An Investigation of Cyclic Transient Behavior and Implications on Fatigue Life Estimates

Abstract

Current research focuses on proportional cyclic hardening and non-Massing behaviors. The interaction of these two hardenings can result in the traditionally observed overall softening, hardening or mixed behavior exhibited for fully reversed strain controlled fatigue tests. Proportional experiments were conducted with five materials, 304 stainless steel, normalized 1070 and 1045 steels, and 7075-T6 and 6061-T6 aluminum alloys. All the materials display similar trends, but the 304 stainless steel shows the most pronounced transient behavior and will be discussed in detail. Existing algorithms for this behavior are evaluated in light of the recent experiments, and refinements to the Armstrong-Frederick class of incremental plasticity models are proposed. Modifications implemented are more extensive than the traditional variation of yield stress, and a traditional strain based memory surface is utilized to track deformation history. Implications of the deformation characteristics with regard to fatigue life estimation, especially variable amplitude loading, will be examined. The high-low step loading is utilized to illustrate the effect of transient deformation on fatigue life estimation procedures, and their relationship to the observed and modeled deformation.