Wear numerical assessment for partial slip fretting fatigue conditions

The aim of this work is to evaluate wear effects on life prediction for components subjected to fretting conditions. Therefore, fretting fatigue FE simulations have been carried considering the geometry update due to the material removal and results were compared to both experimental data and FE simulations where wear was neglected. Well known multiaxial fatigue criteria in association with the Theory of Critical Distances (TCD) have been used to estimate life. Results have shown that, for the data assessed, where fretting fatigue tests were conducted on a Ti-6Al-4V alloy under partial slip conditions, considering wear effects might slightly increase the accuracy of life estimates. However, this improvement may not be worth the increase in the computational cost in such analysis.