Analysis of Fretting Crack Propagation Behavior with X-FEM Method

Abstract

Fretting fatigue cracks always initial at the tralling of contact region, because the stresses in the vicinity of the contact zone exhibit steep gradients. A fracture mechanics approach is usually used to estimate fretting fatigue propagation life. In this paper, extended finite element method combined with fracture mechanics is used to study fretting crack propagation behaviors. The computation results reveal that fretting crack nucleation is mainly decided by fretting, and the cycle bulk stress is the main reason for crack propagation. Also the X-FEM exhibits merits in fretting fatigue problem.