A critical plane fatigue model applied to out-of-phase bending and torsion load conditions

F. M O R E L
Laboratoire de Me canique et de Physique des Mate riaux, UMR 6617, ENSMA, Site du Futuroscope, Futuroscope Cedex, France Received in nal form 20 November 2000

A B S T R A C T This paper presents an easy to handle but efcient fatigue life prediction method based

on a plasticity analysis carried out at the scale of the grains, i.e. the mesoscopic scale. The different steps of the model are described in the case of in-phase as well as outof-phase bendingtorsion load conditions. One striking feature of this method is that the denition of the critical material plane and the estimation of the number of cycles to initiation are made by means of analytical expressions that are functions of the loading parameters such as amplitudes, means and phase angles. The identication of the model parameters is readily carried out by means of one SN curve and two fatigue limits. This model is able to reect the inuence of the phase shift on damage accumulation with the introduction of no adjustable parameters. Furthermore, the comparison between the predictions and in-phase and out-of-phase fatigue data found in the literature leads to very good correlation. Keywords bendingtorsion loading; fatigue life prediction; high cycle fatigue; microplasticity.
NOMENCLATURE
c Ca = amplitude of the shear stress on the critical plane Ni = number of cycles to initiation p, q, r = coefcients of the SN curve analytical expression Ta = amplitude of the macroscopic resolved shear stress acting on a glide system Ts (h, Q) =measure of stress proportional to an upper bound of the plastic mesostrain accumulated on an elementary material plane D orientated by (h, Q), also average value of Ta TS = maximum value of Ts over h and Q TS lim = maximum value of Ts relative to the multiaxial limit loading SH = macroscopic hydrostatic stress t = resolved shear stress acting on a glide system of a crystal ty = shear yield limit of a crystal ts = shear yield limit of a crystal in the saturation phase tlim = generalized fatigue limit, also shear yield limit of a crystal in the saturation phase

INTRODUCTION

In many cases, the design of structural parts requires tools that can deal with any kind of complex load sequence. Indeed, at locations where cracks occur in components, the stress state is often of multiaxial characCorrespondence: F. Morel, Laboratoire de Me canique et de Physique des Mate riaux, UMR 6617, ENSMA, Site du Futuroscope, BP 109, 86960 Futuroscope Cedex, France E.mail: morel@lmpm.ensma.fr

ter due the applied loading and its changes. Hence modelling concepts that address only uniaxial loading conditions are not sufciently general to meet design requirements. Among the numerous mechanical components, some such as axles, crankshafts and propeller shafts undergo bending and torsion stresses which are out of phase. For that state of stress, the task of researchers is then to build relevant methods that can take into account non-proportional as well as proportional loadings. The fatigue strength under combined bending and

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torsion has been extensively studied in the innite fatigue life regime.17 It has been proved6,7 in that eld that the phase difference does not signicantly affect the fatigue endurance of hard metals. Nevertheless, the inuence of the loading path shape on damage accumulation has been less studied. This work is then devoted to the domain of nite fatigue lives. In an extensive review of multiaxial fatigue life prediction methods presented by You and Lee,1 it appears that many approaches have been proposed and can be classied into several categories, i.e. empirical formulas, use of stress and strain invariants, use of energy, critical plane approaches. Among all these methods, only a few try to describe the specic microscopic damage mechanisms in high-cycle fatigue. For example, Lema tre et al.8 according to the damage mechanics initiated by Kachanov use the well-known Lema tre damage law9 extended in a two-scale model. Indeed, in this theory, a self-consistent scheme is able to reect the microscopic nature of damage accumulation in the high-cycle fatigue regime, namely when there is no plasticity or damage at the scale of the Representative Volume Element of Continuum Mechanics; that is when plasticity and damage occur at a lower scale. The global failure is then assumed to occur as soon as the microscopic damage reaches a critical value. In a previous paper and according to the same philosophy, Morel10 proposed to apply a Schmid-type plasticity model (critical plane) to a mesoscopic approach of crack initiation. The local plastic strain is seen as the main cause of crack nucleation. Its estimation requires the introduction of relevant isotropic and kinematic hardening rules and a macro-meso passage; as for the wellknown Dang Van criterion,11 the LinTaylor hypothesis12 is utilized to link the mesoscopic (scale of the grain) and the macroscopic (scale of the specimen) mechanical quantities. The initiation of a crack at the mesoscopic scale is assumed to appear when the local plastic strain in some less favourably orientated grains has reached a critical value. This model therefore focuses more on issues related to crack nucleation than on microcrack propagation. Whereas the rst paper10 presented the basic theory of the mesoscopic approach, this new study shows how the phase shift inuences the nite and innite fatigue life regimes in the practical case of a nonproportional bending and torsion loading. The different steps of the initiation life assessment will then be detailed and particular attention will be given to the actual phase difference effect on fatigue strength. This second paper attempts to add some information on the way the mesoscopic approach can explain the effect of complex path on damage mechanisms in fatigue.

FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION METHOD

Damage model and fatigue life to initiation A distinguishing feature of high-cycle fatigue (HCF) is the high degree of heterogeneity of local cyclic slip processes. Indeed, for low-stress amplitudes the cyclic plastic slip processes are highly heterogeneously distributed among grains and surface crack density is sparse. On the contrary, under high amplitudes, persistent slip bands and microcracks are fairly uniformly distributed among grains. Typically, only a single dominant aw ultimately propagates to failure in HCF and the crack density is relatively low in smooth specimens13 in comparison with the low cycle fatigue (LCF) case.14,15 There is a corresponding increase of scatter of fatigue strength under HCF conditions linked to this increasing heterogeneity. From this observation, it thus seems natural to assume that only a few (most unfavourably orientated) grains that suffer plastic glide under an external loading are responsible for macrocrack initiation in HCF. To describe the evolution of the damage in those grains, Papodopoulos16,17 proposed the use of the accumulated plastic mesoscopic strain as the damage variable. Later, Morel10 followed the same method and assumed that the initiation of slip in a crystal is determined by the Schmids law
2 =0 f (t, b, ty ) = (t b) (t b) ty

(1)

where t is the resolved shear stress acting on an easy glide system of the crystal, ty is the yield limit of the crystal and b is the kinematic hardening parameter. Moreover the crystal is assumed to follow a combined isotropic and kinematic linear hardening rule when owing plastically. To dene the crystal behaviour from the rst yielding to failure, three successive isotropic hardening rules have been adopted: hardening, saturation and softening (Fig. 1). When a cyclic loading is applied, Morel10 showed that the damage variable (accumulated plastic strain) and the crystal yield limit can be expressed through analytical expressions. Those expressions relative to a particular gliding system are expressed as a function of the applied amplitude of the resolved shear stress Ta , the yield limit in the saturation phase ts and the hardening parameters of the three behaviour phases. The number of cycles to initiation deduced when the damage variable (i.e. the accumulated plastic mesoscopic strain) reaches a critical value is given by:10 Ni = p ln

ts r Ta +q Ta ts Ta ts Ta

(2)

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Indeed as long as the amplitude of the resolved shear stress is less than this critical value, the plastically deforming grain that would lead to crack formation tends to an elastic shakedown state; the grain tends to recover a purely elastic response. When this threshold is exceeded, a plastic shakedown occurs and the grain fails due to the exhaustion of its ductility. As can be seen in Eq. (2) this critical value plays the role of a fatigue limit. One main task of this method is then to estimate this limit value for any kind of multiaxial loading (proportional or non-proportional). This will be done by means of an appropriate endurance criterion proposed by Papadopoulos.17 Estimation of the saturation yield limit Critical plane endurance criterion A critical plane criterion has been built by Papadopoulos to take into account all kinds of non-proportional sinusoidal constant amplitude loading. This criterion is a function of two mechanical parameters Ts (h, Q) and SH,max dened by: Ts (h, Q) = where p, q and r are functions of the parameters of the three isotropic hardening behaviour phases g (hardening phase), h (softening phase), k (saturation phase), of the kinematic parameter c, of the initial yield limit of the crystal t(0) coefcient m:10 y and of the Lame p= c + m (0) c+m 1 c+m 1 1 + , q= , r= ty 4 g h 4 k 4g

Fig. 1 Evolution of (a) the yield limit, and (b) the damage (mesoscopic accumulated plastic strain) as a function of the number of applied load cycles for three phases of material behaviour (hardening, saturation, softening).

SH,max = max
t

SP GP P
1 p
2p y= 0 2p Q=0

T2 a (h, Q, y) dy
p

(4)

h=0

N(h, Q, t) dh dQ

(5)

A B

(3)

p, q and r can be deduced from an experimental stresslife (SN) curve to initiation by means of a least mean square method.10 As the initial yield limit of the crystal is small for most of the time, the term r/Ta in Eq. (2) can be considered as negligible in comparison with the others. It is important to mention that there is no way to measure directly the parameters that are characteristic of the behaviour at the mesoscale and unlike other models8 a separate estimation of g, h, k, c and m is not necessary here. The parameters p, q and r are enough to carry out a fatigue life to initiation assessment when a constant amplitude loading is applied. McDowell13 notes that several mechanisms may lead to a fatigue limit: grain boundary blockage for cracks of length less than the order of the grain size and elastic shakedown of the heterogeneous cyclic microplasticity response, this second mechanism leading to a fatigue limit that is lower than that associated with grain boundary blockage of microcracks. The model presented in this approach is based on a microplasticity-type analysis and the yield limit in the saturation phase is a threshold for damage accumulation.

