Material Configurational Force and Virtual Element Method for the Prediction of Mixed-mode Fatigue Life and Crack Path
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A numerical approach to the simulation of mixed-mode fatigue crack growth and to the estimate of mixed-mode fatigue life is proposed, based on the Virtual Element Method (VEM) and on the configurational force Jk-integral. The VEM is insensitive to element distortion, allowing for the use of elements with arbitrary shapes, such as non-convex polygons (in 2D), and has proved to be particularly suited for the simulation of mixed-mode crack propagation [1,2]. In the model, the initiation and deflection of the fatigue crack are determined based on the components of the Jk-integral [2], while the fatigue crack growth rate is determined by the corresponding amplitude of the Jk-integral cycle. Two sets of fatigue experiments have been designed and conducted, and the correlation between the fatigue crack growth rate and the amplitude of the configurational force cycle has been established. The fatigue crack propagation rate, the fatigue crack propagation paths and the fatigue lifetime computed numerically by the VEM are in good agreement with the experimental results. It has been found that the numerically computed logarithm of the crack propagation rate increases linearly with the logarithm of the material configurational force, in agreement with the experimental evidence.
