Atomistic modelling of fatigue crack growth and dislocation structuring in FCC crystals

Author(s):  
G.P Potirniche ◽  
M.F Horstemeyer ◽  
P.M Gullett ◽  
B Jelinek

Fatigue damage in face-centred cubic crystals by dislocation substructuring and crack growth was computationally simulated at the atomic scale. Single-crystal copper specimens with approximately 200 000 atoms and an initial crack were subjected to fatigue loading with a constant strain amplitude of ϵ max =0.01 and a load ratio of R = ϵ min / ϵ max =0.75. Cyclic plastic deformation around the crack tip is the main influencing factor for the propagation mechanisms of nanocracks. The main crack-propagation mechanisms occurred either by void nucleation in the high-density region near the crack tip or by fatigue cleavage of the atomic bonds in the crack plane. Fatigue crack growth at grain boundaries was also studied. For high misorientation angle grain boundaries, the crack path deviated while moving from one grain to another. For low crystal misorientations, the crack did not experience any significant out-of-plane deviation. For a large crystal misorientation, voids were observed to nucleate at grain boundaries in front of the crack tip and link back with the main crack. During fatigue loading, dislocation substructures were observed to develop throughout the atomic lattices. Fatigue crack growth rates for nanocracks were computed and compared with growth rates published in the literature for microstructurally small cracks (micron range) and long cracks (millimetre range). The computed growth rates for nanocracks were comparable with those for small cracks at the same stress intensity ranges and they propagated below the threshold for long cracks.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihan Wang ◽  
Weifang Zhang ◽  
Hongxun Wang ◽  
Xiaoliang Fang ◽  
Xiaobei Liang

Based on the small time scale method, the influence of grain boundary on the fatigue crack growth of 7050-T7451 has been investigated. The interaction between fatigue crack and grain boundary was investigated by in situ SEM testing. Results showed that the fatigue crack growth will be retarded by grain boundary when the angle between fatigue crack and grain boundary is greater than 90 degrees. Mechanism analysis showed that the fatigue crack tip would not be able to open until the loading reached the 55% of maximum load, and the fatigue crack had been closed completely before the loading was not reduced to the minimum value, which led to the crack growth retardation. When the 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy suffered from fatigue loading with constant amplitude, a behavior of unstable fatigue crack growth could be observed often, and results indicated that the bridge linked mechanism led to the behavior. The grain boundary was prone to fracture during fatigue loading, and it became the best path for the fatigue crack growth. The fatigue crack tip would be connected with fractured grain boundary eventually, which led to the fast crack growth in different loading stage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 8565-8579
Author(s):  
Mohammad Noghabi ◽  
I. Sattari-far ◽  
H. Hosseini Toudeshky

Numerical and experimental study was conducted on fatigue crack growth (FCG) of metallic components to investigate the redistribution of mechanical residual stresses during FCG. To this end, the compact tension specimens of an aluminium alloy were used. In addition, mechanical residual stresses were introduced near the crack tip by applying compressive and tensile loads, followed by visually observing the side-surface of the specimens to estimate the crack growth length. In the numerical simulation, cyclic J-integral was used as the crack growth fracture parameter and a good agreement was observed between the numerical and experimental results. The results of the finite element method demonstrated a clear redistribution of mechanical residual stresses during FCG. After a few cycles, the residual stress field around the crack tip reached a lower magnitude value confined in a smaller zone, although this zone was stable during the remaining fatigue process. Finally, present study evaluated the effect of stress ratio, load amplitude, and initial residual stresses level on the redistribution of residual stresses. It was observed that the residual stresses are mainly released during the first steps of fatigue loading.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi lizuka ◽  
Manabu Tanaka ◽  
Fumio Ashihara

Effects of serrated grain boundaries on the improvement of fatigue-crack growth resistance were investigated using austenitic 21Cr-4Ni-9Mn heat-resisting steel at 973K in air. Grain boundaries were serrated by grain-boundary reaction precipitates. The crack-growth rates were considerably decreased in the specimens with the serrated grain boundaries. The fatigue cracks were largely deflected by the serrated grain boundaries, and brittle intergranular fracture was retarded. The improvement of the crack-growth resistance was obtained especially under the conditions of low crack-growth rates of less than 30 μm/cycle. The widths and the heights of the deflected portions of the cracks were in the range from about a few μm to 30 μm.


