Fatigue cracking simulation based on crack closure effects in Al-based sheet materials subjected to biaxial cyclic loads

Fatigue crack growth experiments have been carried out on cruciform specimens in the range of thickness 1.2-10 mm of Al-based alloys, loaded under constant (regular) and variable (irregular) amplitudes of uniaxial and biaxial loads, including sequences of various overloads. Different cases for crack closure effects are considered because of shear lips development, crack-growth direction re-orientation after multiparameters change of cyclic loads, by examining plastic blunting effect at a crack tip during an overload and interaction effects analyzing the crack retardation length and associated parameters together with their relationships. Crack closure effect because of rotation instability of material mesovolumes under biaxial compression-tension has suggested to analyse semi-elliptical cracks. Under biaxial cyclic loads in the range of load ratio-1.4 < lambda < +1.5, and R-ratios from 0.05 to 0.8, for frequency variations pi, fatigue striation formation takes place beyond a crack-growth rate close to 4 x 10(-8) m/cycle. The striation spacing and the crack-growth rate increase as the phi-angle of the out-of-phase biaxial loads increases (in the range of phi from 0 degrees to 180 degrees). Cycle loading parameters must be taken into account in order to describe the crack growth period when using a unified method that involves an equivalent stress intensity factor K-e = KIF(lambda, R, phi, pi). The values of F(lambda, R, phi, pi) are determined. The calculated crack growth period (predicted using F(lambda, R, phi, pi)) in regular and irregular cases of cyclic loads, including material cracking after overloads, is correlated with the experimental data, and the error is of the order of 15%. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.