Experimental and computational investigation of fatigue crack propagation using the inelastic energy approach

This study presents the experimental and computational investigation of a damage evaluation of the ductile aluminium alloy AA 5083-H111. The Compact Tensile (CT) specimen was selected for experimental testing and computational analysis. The proposed computational model is based on the inelastic energy approach, including the damage initiation and damage evolution criteria. In the computational model, the direct cyclic algorithm in the framework of Abaqus software was used to obtain the stabilised cyclic response of the analysed specimen subjected to the cyclic loading. Furthermore, the research presented in this study was focused mainly on the damage evolution period and subsequent determination of the appropriate maximum damage variable Dmax, which defines the stage of the stiffness degradation in the analysed structure, and, therefore, influence significantly on the damage evolution process. The comparison between the experimentally and computationally obtained damage evolution period and also the damage path in the analysed CT specimen showed a reasonable agreement. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed computational model was validated, and could be used for the further low cycle fatigue analyses of structural components made of the aluminium alloy AA 5083-H111.