical simulation of TMF fatigue damage, and explained the characteristics of low-cycle fatigue ac­
cording to the material composition and microscopic feature. Fontanesi et al. [36] and Maassen et al. [37] considered the large-scale
variation of thermal load and mechanical load on cylinder head, and carried out the analysis of low-cycle thermal fatigue and high-

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

cycle fatigue. According to the main causes of fatigue failure, Ghasemi et al. [38] locally optimized the key failure region to improve
the fatigue characteristics of cylinder head. Based on the investigations above, it can be seen that the numerical simulation technology
takes an effective method for the TMF analysis. Related researches initially explored the damage mechanism of engine cylinder head
under the thermo-mechanical loads.
Although numerical simulation provides the favorable support for TMF research currently, there are still problems such as large
calculation scale, tremendous time consumption, and uncertain analysis reliability. This makes it quite difficult to meet the re­
quirements of high efficiency and real-time demand in engineering application. For establishing a simple and effective technology to
evaluate the damage mechanism, simulated component is developed based on the flame deck of CGI (compacted graphite iron) cyl­
inder head, and then thermo-mechanical response and fatigue damage are predicted in the present work. This research will provide an
effective way to the damage evaluation of cylinder head in engineering design and optimization.

2. Physical model and analysis process

2.1. Simulated component of cylinder head

The main function of cylinder head is to seal the cylinder, and its typical structure is shown as Fig. 1(a). The flame deck is subjected
to the high temperature and high pressure gas periodically, and it is one of the most vulnerable regions as shown in Fig. 1(b). Here the
arrows indicate the positions of inlet valves, exhaust valves, and nose bridges between the valves. To ensure the seal effectively be­
tween cylinder head and cylinder liner, a number of bolts are applied around the flame deck. Fig. 1(c) exhibits the loading conditions of
cylinder head in working process. Due to internal complex structure of cylinder head (including water cavities and air passages etc.),
the simulation of mechanical dynamics is quite difficult and time-consuming, which is not convenient to be applied for the optimi­
zation and design. For developing a simple and effective method, the equivalent model of cylinder head is developed based on
simulated component in this study. As shown in Fig. 1(d), the equivalent model mainly consists of flame deck and bolt load region.
The simulated component of cylinder head was imported into finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. Pretension bolts were modeled
equivalently with beam elements. For obtaining a high-quality calculation mesh, simulated structure was cut by the specified paths.
With the meshing tool of pre-processing module, the structured hex elements were selected and FE model was achieved successfully as
shown in Fig. 2(a). After checking, it confirms the quality of grid is irrelevant and good for the simulated calculation. Total number of
elements is 25793, total number of nodes is 33846.
The material of investigated cylinder head is compact graphite iron, and its mechanical properties at different temperatures are
shown in Fig. 2(b). The stress–strain curves of different temperatures were conducted by an Instron 8862 universal testing machine,
and the tensile strain rate was at 5 × 10− 4/s. It shows that the values of yield strength and tensile strength decrease gradually with the
increase of environmental temperature, especially when the temperature is higher than 400 ◦ C. Other material parameters for thermo-
mechanical analysis are exhibited in Table 1. Here T indicates the temperature of environment, E indicates the elastic modulus of

Fig. 1. Working loads and equivalent model of cylinder head. (a) Sketch structure; (b) flame deck; (c) loading conditions; (d) simulated component.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Fig. 2. (a) FE model of simulated component and (b) tested stress–strain curves of CGI.

material CGI, α indicates the coefficient of linear expansion, λ indicates the thermal conductivity, and ν indicates the Poisson’s ratio.

