A crystal plasticity based methodology for crack initiation lifetime prediction of fretting fatigue in AA2024-T351 alloy

AA2024-T351 alloy finds extensive use as a component material in the fields of civil engineering, machinery and aerospace, which are prone to long-term contact loading during service that may cause catastrophic failure such as fretting fatigue. In this work, a crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) model has been established to predict the fretting fatigue crack initiation (FFCI) lifetime of AA2024-T351 alloy. Submodel methods for frictional contact parts are adopted, and crystal plasticity theory is utilized to obtain more accurate simulation results. The hotspots for fretting fatigue crack nucleation are determined by the difference of maximum value of maximum principal strain. The accumulated plastic slip and accumulated energy dissipation are utilized as fatigue indicator parameters (FIPs) to accurately predict FFCI lifetime. The results show that both FIPs predicted crack initiation lifetime are within twice the scatter band. Furthermore, the submodel is employed to generate diverse grain orientation sets while maintaining a constant total of 800 grains. The results indicate that different sets have little effect on the prediction of FFCI lifetime, but has a significant impact on the cumulative shear strain distribution between each individual grain at the mesoscale.