A coupled crack initiation and propagation numerical procedure for combined fretting wear and fretting fatigue lifetime assessment

This work presents a numerical procedure for combined fretting wear and fretting fatigue problems. It combines the Archard wear model and the Smith-Watson-Topper fatigue indicator parameter with the Miner damage rule for crack nucleation estimation. The eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is then used in combination with the Archard wear model for crack propagation prediction. This procedure was validated in 12 experimental tests taken from the literature, and a good correlation was found. The procedure allows a detailed study of the interaction between the crack and fretting contact in combination with wear. The results show that the relative slip decreases and changes its distribution unevenly when the crack grows, and highlight the key importance of accounting for wear in order to obtain non-conservative predictions.