where Ta is the amplitude of the resolved shear stress acting on a direction dened by the angle y made with a xed direction of a material plane whose spherical co-ordinates are h and Q. The unit normal vector to this plane n is then written as:

n = sin h sin Q cos h

N is the normal stress acting on the plane and a function of the orientation of this plane (i.e. function of h and Q). The criterion is nally expressed as a linear combination of the two parameters maxh,Q (Ts (h, Q)) and SH,max : max (Ts (h, Q)) + aSH,max b
h,Q

A B
sin h cos Q

(6)

(7)

The two criterion coefcients are readily deduced from two fatigue limits of standard fatigue tests, e.g. fully reversed bending, f1 , and fully reversed torsion, t1 . t 1 a= b = t 1 f1 2 (8)

f1 3

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To reect the benecial effect of a compressive mean bending stress, the constant a must be positive. This condition leads to a restriction of the criterion applicability. It applies to material for which f1 /t1 2; that is to the great majority of industrial materials. Out-of-phase bendingtorsion loading Let us study now the fatigue strength of a specimen submitted to out-of-phase bendingtorsion loading. At any point of the gauge length and in a frame where the axes x, y and z are directed along the radial, circumferential and axial directions (Fig. 2), the bendingtorsion loading is dened by means of a dependence of the stress components with time: Szz (t) = Szz,m + Szz,a sin (vt) Syz (t) = Syz,m + Syz,a sin (vt byz ) (9) (10)

as: SH,max = SH,m + SH,a = (Szz,m + Szz,a )/3 (13)

On a material plane, the elliptic path related to the outof-phase bendingtorsion loading presents major and minor axes whose half lengths are denoted, respectively, as Ca and Cb . In the same way as Ts , these lengths are function of the angles h, Q. Papadopoulos17 showed that these values could be expressed by means of the relations:16 Ca (h, Q) =

S S
K + 2 K 2

K2 L2 4

(14)

It can be shown10,17 that the expressions of the two parameters of the endurance criterion are given by: Ts (h, Q) = A 2 + B 2 + C 2 + D 2 where A = Syz,a cos h cos Q cos byz B =Syz,a cos h cos Q sin byz C = Sz,a cos h sin h Syz,a cos 2h sin Q cos byz D = Syz,a cos 2h sin Q sin byz Furthermore, maximum hydrostatic stress can be written (12) (11)

Cb (h, Q) = where

S S

K2 L2 4

(15)

K=A2+B2+C2+D2 and L = AD BC

(16)

(17)

The use of the endurance criterion is possible after a maximization of Ts (h, Q) with regard to the angles h and Q. Figure 3 shows the evolution of Ts as a function of h and Q for a combined bendingtorsion loading with a phase shift of 90 and a load ratio R = Syz,a /Szz,a = 0.5. A critical plane relative to the maximum value of Ts is then dened and is located with the angles hc and Qc . The maximum value of the amplitude of the resolved c can be estimated on this critical plane: shear stress C a Cc a = max [Ta (hc , Qc , y)]
y

(18)

It is important to notice that in some cases, this amplic can be different from the maximum value of the tude C a resolved shear stress deduced from each direction of each possible material plane. Indeed, a critical plane dened as the plane experiencing the maximum value of the amplitude of the shear stress can be different from the critical plane located by a maximization of the parameter Ts . When dealing with in-phase bendingtorsion loading (i.e. byz = 0), it is easy to nd the maximum value of Ts (h, Q):
Fig. 2 Cylindrical frame of axes (x, y, z) attached to a point of the gauge length surface of a specimen and denition of a critical plane by means of spherical co-ordinates h and Q.

max [Ts (h, Q)] =

h,Q

S2 zz,a + S2 yz,a 4

(19)

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Fig. 3 Evolution of Ts as a function of h and Q for a combined bendingtorsion loading with a phase shift of 90 and a load ratio R = Syz,a /Szz,a = 0.5.

