Fatigue assessments have been carried out predominantly with quasi-deterministic approaches, such as the use of SN curves. However, both the loading and the resistance of fatigue prone components are subjected to significant uncertainties. Consequently, a prediction of the remaining fatigue life based on deterministic load and resistance models can lead to unreliable results. This work presents a general reliability-based approach to predict fatigue life of steel components. The approach incorporates prediction of fatigue crack initiation, modeled with a strain-based correlation approach, and propagation, modeled using a linear elastic fracture mechanics approach, and is applicable to new, cracked or repaired structural components. Based on the analysis of existing test results and additional crack initiation and propagation tests on weld metal, the relevant probabilistic fatigue material properties of grade 350WT steel and a matching weld metal were established. An experimental program was carried out on welded details tested either in the as-welded, stress-relieved, conventionally peened, or ultrasonically peened condition. It was demonstrated that ultrasonic peening is superior to the other investigated post weld treatment methods. Using finite element analyses, the results of the tests were deterministically predicted for several different initial conditions, including initial flaw and crack sizes and locations, as well as different levels of residual stresses. A model incorporating an initial flaw and accounting for crack closure and the threshold stress intensity factor range was retained. A probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo Simulation was carried out to calibrate the relevant parameters. A general reliability-based approach, which includes both the loading and resistance sides of the limit state function was proposed and applied to three practical examples: prediction of test results from two test programs and the prediction of the remaining fatigue life of a cracked component as a function of the safety index. These three applications demonstrated that accurate fatigue life predictions targeting a predefined safety index are achieved. / Structural Engineering

The aircraft engine industry is constantly striving to increase the operating temperature and stresses in hot section engine components, a goal that can only be achieved by accurately modeling and predicting damage mechanisms of potential engine materials. The objective of this work is to develop physically-based models that are able to accurately predict the high temperature crack initiation behavior of Rene 88DT, a commonly used aircraft engine disk material, under low cycle fatigue (LCF) conditions. Two different microstructural conditions were produced by subjecting the material to two separate heat treatments; the heat treatments were selected so that grain size remains the same but the size distribution of the strengthening gamma prime precipitate is different between the two conditions. LCF experiments were performed on specimens from each condition at 650C and R = -1 under strain ranges of 0.66%, 0.75%, and 1.5%. A third microstructural condition with a similar grain size but different gamma prime size distribution was tested by another source at 650C and R = 0 under strain ranges of 0.66%, 0.79%, 0.94%, and 1.14%. The results indicate that there are two competing crack initiation mechanisms: initiation from a microstructural defect such as an inclusion and initiation from slip band cracking. A physically based model, in the form of a modified Fatemie-Socie parameter, is utilized to predict the crack initiation mechanism and approximate cycles to failure based on the microstructure of the material and applied strain. Long crack growth models are also developed to model crack growth from subsurface inclusions and surface semi-elliptical cracks. These models predict that long crack growth is a small portion of the total fatigue life in these conditions, which suggests that the majority of the fatigue life is spent initiating a dominant fatigue crack.

An understanding of the damage evolution prior to crack initiation in advanced structural materials is of vital importance to the fatigue community in both academia and industry. Features known as the Persistent Slip Bands (PSBs) play an integral role in this damage evolution. Therefore, PSBs have been the focus of a lot of science-based investigations over the years. However, most existing studies in this area are restricted to analysis of PSBs in single crystal face centered cubic (FCC) materials. Moreover, these studies lack a quantitative analysis of the evolution of the fatigue damage (or PSBs) as a function of the material microstructure. This is especially true for relatively modern materials such as the Advanced High Strength Structural (AHSS) steels that are gaining a lot of importance in the automotive sector. Accordingly, the objective of this research is to quantitatively characterize evolution of PSBs in three AHSS steels having different microstructures as a function of number of fatigue cycles and strain amplitude. For this purpose strain controlled interrupted fatigue tests have been performed on two dual phase steels (DP-590 and DP-980) having different relative amounts of tempered martensite and a ferritic high strength low alloy steel (HR-590). Digital image analysis and Stereology have been used for unbiased quantitative characterization of the evolution of global geometry of the PSB colonies as function of number of fatigue cycles and strain amplitude. Evolution of PSB colonies has been couched in terms of variation of PSB colony volume fraction and total surface area unit volume, and total surface area of individual PSBs per unit volume and three-dimensional angular orientation distribution of the PSBs. For this purpose, new stereological techniques have been developed for estimation of the three-dimensional angular orientation distribution. The stereological data reveal that during strain controlled in these AHSS steels, volume fraction of the PSB colonies varies linearly with the their total surface area per unit volume. Detailed analysis of the stereological data leads to a simple geometric model for evolution of the PSB colonies in the three AHSS steels, which accounts for all observed data trends.

