Proposals for high temperature design methods have been developed for primary loads, creep-fatigue and strain limits. The methodologies rely on a common basis and assumption, that elastic, perfectly plastic analysis based on appropriate properties reflects the ability of loads and stress to redistribute for steady and cyclic loading for high temperature as well as for conventional design. The cyclic load design analyses rely on a further key property, that a cyclic elastic-plastic solution provides an upper bound to displacements, strains and local damage rates. The primary load analysis ensures that the design load is in equilibrium with the code allowable stress, taking into account: i) The stress state dependent (multi-axial) rupture criterion, ii) The limit to stress re-distribution defined by the material creep law. The creep-fatigue analysis is focused on the cyclic creep damage calculation, and uses conventional fatigue and creep-fatigue damage calculations. It uses a temperature-dependent pseudo “yield” stress defined by the material yield and rupture data to identify cycles which will not cause creep damage > 1 for the selected life. Similarly the strain limits analysis bounds cyclic strain accumulation. It also uses a temperature-dependent pseudo “yield” stress defined by the material yield and creep strain accumulation data to identify cycles which will not cause average (membrane) inelastic strain > 1% for the design life. The paper gives an overview of the background and justification of these statements, and examples.
Programmer's guide for LIFE2's rainflow counting algorithm