A microstructure based fatigue life prediction framework and its validation

Fatigue crack initiation in polycrystalline materials can be attributed to various mechanistic and microstructural features acting in concert like the elastic stress anisotropy, plastic strain accumulation, resolved shear stress, normal stress, slip-system length, and grain boundary character. In nickel-base superalloys, fatigue cracks tend to initiate near twin boundaries. The factors causing fatigue crack initiation depend on the material’s microstructure, the variability of which results in the scatter observed in the fatigue life. In this work, a robust microstructure based fatigue framework is developed, which takes into account i) the statistical variability of the material's microstructure, ii) the continuum scale complex heterogeneous 3D stress and strain states within the microstructure, and iii) the atomistic mechanisms such as slip-grain boundary (GB) interactions, extrusion formations, and shearing of the matrix and precipitates due to slip. The quantitative information from crystal plasticity simulations and molecular dynamics is applied to define the energy of persistent slip bands (PSB). The energy of a critical PSB and its associated stability with respect to the dislocation motion is used as the failure criterion for crack initiation. This unified framework helps us gain insights on why fatigue cracks tend to initiate at twin boundaries. In addition to that, the computational framework links variability in material’s microstructure to the scatter observed in fatigue life.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Yeratapally, Saikumar Reddy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michael D Sangid
• Weinong W Chen
• Michael G Glavicic
• David F Bahr

• Fatigue crack initiation
• Fatigue life prediction
• Global sensitivity analysis
• Grain boundaries
• Persistent slip bands
• Uncertainty quantification

Repository record dc:identifier

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1160

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:docs.lib.purdue.edu:open_access_dissertations-2376