The modeling of the edge fatigue crack growth under high frequency loading

Multiple fracture surface investigations of real aviation industry products have proved that low-amplitude high-frequency oscillations can lead to an unexpected failure of aviation elements and other structures. High-frequency loading is the reason for this, as it produces a large number of loading cycles that often exceed an investigated area of a material fatigue behavior. This new fatigue failure mode (very-high-cycle fatigue) requires a special experimental study with the use of both experimental and mathematical modeling. This paper is focused on a numerical determination of stress intensity factors (SIF) in the specimen with the edge notch specimen loaded by harmonic high frequency displacements of small amplitudes. The numerical calculations were performed for the case of loading with frequency close to its natural frequency. A dimensionless adjusting function was determined for SIF that takes into account a change in modal characteristics of the resonance system (the specimen with rectilinear edge notch) due to crack propagation. The obtained equation was used to model the position of the curvilinear fatigue crack front. A general scheme of a piezoelectric fatigue testing machine is introduced with a technique of tensile-compression fatigue tests on the titanium crack growth specimen with an edge notch in the range of very high cycle fatigue. The analysis of the fracture surfaces with the identification of the front stop lines and mathematical modeling of the crack front evolution under high-frequency loading are carried out. The results of mathematical modeling are comparing with experimental data obtained during high-frequency fatigue tests on a piezoelectric fatigue testing machine. The numerical calculations have shown that this approach allows us to qualitatively and quantitatively simulate the evolution of the edge fatigue crack with a curvilinear front under very-high-cycle fatigue (high-frequency) loading mode.