The criterion can then be written in an analytical form:

S2 Szz,m + Szz,a zz,a + S2 b yz,a + a 4 3

(20)

For out-of-phase bendingtorsion loading, a maximization must be carried out and an analytical expression of maxh,Q [Ts (h, Q)] can not be achieved. Nonetheless, this maximization is not very time consuming and it has the great advantage of making it possible to locate the critical plane. In the following, to make the relations less cumbersome, the result of the maximization will be denoted TS : TS = max [Ts (h, Q)]
h,Q

(21)

authors nd a clear dependence of phase angle.24 To explain this contradiction, one can say that in moving from HCF to LCF the phase difference has an increased effect on fatigue strength. Thus we will assume in the following that the fatigue limit is phase independent. The fatigue limit independence property with regard to the phase shift is only valid for combined bending (or tension) and torsion loads. Indeed, there are some experimental evidence of the marked inuence of the phase difference between two normal stresses. For instance, Mielke25 showed on a 25CrMo4 steel and for a tension compression and internal pressure loading that the fatigue strength for the phase shift byy = 180 is 33% lower than in the proportional conditions byy = 0. These observations are clearly reected through this model.

Inuence of phase shift on fatigue limit To reect the sensitivity of this model with regard to the phase shift, some data from the literature1821 have been used to draw on Fig. 4 the evolution of the normalized equivalent parameter Seq = TS + aSH,max as a function of the phase angle. This comparison shows clearly there is no marked inuence of the phase shift. Indeed almost all the points lie in a band of 10%. This observation leads to the conclusion that the fatigue limit is almost independent with respect to the phase difference related to the shear component of the stress tensor. Although this independence has been experimentally observed by some authors,2123 the widespread and popular fatigue criteria such as Sines and Crossland are unable to reect this fact. Moreover, this phase shift inuence is not yet well identied as some Estimation of a generalized fatigue limit As previously explained, the cyclic hardening behaviour at the mesoscopic scale is function of the applied loading. Indeed, the yield limit in the saturation phase depends on the stress state, the phase shift and the mean stresses. It is then necessary to dene for each different multiaxial sequence a fatigue limit that plays the role of a threshold for damage accumulation. More precisely, a multiaxial limit loading will be built by means of the previous endurance criterion. As for uniaxial loading (e.g. pushpull, torsion), it is dened by keeping the means of the stress components and the phase angles constant and by applying the same coefcient to all the stress amplitudes. In the plane of the criterion, it has been shown that a sinusoidal constant amplitude loading is displayed by a

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Fig. 4 Inuence of the phase angle on the fatigue limit in combined bendingtorsion.1821

point. When searching for a limit loading, a coefcient must be applied to the stress amplitudes. Different values of this coefcient lead to a set of points which belong to the same line if the means and the phase differences are kept constant. This line represents a group of similar multiaxial loadings. It is then easy to dene for one group a limit loading represented by a point on the endurance line. The characteristics of this limit loading and of the loading under consideration are enough to dene the generalized fatigue limit tlim : tlim = with TS lim = aSH,m + b TS TS SH,a a+ SH,a (23) TS lim (TS /C c a) (22)

the crystal. If not the saturation phase is never reached and no initiation is possible. The estimation of this generalized fatigue limit is illustrated for different states of stress on Fig. 5 and in Table 1. Let us consider now the example of an in-phase bendingtorsion loading applied to a high strength steel (30 NCD 16) whose fatigue characteristics are: f1 = 680 MPa and t1 = 426 MPa

This last value TS lim is deduced by studying the intersection between the endurance line and the similar loading group line. The corresponding shear limit tlim will now represent the yield limit in the saturation phase ts . It is important to notice that the amplitude of the resolved c must exceed this critical value to break shear stress C a

For this load condition, the calculated evolution of the generalized fatigue limit as a function of the ratio R = Syz,a /Szz,a is shown on the Fig. 6. When R = 0, the loading is of pure bending whereas when R 2 it is a pure torsion state of stress. It is clearly shown on this gure that the generalized fatigue limit tlim strongly depends on the ratio R and lies between f1 /2 and t1. This initiation threshold value depends therefore upon the applied stress state. Let us remember that, in this model, it also plays the role of a yield stress in the stabilized state reached after a rst hardening phase. Consequently, the hydrostatic stress is acting on the damage mechanism. Indeed the generalized fatigue limit is estimated according to an endurance criterion. A

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Fig. 5 Estimation of the generalized fatigue limit for a pure reversed bending loading( f1 ) and for a pure reversed torsion (t1 ) loading.