No description available.

High cycle fatigue tests were carried out on a medium strength continuous casting AA 5754 Al alloy, and new generation high strength AA 2026 and AA 2099 Al alloys. The effect of texture on fatigue properties and short crack behavior were studied. The strengthening mechanisms were also thoroughly investigated for the two high strength alloys.Texture played an important role in the anisotropy of fatigue strength for the AA 5754 Al alloy. Being a solution strengthened alloy, it had a fatigue strength of 120% σy. High strength Al alloys had a strong tendency for planar slip due to the high density of coherent and shearable precipitates in the alloys. Texture was a key factor controlling the crack initiation and propagation. The crack path and the possible minimum twist angles were measured using EBSD and calculated theoretically by a crystallographic model. Based on the micro-texture measured by EBSD, the crack paths were predicted for the AA 2099 alloy and confirmed by the observed values.The excellent balance of superior fatigue properties and high tensile strength of AA 2026 and AA 2099 was attributed to the reduced population of Fe-containing particles, homogeneously distributed precipitates and dislocations. The addition of Zr coupled with the optimized thermo-mechanical treatment strongly restrained the recrystallization, refined the grain structure and promoted the homogenization of the precipitates. Moreover, the retainment of the deformation texture developed during the hot extrusion provided significant orientation strengthening in the high strength Al alloys.Fatigue cracks tended to initiate at coarse second phase particles on sample surfaces and the crack population varied markedly with the applied stresses in the high strength Al alloys. The relationship between of the crack population and the applied stress level was studied and quantified by a Weibull distribution function. Since the measured cracknumbers were associated with the crack initiate sites (i.e., the weakest links) in an alloy, the fatigue weakest-link density, which is defined as the crack population per unit area when stress close to the ultimate tensile stress, and the weakest-link strength distribution can all be calculated and regarded as a property of the studied materials.

L‘amorçage et la propagation de microfissures dans les matériaux à haute résistance représente une part importante de la durée de vie en fatigue, en particulier dans le cas d‘un chargement à faible amplitude. Ces phénomènes, d‘un grand intérêt scientifique, ont été de plus en plus étudiés au cours des dernières années. L‘orientation cristallographique et les hétérogénéités de déformation induites influent sur l‘amorçage et le comportement des microfissures de fatigue tant que leur taille caractéristique est inférieure ou de l‘ordre de grandeur de la taille de grains. L‘objectif principal de cette étude est de caractériser l‘influence de la microstructure et d‘un chargement cyclique à amplitude variable sur la plasticité cristalline et plus précisément sur l‘amorçage de microfissures dans un acier inoxydable 304L. Le première partie de cette étude consiste à l‘amélioration de la loi de comportement cristalline Cristal ECP codée dans le logiciel éléments finis ABAQUS afin de mieux prendre en compte la distribution et l‘évolution de la densité de dislocations sur les systèmes de glissement. Ce travail permet également de décrire la formation des bandes persistantes de glissement qui sont responsables du durcissement et de l‘adoucissement cyclique. La seconde partie de cette étude concerne l‘évaluation de l‘influence de la microstructure sur les valeurs locales des paramètres mécaniques utilisés pour les critères de fatigue aussi bien macroscopiques que microscopiques, et relier ces valeurs à l‘amorçage de microfissures à l‘échelle cristalline. Pour ceci, une comparaison est réalisée entre les résultats expérimentaux d‘observation de surfaces et les simulations numériques d‘agrégats 3D présentant les orientations cristallines réelles de ces éprouvettes. La simulation de la plasticité cristalline peut apporter une contribution utile pour la prédiction de la localisation et de l‘intensité de l‘amorçage de microfissures de fatigue, mais également aider à choisir un critère d‘amorçage de microfissures basé sur des considérations mécaniques. La dernière partie de ce manuscrit porte sur les effets d‘un chargement d‘amplitude variable (séquence de surcharge) sur la plasticité cristalline et l‘amorçage de microfissures. Deux modes de chargement ont été considérés pour les essais de fatigue : contrainte contrôlée et déformation contrôlée. Les essais avec surcharge en contrainte contrôlée présentent une durée de vie plus importante (six à neuf fois) que les essais avec surcharge en déformation contrôlée, ce qui est lié au durcissement cyclique important du 304L. De plus, les simulations montrent que sous chargement à déformation contrôlée, l‘effet mémoire de la surcharge est dépendant du niveau du chargement qui suit la surcharge : cet effet mémoire est plus important dans le cas d‘un chargement à faible amplitude (fatigue à grand nombre de cycles) qu‘en fatigue oligocyclique à forte amplitude / Because fatigue crack initiation and propagation of microstructurally short cracks represent most of the fatigue life in high-strength materials, especially under low amplitude loading, the study of crack initiation is of significant importance and attracted increasing attention recently. As long as the microcrack size is comparable with the grain size, the microcrack initiation is strongly influenced by the crystallographic microstructure. The main purpose of this work is to study the influence of the microstructure and variable amplitude loading on cyclic plasticity and microcrack initiation in stainless steel 304L. The first part of this work aims at enriching the crystal plasticity code Cristal ECP to better simulate the evolution of dislocation densities on slip systems and formation of PSBs which are responsible for the fatigue cyclic hardening/softening behavior. The second part concerns the evaluation of the influence of local values of mechanical factors, issued from both macroscopic and microscopic fatigue criteria, on crack initiation in the grains through the comparison between experimental surface observations and numerical simulations of 3D aggregates with realistic crystallographic orientations. It is shown that the crystal plasticity simulation can give useful contributions to predict the crack initiation sites and severity, and help to select fatigue crack initiation criterion based on mechanical parameters which actually control the crack initiation. The last part studies the effects of the variable amplitude loading (high-low sequence) on cyclic plasticity and crack initiation. Both load- and strain-controlled fatigue tests were considered. Load-controlled tests present much longer lives (6 to 9 times) than in strain-controlled tests due to strain hardening. Furthermore, simulations show that under strain-controlled loading, memory effect of overload is dependent on the amplitude level of the low amplitude block, which is more significant in high cycle fatigue than in low cycle fatigue.

