Fretting fatigue total life assessment including wear and a varying critical distance

This work presents methodologies for fretting fatigue life assessment that include the wear effect and crack propagation. The multiaxial fatigue parameter SWT and the theory of critical distance TCD were used to compute the damage, the node-displacement algorithm was applied to account wear, and the XFEM method to modeling the crack. Available fretting fatigue experiments conducted on a cylinder-on-flat contact configuration made of Al 2024-T351 alloy were used to evaluate the methodology. To apply the approach in the medium-cycle fatigue regime, the critical distance is assumed to depend on the fatigue life. All fatigue life estimates using TCD as a function of life were within factor-of-two boundaries.

Automated summary

This study presents a methodology for assessing fretting fatigue life that takes into account wear effects and crack propagation. The damage is computed using the multiaxial fatigue parameter SWT and the theory of critical distance TCD, wear effects are accounted for using the node-displacement algorithm, and crack modeling is done using the XFEM method. The methodology was evaluated using fretting fatigue experiments conducted on a cylinder-on-flat contact configuration made of Al 2024-T351 alloy. In the medium-cycle fatigue regime, the critical distance is assumed to depend on the fatigue life. All fatigue life estimates using TCD as a function of life were within a factor-of-two range.