On the method of the damage accumulation analysis in front of the fatigue crack in thin plates

Abstract

The problem on modeling the process of damage accumulation along the fracture front at fatigue in a thin isotropic plate is considered. The solution of the problem is based on joined of the concepts of fracture mechanics and mechanics of continuous damage. A numerical solution of the integral equation of crack front motion is proposed. Consideration of this equation as a superposition of a set of recurrent equations for each moment allows us to model the jumping nature of the fatigue crack growth and take into account the history of damage accumulation in the plate material during loading. A numerical solution of the test problem on the fatigue crack propagation in a thin plate made of aluminum alloy 7075-T6 with uniaxial asymmetric cyclic tension-compression is obtained. The constructed dependences of the fatigue crack length on the number of load cycles agree satisfactorily with the experimental data.