Les alliages de titane β-métastable sont largement utilisés dans l’industrie aéronautique pour leurs propriétés mécaniques élevées, leur faible densité et bonne résistance à la corrosion. Dans ces alliages, et contrairement aux alliages α ou α/β, environ 40 % de phase β sont retenus à température ambiante. Cette phase, à la structure cubique centrée, est connue pour présenter une anisotropie élastique élevée, qui influence significativement les mécanismes de déformation opérant à l’échelle de la microstructure. Les travaux de thèse détaillés dans ce manuscrit visent à mieux comprendre le lien entre la durabilité de l’alliage Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr sous sollicitations cycliques, un enjeu important pour les équipements aéronautiques, et l’anisotropie élastique de la phase β.Ce point central a tout d’abord fait l’objet d’une étude dédiée, dans le but de permettre une description satisfaisante de l’élasticité cristalline de la phase β. Pour cela, et à l’aide de différentes microstructures modèles, la contribution de la phase α a pu être isolée. La caractérisation de la texture cristallographique associée à la mesure du module d'Young par méthode de résonance dynamique a permis de passer en revue les différents jeux de constantes d’élasticité de la phase β proposés dans la littérature et de conclure par le choix le plus adapté. Enfin, une prise en compte de la contribution liée à la précipitation α a permis de modéliser les propriétés du matériau dans l’état microstructural utilisé industriellement.Les mécanismes de déformation plastique et d’endommagement actifs sous sollicitations monotones et cycliques ont ensuite été caractérisés en lien avec l’orientation cristallographique locale des deux phases. Cette étape a permis d’étudier l’influence de l’anisotropie élastique de la phase β sur le comportement mécanique ainsi que d’identifier les configurations microstructurales favorisant l'endommagement de cet alliage. Les conséquences sur la durabilité de l’alliage Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr sont finalement discutées. / Β-metastable titanium alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry due to the combination of superior mechanical properties with a low density and a good corrosion resistance. In contrast with α or α/β alloys, 40 % of β phase are retained at room temperature in these alloys. This phase, with a body-centered cubic structure, is known to exhibit a high elastic anisotropy. A significant influence is expected on the deformation processes operating at the microstructure scale. The PhD work detailed in the present manuscript focuses on the relationship between durability of Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr under cyclic loadings, which is a critical concern for aerospace components, and the elastic anisotropy of the β phase. Elastic anisotropy was first studied in order to enable a proper description of crystalline elasticity in the the β phase. Different academic microstructures were designed to isolate the contribution of the α phase. A characterization of the crystallographic texture using the EBSD technique combined with estimation of Young’s modulus using the dynamic resonance method enabled to review and criticize the elastic constants datasets available in the literature for the β phase. Finally, the contribution of the α precipitation was re-introduced in order to model the properties of the alloy with an industrially used microstructure.The plastic deformation and damage processes operating under monotonic and cyclic loadings were then characterized by considering the local crystallographic orientation of both phases. This enabled to study the influence of elastic anisotropy on the mechanical behavior at multiple scales as well as to identify the microstructural arrangements favoring damage. The consequences on durability of the Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr alloy under fatigue loading are finally discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