2.2. TMF analysis process and Sehitoglu theory

(1) Analysis process of thermo-mechanical fatigue

For the analysis of thermo-mechanical fatigue, the whole procedure includes the contents of heat transfer, mechanical response and
fatigue damage as shown in Fig. 3.
The specific process of simulated calculation is as follows:

1. Geometry model of simulated component was built based on SolidWorks software. The conversion file was exported and further
imported into FE software ABAQUS for mesh generation.
2. The calculation of temperature field was carried out based on the heat transfer element. Boundary conditions derived from
experimental tests were set including film coefficient, environment temperature, etc. Then thermal analysis was developed with
the module of transient heat transfer, and temperature field was obtained at each operating moment.
3. The type of mesh was redefined as structured stress element. According to the work loading, bolt pretension force and burning
gas pressure were applied. Meanwhile, temperature field obtained by former procedure was defined in the loading module.
Based on thermo-mechanical conditions of diesel engine, the model of thermo-mechanical system was established and coupling
analysis was taken successfully.
4. Applying the post process module, the results of thermo-mechanical characteristics were exhibited visually. Then the result file
was imported into the FEMFAT fatigue software. The loading spectrums were defined by the strain, stress and temperature of
thermo-mechanical system. Based on the material library for TMF damage analysis, the properties of compacted graphite iron
were assigned. Finally, the mechanisms of TMF damage were calculated with the heat Sehitoglu module.
(2) The theory of Sehitoglu method

The analysis of thermo-mechanical fatigue was based on the Sehitoglu theory [39]. In this theory, the total damage of components
subjected to thermo-mechanical load is calculated as the sum of mechanical damage, damage caused by oxidation and damage caused
by creep process [40–42]. As is shown in Equation (1):

Dtotal = Dfat + Dox + Dcreep (1)

Mechanical damage is calculated with the aid of the Coffin-Manson equation. This equation uses mechanical strain as only one
cause of damage:

Table 1
Material parameters of CGI on cylinder head.
T/◦ C E/MPa α × 10− 6/K− 1
λ/W.(m.K)− 1
ν
20 170,000 10.5 34.9 0.28
100 161,000 11.2 35.6 0.28
200 158,000 11.8 35.7 0.28
300 154,000 12.4 35.2 0.28
400 148,000 12.9 34.4 0.28
500 140,000 13.3 33.4 0.28

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Fig. 3. Flowchart of the TMF analysis procedure.

Δεmech σ ’f ( fat )b ( )c
= 2Nf + ε’f 2Nfat
f (2)
2 E
Damage caused by oxidation is calculated in accordance with the following equation:
[ ]− 1/β
1 hcr δ0 2(Δεmech )(2/β)+1
= (3)
Nfox Bϕox Keff
p
(α/β)
ε̇1−mech

where hcr , δ0 , α, β and B are material parameters, ε̇mech is mechanical strain rate, and Keff
p is the effective oxidation constant:
∫ tc ( )
1 − Q
Kpeff = D0 exp dt (4)
t 0 RT(t)
In the above equation, D0 is a material parameter, Q is the activation energy for oxidation, R is the universal gas constant, and t is
the time. The oxidation phasing factor ϕox is calculated by Equation (5):
⎡ ⎛( ) ⎞2 ⎤
∫ tc ⎢ ε̇ th /ε̇mech +1
⎟ ⎥
1 ⎢ 1⎜ ⎟ ⎥
ϕox = exp⎢ − ⎜
⎝ ⎠ ⎥ dt (5)
t 0 ⎣ 2 ξox ⎦

where ξox is a measure of the proportion of damage due to oxidation. ε̇th is the rate of thermal strain. Damage due to oxidation is at its
( )
highest if the thermal and mechanical stresses act in opposite directions and compensate each other ε̇th /ε̇mech = − 1 [42].

