STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF DAMAGES ACCUMULATION IN CONDITIONS OF COMBINED CYCLIC LOADING

Abstract

A significant part of the elements of machines and structures along with stationary fatigue is subjected to combined impacts of low-cycle and multi-cycle fatigue loading in operation. The physical nature of their fracture in these conditions depends on the ratio of the mode parameters and entails the necessity of advanced research. The predominance of this or that process determines the nature of the damage accumulation which leads to the destruction. Under such conditions, i.e., preliminary cyclic elastoplastic deformation followed by subsequent fatigue loading, the material subjected to preliminary loading at the first stage can be considered the "new material" with the new properties acquired upon cyclic elastoplastic loading which then undergoes further fatigue loading at the second stage. Hence, at the second stage, the new properties of the material are determined by the level of structural changes and damages earlier accumulated in the material. In this case, the damage to the material is considered on the basis of the well-known statement about the staging character of plastic flow, two main processes, i.e., shear, caused by the interaction of dislocations, and destructuring, attributed to violation of the continuity or integrity of the metal. Experimental studies of changes in the durability of cyclically hardened and cyclically softened steel specimens at different levels of preliminary elastoplastic deformation with varying number of cycles and amplitudes of preliminary elastoplastic strain showed the occurrence of an additional damage to the material when combination of loading modes leads to change in the fatigue durability at the subsequent stage of the basic multi-cycle loading. It is shown that correlation between changes in the fatigue durability and structural state of the material, caused by accumulated damage upon preliminary overloads, and, moreover, those changes can be characterized by the ratio of plastic and destructive strains as a Q-factor of the material.