This research explores the nearly untapped research area of the analysis of fracture mechanics in residual stress zones. This type of research has become more prevalent in the field in recent years due to the increase in prominence of residual stress producing processes. Such processes include additive manufacturing of metals and installation procedures that lead to loads outside the anticipated standard operating load envelope. Abaqus was used to generate models that iteratively advanced toward solving this problem using the compact tensile specimen geometry. The first model developed in this study is a two-dimensional fracture model which then led to the development of an improved three-dimensional fracture model. Both models used linear elastic fracture mechanics to determine the stress intensity factor (K) value. These two models were verified using closed-form equations from linear elastic fracture mechanics. The results of these two models validate the modeling techniques used for future model iterations. The final objective of this research is to develop an elastic-plastic fracture mechanics model. The first step in the development of an elastic-plastic fracture model is a three-dimensional quasi-static model that creates the global macroscale displacement field for the entire specimen geometry. The global model was then used to create a fracture submodel. The submodel utilized the displacement field to reduce the model volume, which allowed a higher mesh density to be applied to the part. The higher mesh density allowed more elements to be allocated to accurately represent the model behavior in the area local to the singularity. The techniques used to create this model were validated either by the linear elastic models or by supplementary dog bone prototype models. The prototype models were run to test model results, such as plastic stress-strain behavior, that were unable to be tested by just the linear elastic models. The elastic-plastic fracture mechanics global quasi-static model was verified using the plastic zone estimate and the fracture submodel resulted in a J-integral value. The two-dimensional linear elastic model was validated within 6% and the three-dimensional linear elastic model was validated within 0.57% of the closed-form solution for linear elastic fracture mechanics. These results validated the modeling techniques. The elastic-plastic fracture mechanics quasi-static global model formed a residual stress zone using a Load-Unload-Reload load sequence. The quasi-static global model had a plastic zone with only a 0.02-inch variation from the analytical estimate of the plastic zone diameter. The quasi-static global model was also verified to exceed the limits of linear elastic fracture mechanics due to the size of the plastic zone in relation to the size of the compact specimen geometry. The difference between the three-dimensional linear elastic fracture model J-integral and the elastic-plastic fracture submodel initial loading J-integral was 3.75%. The J-integral for the reload step was 18% larger than the J-integral for the initial loading step in the elastic-plastic fracture submodel. / Master of Science / Additive manufacturing, sometimes referred to as 3-D printing, has become an area of rapid innovation. Additive manufacturing methods have many benefits such as the ability to produce complex geometries with a single process and a reduction in the amount of waste material. However, a problem with these processes is that very few methods have been created to analyze the initial part stresses caused by the processes used to additive manufacture. Finite element methods are computer-based analyses that can determine the behavior of parts based off prescribed properties, shape, and loading conditions. This research utilizes a standard fracture determination shape to leverage finite element methods. The models determine when a crack will form in a part that has process stresses from additive manufacturing. The model for crack initiation was first developed in two dimensions, neglecting the thickness of the part, using a basic material property definition. The same basic material property definition was next used to develop a crack initiation model in three dimensions. Then a more advanced material property definition was used to capture the impact of additive manufacturing on material properties. This material property definition was first used to establish the part properties as it relates to part weakening due to additive manufacturing. A higher accuracy model of just the crack development area was produced to determine the crack initiation properties of the additive manufactured part. Methods previously confirmed by testing were used to validate the models produced in this research. The models demonstrated that under the same loading parts with initial processes stresses were closer to fracture than parts without initial stresses.