Creep damage is caused by mechanisms such as void growth and cracking along grain boundaries and is calculated as:
∫ (α σ + α σ )m
1
(6)
1 2 H
creep = ϕcreep Ae(− ΔH/RT) dt
Nf K

where A and m are material constants, ΔH is activation energy for creep, σ is equivalent stress according to Mises, σH is hydrostatic

5
W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

stress, and K is drag stress. α1 and α2 are scaling factors that represent the relative proportion of damage caused by tensile and
compressive stresses. ϕcreep is the creep phase factor:
⎡ ⎛( ) ⎞2 ⎤
1
∫ tc ⎢ 1 ⎜ ε̇th /ε̇mech − 1 ⎟ ⎥
⎢ ⎟ ⎥
ϕcreep = exp⎢ − ⎜ ⎠ ⎥dt (7)
tc 0 ⎣ 2⎝ ξcreep ⎦

where ξcreep defines the sensitivity of the phasing shift to creep damage. Damage caused by creep is at its highest if the mechanical and
( )
thermal stresses are in phase ε̇th /ε̇mech = 1 [42].

3. Loading condition and model verification

3.1. Load and boundary conditions

Working speed and thermo-mechanical loads in low-cycle conditions of diesel engine are exhibited in Fig. 4(a). It is a schematic
diagram of loading conditions, where the red line indicates thermal load, the blue one indicates working speed, and the purple one
indicates mechanical load. The full speed condition is corresponding to the maximum thermal and mechanical loads. According to the
typical testing conditions of thermal shock [12], diesel engine runs under the idle speed (1000 r/min) and full speed (4200 r/min)
alternately, and completes a TMF cycle for each assessment period defined as 360 s.
Loads applied to cylinder head comprise mechanical and thermal loads. The mechanical loads mainly include bolt pretension force
of 130 kN, and peak firing pressure of 20 MPa, respectively. Thermal loads are more complicated compared with mechanical loads.
Here the partition loading method has been adopted to define the thermal boundary condition of flame deck, and the surface partition
is shown in Fig. 4(b). The temperature under the idle speed is approximately 60 ◦ C, it will grow with the increase of working speed. The
temperature reaches the maximum value, when diesel engine runs under the full speed. The heat transfer boundary conditions of
related regions are shown in Table 2.

3.2. The verification of equivalent model

The simulated component consists of two parts including cylinder head and cylinder body as shown in Fig. 5(a). Contact surfaces
between them are defined by the small sliding property. The virtual ground springs are applied to keep the original stiffness of cylinder
structure which is 3.5 × 105N/m. For the verification of equivalent model, several measured points are set at the concerned locations.
The temperature and stress were measured at full speed condition by a component rig test [4,43]. The measurement of temperature
was carried out by thermocouples, and the stress was measured by high temperature strain gauges. Fig. 5(b) exhibits the layout of each
measured point in the flame deck.
Considering the loads at full working speed, the values of temperature and stress are respectively compared between simulation and
test in Fig. 5(c) and (d). It is found that there is a good agreement at the measured points, the maximum temperature caused by thermal
shock is located at N2 (between two exhaust valves) and the maximum stress caused by temperature gradient is located at N3 (between
exhaust and inlet valves). Furthermore, the deviation of simulation from testing values is almost within 10 ◦ C for the temperature and
within 30 MPa for the stress. Hence, it preliminarily verifies the effectiveness of simulated component in the thermo-mechanical
analysis.

(a) (b)
Working speed
Thermal load

Full Full
2
Idle Idle
EX 6 IN
210 390 570 750
0 1 5 9 7 3
60 240 420 600 780 t/s
Mechanical load

EX 8 IN

Fig. 4. (a) Loading conditions and (b) surface partition.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Table 2
Heat transfer conditions of cylinder head.
Surface locations Film coefficient/W.(m2.K)− 1
Sink temperature/◦ C

Inner surface of inlet value 1000 483

Inner surface of exhaust value 150 68
Surfaces 1 1468 450
Surfaces 2, 4 1468 350
Surfaces 3 1468 300
Surfaces 5 1950 520
Surface 6, 8 1720 470
Surface 7 1810 400
Surface 9 1210 480

Contact
(a) surfaces (b) N8 N3

Head Body

N1 EX IN
N5
N2
N6
N9

N10 EX IN

Ground Ground
springs springs
N4 N7

(c) 550 (d) 400

Simulation Test Simulation Test
500
300
450
σ/MPa

400 200
T/

350
100
300

250 0
N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10

Fig. 5. Measured points and equivalent model verification. (a) Simulated component; (b) measured points; (c) temperature comparison; (d)
stress comparison.