Table 1 Expression of the generalized fatigue limit for different states of stress Fully reversed bending: Szz (t) = Szz,a sin(vt) Fully reversed torsion: Syz (t) = Syz,a sin(vt) Fully reversed in-phase bendingtorsion: bendingtorsion: Szz (t) = Szz,a sin(vt) Syz (t) = Syz,a sin(vt) TS = Cc a=

TS = (Szz,a )/2, C c a = (Szz,a )/2 Pmax = (Szz,a )/3

TS = Syz,a , C c a = Syz,a Pmax = 0

S2 zz,a + S2 yz,a 4 Pmax = (Szz,a )/3 tlim = TS lim [ tlim = 1+

S S

S2 zz,a + S2 yz,a 4

tlim = TS lim [ tlim = ( f1 )/2

tlim = TS lim [ tlim = t1

A B SA B
Syz,a Szz,a
2

t1 t1 1 f1 2

1 4

negative hydrostatic stress is benecial to the initiation fatigue life whereas a positive one leads to a decrease of the fatigue life. Application Some experimental results concerning in-phase as well as out-of-phase bendingtorsion loading have been found in the experimental work of L. Dubar26 who studied the fatigue strength of a high strength steel 30 NCD 16. The monotonic mechanical properties of this material are sy (0.2%) = 1090 MPa and su = 1177 MPa. We focus on this data because they stem from a statistical analysis carried out over many specimens (almost 200). The different fatigue limits given by Dubar have been esti-

mated by means of a staircase method for the innite life regime and of the cumulated frequencies method for the limited endurance. First step: identication of the model parameters: a, b, p and q One SN curve to initiation and two fatigue limits are enough to carry out the identication of the model parameters. First of all the use of the multiaxial endurance criterion requires two coefcients a and b given by Eq. (8). The fatigue limits at 106 cycles in purely reversed plane bending and purely reversed torsion are, respectively, f1 = 680 MPa and t1 = 426 MPa. Consequently a = 0.38 and b = 426 MPa. These two values dene the

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Fig. 6 Evolution of the generalized fatigue limit as a function of the ratio R = Syz,a /Szz,a for an in-phase bendingtorsion loading submitted to a high strength steel 30 NCD 16.26

position of the threshold line in the plane of the endurance criterion (Fig. 7) and will enable the estimation of the generalized fatigue limit tlim . By considering the initial yield limit of the deforming grains as small and by using the maximum amplitude of the resolved shear stress on the critical material plane c , the expression of the SN curve to initiation [Eq. (2)] Ca becomes: tlim Cc a +q c Ni = p ln c C a tlim C a tlim

SN curves: in purely reversed plane bending and in purely reversed torsion. The corresponding experimental data estimated for a probability of failure of 50% are presented on Fig. 8. According to the Table 1 and Eq. (25), the two SN curves are written as:

in bending Ni = p ln

(24)

Or in a normalized form with respect to the generalized fatigue limit tlim :

Ni = p ln

During his experimental work, Dubar established two

A B
Cc a

in torsion Ni = p ln

1 tlim +q c Cc C a a 1 1 tlim tlim

(25)

c /tlim enables us to put the The use of the ratio C a bending data and the torsion data on the same curve (Fig. 8). From these normalized data, the coefcients p

A B A B
Szz,a f 1 Szz,a 1 f1 Syz,a t 1 Syz,a 1 t 1

+q

1 Szz,a 1 f1 (26)

+q

1 Syz,a 1 t 1

Fig. 7 Representation of the eight loading conditions of Dubar tests26 in the plane of the endurance criterion (TS , SH,max ).

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Fig. 8 Experimental and theoretical normalized SN curve for Dubars tests26 on 30 NCD 16 high strength steel.

and q can be deduced by means of a least mean square method. For this steel, their values are found to be: p = 1.0 104 and q = 9.0 103. It is important to point out that only one SN curve is enough to identify p and q. On Fig. 8, all the points lie close to the same curve. It proves that the model is able to predict an SN curve in torsion knowing an SN curve in bending and vice-versa. Second step: estimation of the generalized fatigue limits Table 2 presents the eight experimental conditions of stress and phase shift used for the combined tension torsion tests in the nite life regime. These test conditions can be represented by points in the plane of the endurance criterion (TS , SH,max ) (Fig. 7). All the points lie above the threshold line in the unsafe domain. It means that these load conditions must lead to initiation of a crack and consequently failure of the test specimen. This fact has been experimentally observed by Dubar since all the test specimens failed under those conditions. Let us describe now the estimation of a generalized fatigue limit through the denition of a similar loading group. The two proportional load conditions 1 and 3 can be considered as similar loadings since the mean

values and phase shifts are constant whereas a single coefcient applied to the amplitudes enables to shift from one loading to the other: Loading 1

K K K

Szz,m = 0 MPa byz = 0

and

K K

Szz,a = 600 MPa Syz,a = 335 MPa

Loading 3 Szz,m = 0 MPa byz = 0 and Szz,a = 548 MPa Syz,a = 306 MPa

Loading 1

Loading 3:

