Evaluation of multiaxial fatigue life prediction criteria for PEEK

Multiaxial fatigue test were conducted on PEEK under four loading paths and several criteria were used for life prediction. Predictions based on Fatemi-Socie criterion fall out of the factor-of-two line on the conservative side for proportional loading and non-proportional loading. The normal strain-based Smith-Watson-Topper criterion yield good prediction for proportional loading but non-conservative prediction for nonproportional loading. Taking the contribution from shear component into consideration, the Chen-Xu-Huang criterion achieve satisfactory results for both proportional loading and non-proportional loading, but with non-conservative prediction for pure torsion loading. To consider general cracking behavior, the modified SWT criterion is adopted and good agreement between experimental data and prediction values is achieved. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.