(a) T/ (b)
486
EX-IN
457
428
399 EX-EX IN-IN
EX-EX
EX-IN
370 IN-IN

341
312
Fig. 6. (a) Temperature distribution on the flame deck, (b) temperature profiles along three directions.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

4. Discussion and analysis

4.1. The characteristics of thermo-mechanical coupling

Temperature field was obtained by the transient heat transfer analysis. Fig. 6(a) exhibits the temperature distribution on flame deck
at full speed condition. It is found there is the maximum temperature at the bridge zone between two exhaust valves (EX-EX), this
location is most susceptible to thermal shock loads. Along the direction of radius, three temperature profiles were drawn as shown in
Fig. 6(b). The temperature at bridge zone is the highest along EX-EX direction. The variation trends of temperature are nearly same
along EX-IN and IN-IN directions, and the temperature decreases gradually with the increase of radial distance l.
Fig. 7 shows the stress distribution on flame deck under different loads. Bolt pretension force leds to the initial deformation of
cylinder head, and it induces the stress at the position of bolts as shown in Fig. 7(a). When gas pressure was further applied, the
distribution of stress became relatively uniform on flame deck as shown in Fig. 7(b). While the maximum value of stress is not changed
obviously, and only increases from 51.3 MPa to 76.1 MPa. Then the coupling effect of bolt pretension force and temperature was
considered, the stress distribution was shown in Fig. 7(c). The action of temperature make the stress distribution change significantly,
and causes the higher stress at the position of bridge zone.
The stresses at each measured point are shown in Fig. 7(d) (Hereafter, T: temperature, F: force, P: pressure), and the proportions of
stresses induced by different loads at each measured point are shown in Fig. 7(e). It is found that the contribution of bolt pretension
force and gas pressure to stress is much lower, the contribution of temperature is the highest and almost larger than 80%. In addition,
gas pressure makes the stress reduce in the certain locations such as measured points N1, N2, N7 and N8.

4.2. The extraction of thermo-mechanical load spectrum

As working conditions alternately changed at idle speed and full speed, plastic deformation occurred in local regions of cylinder
head. Equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ) is used to evaluate the plastic strain in working process. It is found in Fig. 8(a) that the PEEQ
values of specified locations at key regions have tended to be stable after a few cycles of loading. The maximum plastic deformation is
mainly at EX-EX bridge zone as shown in Fig. 8(b), which easily leads to the failure of low cycle fatigue.
Fig. 9 exhibits the thermo-mechanical load spectrums measured at the key points. It is found that fluctuated period of load
spectrums is consistent with the period of working conditions. Temperature spectrums are shown in Fig. 9(a), the variety of tem­
perature takes the same trend at each point. The strain spectrums under coupling action of bolt pretension force and gas pressure are
exhibited in Fig. 9(b). It shows that working loads appear the inverted TMF mode, and the highest temperature in load cycles cor­
responds to the maximum negative strain caused by F and P. Fig. 9(c) and (d) show the stress and strain spectrums under the action of
thermo-mechanical coupling loads. The obtained load spectrums would be further applied to TMF damage analysis with the FEMFAT
software.

(a) (b) (c)

σ/MPa Force σ/MPa Force+Pressure σ/MPa Force+Temperature
51.3 76.1 335
44.5 63.8 285
35.8 51.5 236
27.0 39.1 186
18.2 26.8 136
9.45 14.4 85.7
0.68 2.08 35.7
(d) (e)
400 120%
Force Force
Force+Pressure Pressure
Force+Temperature Temperature
300 T+F+P coupling
80%
σ/MPa

200
40%
100

0
0
N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10

Fig. 7. The characteristics of thermo-mechanical coupling. (a), (b) and (c) the stress distribution under different loads; (d) the stresses and (e) the
proportion of stresses induced by different loads at each measured point.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

(a) (b)
1.00 PEEQ/10-3
0.81 0.81

PEEQ/10-3
0.32 0.68 EX IN
0.05 0.54
EX-EX 0.41
EX-IN
IN-IN 0.27 EX IN
0 0.14
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
Cycle
Fig. 8. (a) The changing history of PEEQ in key regions and (b) distribution of PEEQ on flame deck.