3 S1 zz,a = 1.095Szz,a 3 S1 yz,a = 1.095Syz,a

According to Eqs (22) and (23) and the different values: S1 S3 SH,m = 0 MPa; H,a = 200 MPa; H,a = 183 MPa; 1 3 T S = 450 MPa; T S = 411 MPa; one can readily deduce TSlim = 364 MPa and tlim = 364 MPa (the same value is found because the loading is proportional). In the same way the non-proportional load conditions 2 and 4 (byz = 90) are similar and the same generalized fatigue limit is common to these loadings: SH,m =

Table 2 Experimental conditions (stresses, phase shifts and numbers of cycles to initiation) from Dubar26 combined tensiontorsion tests and load parameters used in the estimation of the fatigue lives to initiation Szz,a (MPa) 600 600 548 562 500 500 490 490 Syz,a (MPa) 335 335 306 315 290 290 285 285 Szz,m (MPa) 0 0 0 0 290 290 450 450 byz () 0 90 0 90 0 90 0 90 SH,a (MPa) 200 200 183 187 167 167 163 163 SH,m (MPa) 0 0 0 0 97 97 150 150 SH,max (MPa) 200 200 183 187 263 263 313 313 TS (MPa) 450 394 411 369 383 334 376 328 Cc a (MPa) 450 285 411 267 383 238 376 233 tlim (MPa) 364 259 364 258 334 233 317 221

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

TS lim 364 357 364 357 334 327 317 310

Nexp 8.00 E+04 1.00 E+05 2.00 E+05 2.00 E+05 1.20 E+05 2.10 E+05 9.50 E+04 2.30 E+05

Ncalc 5.51 E+04 1.12 E+05 9.27 E+04 2.99 E+05 8.22 E+04 4.68 E+05 6.67 E+04 1.88 E+05

Ncalc /Nexp 0.69 1.12 0.46 1.49 0.69 2.23 0.70 0.82

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0 MPa; S2 S4 H,a = 200 MPa; H,a = 187 MPa; 2 4 T S = 394 MPa; T S = 369 MPa, Consequently TSlim = 357 MPa and tlim = 258 MPa (the values are different because the loading is nonproportional). The other four load conditions lead to four different similar loading groups as can be seen in Fig. 7 (i.e. they belong to four different lines). All the load parameters used in estimation are listed in Table 2 together with the experimental number of cycles to initiation. Third step: Estimation of the number of cycles to initiation Initiation is supposed to occur on the critical plane in the most stressed direction. Indeed, it seems natural to assume that there are enough grains in the considered metallic aggregate so that this direction coincides with an easy glide direction of a less plastically resistant grain. The amplitude of the resolved shear stress in that c direction has been denoted C a . It has also been proved that at the fatigue limit this direction is submitted to the amplitude tlim . The plastic strain accumulated in that direction is deduced from the identied hardening rules and at failure the number of cycles is given by Eq. (24). The predicted number of cycles to initiation are compared with the experimental ones in Table 2. The agreement is found to be very good both for proportional and non-proportional load conditions since the points lie in a scatter band of 2 with no systematic deviation to one side of the graph (Fig. 9).

DISCUSSION

Fig. 9 Comparison between the observed fatigue lives and the calculated fatigue lives for in-phase and out-of-phase loading conditions on high-strength steel.26

The initiation criterion proposed in this model is based on a physical interpretation of crack nucleation where the microplasticity governs the damage mechanism. When a cyclic loading is applied in the high-cycle eld, a few grains of the polycrystalline aggregate considered undergo different hardening levels depending on their orientations and their initial hardening states. However, the hardening behaviour of each of these grains is impossible to reach by the experimental methods proposed until now. To get round this problem, it seems more appropriate to look for a stabilized cyclic hardening state which could be related to an elastic shakedown state of the deforming grains. This state could explain the appearance of a fatigue limit for a great variety of metallic materials and could then be simply linked to the macroscopic cyclic elastic behaviour. Indeed, the yield limit representing the saturation phase of crystal behaviour (acting after the rst hardening phase) is supposed to be equal to the generalized fatigue limit tlim estimated from the macroscopic stress components of the (multiaxial) limit loading. The expression of the SN curve [Eq. (2)] deduced from a threshold condition applied to the accumulated plastic mesoscopic strain uses the amplitude of the macroscopic shear stress Ta acting on one glide system and a generalized fatigue limit tlim . Although simple, this relation is able to predict the exact numbers of cycles to initiation for a torsion loading by knowing some bending fatigue data. One has rst to identify the parameters according to a bending SN curve and then use the relevant generalized fatigue limit tlim relative to a pure shear loading, i.e. t1 . The good correlations shown on Fig. 8 imply that the damage mechanism leading to crack initiation and modelled according to a microplasticity analysis is convenient and is the same for a torsion and a bending loading. In others words, for proportional loading such as the in-phase multiaxial loading conditions, the microplasticity assessment on the most stressed direction of a material plane seems to reect adequately the damage accumulation in a few shear bands and the subsequent crack initiation. Problems arise when dealing with non-proportional loading as many directions of a material plane can be highly stressed. The hardening behaviour of the plastically deforming material can then be different due to the higher strains of the surrounding grains. From the macroscopic point of view, the stress state and the phase shift inuence the fatigue limit; that is to say the local stabilized hardening state of the most stressed grains relative to this fatigue limit depend on these parameters. In the present approach, it is assumed that cracks nucleate in the most stressed direction of the

