Numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth.

This thesis describes the advances made by the author on the direct modelling of the fatigue growth of planar cracks A versatile step-by-step 3D finite element technique has been developed, which calculates the stress intensity factors at a set of points on the crack front according to linear elastic fracture mechanics principles and then applies a fatigue crack growth la\v to this set of points to obtain a new crack profile The software DUCK developed has a good capability of automatic remeshing so that the fatigue propagation of arbitrary shaped cracks can be conveniently followed The stress intensity factor calculation using the 3D finite element method has been improved and widely verified to be of good accuracy generally, which provides an important guarantee for the fatigue growth prediction. Several major problems associated with the stress intensity factor calculation, such as crack front definition, free surface layer and mesh abutting the crack front, as well as J-integral path independence, have been discussed A variety of cracked geometries of either theoretical or practical significance have been modelled by the numerical technique, including internal defects in infinite solids, surface cracks in finite thickness plates, round bars and pressure vessels, and initially multiple surface small cracks. Many results useful for the fatigue assessment of each kind of crack, such as stress intensity factor variations, fatigue shape changes and fatigue lives, have been obtained. By comparing with existing numerical methods and some limited experimental data found in the literature, it is shown that the numerical simulation technique is reliable and can predict the fatigue propagation of complex crack configurations, which is seldom possible for methods with assuming crack front configurations Meanwhile, due to the highly automated procedure or the technique, it has become straightforward to model the fatigue growth of practical cracked components, as demonstrated by the computations in this thesis. It is believed that such a numerical simulation technique has a great potential and will play an useful role in the area of fatigue study and assessment