(a) (b)
N1 N4
N2 N5
N3

N1 N4 Temperature
N2 N5
N3 F+P strain

0 1/3 2/3 1 0 1/3 2/3 1

Cycle Cycle
(c) (d)

N1 N4 T+F+P stress N1 N4 T+F+P strain

N2 N5 N2 N5
N3 N3

0 1/3 2/3 1 0 1/3 2/3 1

Cycle Cycle
Fig. 9. Loading spectrums at key measured points. (a) The temperature; (b) the strain of F and P coupling; (c) the stress of T, F and P coupling; (d)
the strain of T, F and P coupling.

4.3. Damage analysis of thermo-mechanical fatigue

According to the result file of thermo-mechanical analysis, load spectrums of thermo-mechanical coupling were applied for pre­
dicting the TMF life. CGI material parameters for TMF analysis were defined as exhibited in Table 3, which were obtained from TMF
material database provided by the cooperative institute. Here the definitions of relevant parameters have been indicated in the
Sehitoglu theory [42]. Based on the heat Sehitoglu module of FEMFAT software, TMF damage and life were analyzed successfully.
Fig. 10(a) displays the distribution of service life on the flame deck at typical testing conditions. The main damage is concentrated
in the region of bridge zone, the minimum value of service life is 3.24 × 104 cycles, and the locations I, II, and III in Fig. 10(b) are the
most vulnerable positions. The EX-EX region is severely affected by thermal shock, the damage is the most obvious. In EX-IN region, the
heavy thermal stress is produced as the temperature gradient, and the damage is also much serious. The effect of temperature decreases
as far from the exhaust valves, so the damage is relatively small in IN-IN region.
Fig. 10(c) gives the failure locations on the flame deck [44], which occurs under the actual service conditions. Failure regions of I,
II, and III are detected where macro-scale cracks can be observed. It can be found that there is a good agreement with the failure
locations of simulated prediction, and it further proves that the method of simulated component is reliable in thermo-mechanical
analysis.
Thermo-mechanical damage consists of mechanical damage (MechDam), oxidative damage (OxidDam) and creep damage
(CreepDam). Fig. 11 exhibits the damage distribution of different types on the flame deck. For mechanical damage and oxidative
damage, the bridge zone between two exhaust valves is the focus damage region as shown in Fig. 11(a) and (b). While the position of
creep damage mainly located at the edge of gas valves as shown in Fig. 11(c), this is mainly resulted from the features of bridge zone
and the effects of heavy thermal load on flame deck.
By the statistics of damage calculated at locations I, II, and III (see Fig. 10), the percentage of each damage type is shown in Table 4.
Total damage at location I is the maximum and the value is 3.09 × 10− 5, while the total damage at location III is relatively minor.
Therefore, it is predicted that location I is the most likely to be damaged, and is consistent with the actual test statistics [4,8,44]. In

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Table 3
CGI parameters of thermo-mechanical fatigue.
Parameters Value Parameters Value

εf
′
0.011 α 0.75
c − 0.254 β 1.50
σ f/MPa
′
185 δ0 /μm2 ⋅ s− 1 6.95 × 107
b − 0.010 Q/kJ ⋅ mol− 1 190.69
n
′
0.110 A/s− 1 55.91
K/MPa 561 m 10.32
hcr /μm 2 ΔH/kJ ⋅ mol− 1 26.57

(a) (b)
Life /cycles Life /cycles
14
9.80×10 4.83×1010
2.45×107 1.25×107
1.53×106 1.72×106
1.11×106 1.07×106
7.35×105 5.68×105
4.08×105 4.55×105
1.40×105 1.04×105
3.24×104 3.24×104
(c)