2003 ◽  
Vol 806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Hess ◽  
Reinhold H. Dauskardt

ABSTRACTFatigue crack propagation mechanisms of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are not well understood, limiting their use in safety-critical structural applications particularly where complex fatigue loading may occur. Accordingly, the present study examines the effects of variable amplitude fatigue loading associated with block loading and tensile overloads on fatigue crack-growth rates in a Zr-based BMG. Crack growth studies were conducted on compact tension specimens using computer control of the applied stress intensity range, ΔK. Fatigue crack closure loads, which represent the initial contact of mating crack surfaces during the unloading cycle, were continuously monitored during testing. Abrupt drops in ΔK were found to significantly decrease fatigue crack-growth rates far below equilibrium values, arresting growth completely at a ΔK twice the nominal fatigue threshold ΔKTH. Conversely, an abrupt increase in ΔK was found to accelerate fatigue crack-growth rates. The effects of roughness-induced crack closure were assessed and found to be consistent with the suppression or acceleration of growth rates. However, in order to fully explain the observed transient growth rate response, other mechanisms that may be related to the fatigue mechanism itself were also considered. Specifically, the nature of the fatigue crack tip damage zone was also investigated. As BMGs lack distributed plasticity at low temperatures, the plastic zone differs greatly from that seen in ductile crystalline materials, and its role in fatigue crack propagation mechanisms is examined.


2018 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 05004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel P. Potirniche

The well-known load frequency effect on creep-fatigue crack growth is explained by the interactions between fatigue and creep loading and is quantified using the concept of plasticity-induced crack closure. It is shown that the hold time during creep loading affects crack growth rates during subsequent fatigue cycles. Longer hold times lead to lower crack-tip opening stresses and faster crack growth rates during fatigue loading. To model the impact of hold time on crack opening stresses during fatigue loading, a strip-yield model was developed for creep-fatigue crack growth. The strip-yield model computes crack-tip opening stresses, which determine the effective stress intensity factor range and crack growth rate during the fatigue portion of each loading cycle. Maximum stress intensity factor is used to compute the crack growth rate during the creep portion of each cycle. The proposed strip-yield model is used to compute creep-fatigue crack growth rates for several structural materials, i.e., an Astroloy, aluminium alloy 2650 and 316 stainless steel. The model predictions of crack growth rates compare well with published experimental data for these alloys. This model achieves reliable predictions of crack growth rates and life prediction on components subjected to creep-fatigue loading at elevated temperatures by considering loading interaction effects.


2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1771-1779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander M. Korsunsky ◽  
Xu Song ◽  
Jonathan Belnoue ◽  
Terry Jun ◽  
Felix Hofmann ◽  
...  

Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Lukáš Trávníček ◽  
Ivo Kuběna ◽  
Veronika Mazánová ◽  
Tomáš Vojtek ◽  
Jaroslav Polák ◽  
...  

In this work two approaches to the description of short fatigue crack growth rate under large-scale yielding condition were comprehensively tested: (i) plastic component of the J-integral and (ii) Polák model of crack propagation. The ability to predict residual fatigue life of bodies with short initial cracks was studied for stainless steels Sanicro 25 and 304L. Despite their coarse microstructure and very different cyclic stress–strain response, the employed continuum mechanics models were found to give satisfactory results. Finite element modeling was used to determine the J-integrals and to simulate the evolution of crack front shapes, which corresponded to the real cracks observed on the fracture surfaces of the specimens. Residual fatigue lives estimated by these models were in good agreement with the number of cycles to failure of individual test specimens strained at various total strain amplitudes. Moreover, the crack growth rates of both investigated materials fell onto the same curve that was previously obtained for other steels with different properties. Such a “master curve” was achieved using the plastic part of J-integral and it has the potential of being an advantageous tool to model the fatigue crack propagation under large-scale yielding regime without a need of any additional experimental data.


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