6533b858fe1ef96bd12b6bee

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Numerical modelling of fatigue crack initiation and growth of martensitic steels

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This paper presents a numerical simulation of micro-crack initiation that is based on Tanaka-Mura micro-crack nucleation model. Three improvements were added to this model. First, multiple slip bands where micro-cracks may occur are used in each grain. Second improvement deals with micro-crack coalescence by extending existing micro-cracks along grain boundaries and connecting them into a macro-crack. The third improvement handles segmented micro-crack generation, where a micro-crack is not nucleated in one step like in Tanaka-Mura model, but is instead generated in multiple steps. High cycle fatigue testing was also performed and showed reasonably good correlation of proposed model to experimental results. Because numerical model was directed at simulating fatigue properties of thermally cut steel, edge properties of test specimens were additionally inspected in terms of surface roughness and micro-structural properties.