Numerical Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth of Structural Steels using Energy Release Rate with VCCT.
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Date
2022-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
Abstract
This research presents the numerical evaluation of fatigue crack growth of structural steels
S355 and S960 based on Paris’ law parameters (C and m) that are experimentally determined with
a single edge notched tension (SENT) specimen using optical and crack gauge measurements on an
electromotive resonance machine at constant amplitude load. The sustainable technique is replacing
destructive, time‐consuming and expensive approaches in structural integrity. The crack propagation
is modelled using the 3D finite element method (FEM) with adaptive remeshing of tetrahedral
elements along with the crack initiator elements provided in simulation software for crack propagation
based on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). The stress intensity is computed based on
the evaluation of energy release rates according to Irwin’s crack closure integral with applied cyclic
load of 62.5 MPa, 100 MPa and 150 MPa and stress ratios of R = 0 and 0.1. In order to achieve optimized
mesh size towards load cycle and computational time, mesh and re‐mesh sensitivity analysis
is conducted. The results indicate that the virtual crack closure technique VCCT‐based 3D FEM
shows acceptable agreement compared to the experimental investigation with the percentage error
up to 7.9% for S355 and 12.8% for S960 structural steel.
Description
Keywords
crack growth, structural steel, fracture mechanic, finite element model
Citation
Busari Y. O., Manurung Y.H.P., Leitner M., Shuaib‐Babata Y. L., Mat M. F., Ibrahim H. K., Simunek D., Sulaiman M. S. (2022). Numerical Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth of Structural Steels using Energy Release Rate with VCCT. Applied Sciences, 12 (2641), 1-14. Published by MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, Available online at: https://www.mdpi.com/search?q=Numerical+Evaluation+of+Fatigue+Crack+Growth+of+Structural+Steels+using+Energy+Release+Rate+with+VCCT&journal=applsci&article_type=research-article https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052641