Fig. 10. The distribution of service life at working condition. (a) Flame deck; (b) bridge zone; (c) service component.

three damage types, mechanical damage plays a leading role. For the locations I and II, mechanical damage and oxidative damage
account for nearly 75% and 25% of total damage respectively, while the damage caused by creep is small in magnitude and can be
ignored.
Fig. 12 exhibits the statistical histogram of each damage type. It is shown that the percentage of mechanical damage is most
significant and the percentage of creep damage is quite little. From position III to positionI, the percentage of mechanical damage
increases obviously, and while the percentages of oxidative damage and creep damage have a certain drop. This changing trend is
determined by the sensitivity of temperature to damage types. Thermal load is closely related to the mechanical damage, oxidative
damage and creep damage. When the temperature varies from the value at position III (about 425 ◦ C) to the value at position I (about
480 ◦ C), the percentage of mechanical damage takes a greater growing rate than the percentage of other two damage types. So it is
found that thermal load is more sensitive to mechanical damage with the change of temperature in the present service condition.
Hence, the percentages of three damage types have varied as the above distribution trend.

5. Conclusions

In this study, a life prediction method for thermo-mechanical fatigue is developed based on the simulated component of CGI
cylinder head, and then the characteristics of thermo-mechanical responses and fatigue damage are discussed. The following con­
clusions can be drawn:

(1) The equivalent model of cylinder head is established based on flame deck. In comparison with temperature and stress at
measured points, it shows that the simulation and testing results have a good agreement, and verify the effectiveness of
simulated component.
(2) Applying the Sehitoglu theory and FEMFAT software, the study develops the simulation method of thermo-mechanical fatigue.
Loading spectrums and failure locations are predicted successfully under the actual service conditions.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

(a) MechDam
2.34×10-5
9.50×10-6
7.27×10-7
5.33×10-7
3.00×10-7
9.67×10-8
5.35×10-9
1.00×10-30
(b) (c)
OxidDam CreepDam
8.11×10 -6
3.77×10-7
7.24×10-6 7.23×10-7
5.70×10-6 3.69×10-8
3.13×10-6 5.16×10-8
2.07×10-6 9.62×10-9
9.32×10-7 5.08×10-10
5.16×10-7 2.59×10-11
9.80×10-16 1.22×10-29

Fig. 11. Damage distribution of different types. (a) Mechanical damage, (b) oxidative damage, (c) creep damage.

Table 4
The percentages of each damage type at locationsI, II, and III.
Type I: EX-EX II: EX-IN III: IN-IN
− 5 − 6 6
TotalDam 3.09 × 10 100% 8.17 × 10 100% 1.22 × 10− 100%
5 6 7
MechDam 2.34 × 10− 75.73% 6.07 × 10− 74.30% 6.92 × 10− 56.72%
6 6 7
OxidDam 7.32 × 10− 23.69% 2.05 × 10− 25.09% 4.87 × 10− 39.92%
7 8 8
CreepDam 1.82 × 10− 0.58% 5.02 × 10− 0.61% 4.10 × 10− 3.36%

100
: EX-EX
80 : EX- IN
: IN - IN
60
Value/%

40

20

0
MechDam OxidDam CreepDam
Fig. 12. Statistical histogram of each damage type.

(3) Damage characteristics of thermo-mechanical fatigue are analyzed. Predicted failure locations are consistent with the cracked
regions in actual working. Mechanical damage plays a leading role in three damage types, and thermal load is more sensitive to
mechanical damage compared with oxidative damage and creep damage in the present service condition.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

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W. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 135 (2022) 106105

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank for the guidance and assistant in the research process by Prof. G.X. Jing and Prof. C.G. Xu from
China North Engine Research Institute. This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant.
Nos. 51871224 and 51775355, Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province under Grant. No. 20180550880.

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