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critical plane but the contribution of other grains to the damage mechanism is considered as well. Indeed, the shear parameter TS of the endurance criterion takes into account all the possible glide systems of the critical material plane. Consequently the denition (according to the endurance criterion) of the generalized fatigue limit tlim made for one glide system is a function of the slip intensity in other grains. Moreover, the amplitude and the mean value of the hydrostatic stress induces a signicant effect on the fatigue limit. For this reason, the generalized fatigue limit tlim is a decreasing function of these two parameters. For the loading conditions (combined out-of-phase bendingtorsion) studied in this paper, it is shown that the generalized fatigue limit tlim (Table 1) is a function of the reference fatigue limits t1 and f1 and of the load ratio R. The phase difference also contributes to a decrease of this limit but no simple analytical expression can be reached. To conclude, an increase of the initiation life predicted by this model can appear for only two reasons: 1 the intensity of the loading is lower which means that the maximum amplitude of the resolved shear stress acting on the critical plane decreases; and 2 the loading is of different kind (different load ratios, different mean normal stress values, different phase shifts). In that case a change of the generalized fatigue limit tlim is expected.
CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS

identication of the model parameters are readily made by means of one SN curve and two fatigue limits. Nevertheless this simple formulation is able to reect the inuence of the phase shift on damage accumulation without the introduction of new parameters. In addition, the comparison carried out with the in-phase and outof-phase fatigue data of Dubar leads to very good correlation. An extension of this method to variable amplitude loading has been presented elsewhere27,28 but many theoretical and experimental studies are still required to identify the loading parameters (frequency, phase shift, amplitude variations, etc.) that can inuence damage accumulation in HCF, whatever the loading path may be.
REFERENCES
1 You, B.-R. and Lee S.-B. (1996) A critical review on multiaxial fatigue assessments of metals. Int. J. Fatigue 18, 235244. 2 Gough, H. J. and Pollard, H. V. (1935) The strength of metals under combined alternating stresses. Proc. Inst. Mech. Engrs 131, 3103. 3 Nishihara, T. and Kawamoto, M. (1941) The strength of metals under combined bending and torsion. Memoirs of the College of Engineering, Kyoto Imperial University Vol. 10. 4 McDiarmid, D. L. (1987) Fatigue under out-of-phase bending and torsion. Fatigue Fract. Engng Mater. Struct. 9, 457475. 5 McDiarmid, D. L. (1994) A shear stress based critical-plane criterion of multiaxial fatigue failure for design and life prediction. Fatigue Fract. Engng Mater. Struct. 17, 14751484. 6 Lasserre, S. and Froustey, C. (1992) Multiaxial fatigue of steeltesting out-of-phase and in blocks; validity and applicability of some criteria. Int. J. Fatigue 14, 113120. 7 Papadopoulos, I. V., Davoli, P., Gorla, C., Filippini, M. and Bernasconi, A. (1997) A comparative study of multiaxial highcycle fatigue criteria for metals. Int. J. Fatigue 19, 219235. 8 Lemaitre, J., Sermage, J. P. and Desmorat, R. (1999) A two scale damage concept applied to fatigue. Int. J. Fract. 97, 6781. 9 Lemaitre, J. (1992) A Course on Damage Mechanics. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 10 Morel, F. (1998) A fatigue life prediction method based on a mesoscopic approach in constant amplitude multiaxial loading. Fatigue Fract. Engng Mater. Struct. 21, 241256. 11 Dang, K. (1993) Macro-micro approach in high-cycle multiaxial fatigue. In: Advances in Multiaxial Fatigue, ASTM STP 1191 (Edited by D. L. McDowell and R. Ellis). American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, USA, pp. 120130. 12 Mura, T. (1987) Micromechanics of Defects in Solids. MartinusNijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 13 McDowell, D. L. (1996) Basic issues in the mechanics of high cycle metal fatigue. Int. J. Fract. 80, 103145. 14 Gao, N., Brown, M. W. and Miller, K. J. (1995) Crack growth morphology and microstructural changes in 316 stainless steel under creep-fatigue cycling. Fatigue Fract. Engng Mater. Struct. 18, 14071422. 15 Gao, N., Brown, M. W. and Miller, K. J. (1995) Short crack coalescence and growth in 316 stainless steel subjected to cyclic and time-dependent deformation. Fatigue Fract. Engng Mater. Struct. 18, 14231441.

