A critical plane approach for life prediction of high cycle fatigue under multiaxial variable amplitude loading

In this paper, a new life prediction method for high cycle multiaxial fatigue of metallic materials is presented. It is based on a local approach introduced by Dang Van and developed by Papadopoulos, where accumulated plastic strain due to external loading is estimated at a scale of the order of a few grains. Its evaluation requires the use of a critical plane type fatigue criterion. As soon as the accumulated plastic mesostrain, considered as the damage variable, reaches a critical value, a crack is considered to be initiated. The complex and combined cases of loading (multiaxial and variable amplitude loading) can be analysed with this new method. In particular, attention is given to a description of the damaging effect of the loading path shape on fatigue strength. The application of hardening plasticity laws at the local scale allows one to estimate and sum the damage caused by elementary loading events like transitions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.