A new HCF life prediction method that is simple to handle has been presented in this work. The model is based on a mesoscopic approach and the accumulated plastic mesostrain is used as the damage variable. This quantity can be reached by means of proper plasticity rules (isotropic and kinematic hardening) of the plastically deforming grains in which initiation occurs. The method is convenient for any kind of in-phase and outof-phase sinusoidal constant amplitude loading but is applied in the paper to out-of-phase bendingtorsion loading. A critical plane type endurance criterion is required to dene a generalized fatigue limit that is a fatigue limit for any multiaxial loading. From considerations related to the crystalline structure of the metals, this threshold value can be linked to a hardening stabilized state where the deforming grains accumulate plastic strain at a constant rate. It is of some interest to underline the fact that except for the location of the critical plane, which needs a maximization of an analytical expression function in spherical co-ordinates, the fatigue life to initiation is dened only with analytical relations. Moreover, the

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F. M O R E L

16 Papadopoulos, I. V. (1987) Fatigue polycyclique des me taux: une nouvelle approche. PhD Thesis. Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausse es, Paris, France. 17 Papadopoulos, I. V. (1993) Fatigue Limit of Metals under Multiaxial Stress Conditions: the Microscopic Approach. Technical Note no. I.93.101. Commission of the European Communities, Joint Research Centre. ISEI/IE 2495/93. 18 Morel, F. (1996) Fatigue multiaxiale sous chargement damplitude variable. PhD Thesis. Universite de Poitiers, Poitiers, France. 19 Zenner, H., Heidenreich, R. and Richter, I. (1985) Dauerschwingfestigkeit bei nichtsynchroner mehrachsiger beanspruchung. Z. Werkstofftech. 16, 101112. 20 Grubisic, V. and Simbu rger, A. (1976) Fatigue under combined out-of-phase multiaxial stresses. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Fatigue Testing and Design. Society of Environmental Engineers, London, UK, pp. 27.127.8. 21 Froustey, C., Lasserre, S. and Dubar, L. (1992) Validite des crite ` res de fatigue multiaxiale a ` lendurance en exiontorsion. In: Mat-Tech 92, IITT-International, France, pp. 7985. 22 Simbu her Werkstoffe bei rger, A. (1975) Festigkeitsverhalten za einer mehrachsigen, phasenverschobenen Schwingbeanspruchung mit ko nderlichen Hauptspannungsrichtungen. Bericht rperfesten und vera Nr. FB-121, LBF, Darmstadt, Germany.

23 Froustey, C. and Lasserre, S. (1989) Multiaxial fatigue endurance of 30NCD16 steel. Int. J. Fatigue 11, 16975. 24 Lee, S. B. (1985) A criterion for fully reversed out-of-phase torsion and bending. In: Multiaxial Fatigue, ASTM STP 853, (Edited by Miller, K. J. and Brown, M. W.). American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, USA, pp. 553568. 25 Mielke, S. (1980) Festigkeitsverhalten metallischer Werkstoffe unter zweiachsig Schwingender Beanspruchung mit verschiedenen Spannungszeitverla ufen. Diss. TH Aachen, Aachen, Germany. 26 Dubar, L. (1992) Fatigue multiaxiale des aciersPassage de lendurance a ` lendurance limite ePrise en compte des accidents ge ome triques. Ph.D. Thesis. Ecole Nationale Supe rieure dArts et Metiers, Talence, France. 27 Morel, F. (2000) A critical plane approach for life prediction of high cycle fatigue under multiaxial variable amplitude loading. Int. J. Fatigue 22, 101119. 28 Morel, F., Ranganathan, N., Petit, J. and Bignonnet, A. (1999) A mesoscopic approach for fatigue life prediction under multiaxial loading. In: Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture, (Edited by E. Macha, W. Bedkowski and T. Lagoda). ESIS Publication 25. pp. 87100.

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