The structural integrity of multi-component structures is usually determined by the strength and durability of their unions. Adhesive bonding is often chosen over welding, riveting and bolting, due to the reduction of stress concentrations, reduced weight penalty and easy manufacturing, amongst other issues. In the past decades, the Finite Element Method (FEM) has been used for the simulation and strength prediction of bonded structures, by strength of materials or fracture mechanics-based criteria. Cohesive-zone models (CZMs) have already proved to be an effective tool in modelling damage growth, surpassing a few limitations of the aforementioned techniques. Despite this fact, they still suffer from the restriction of damage growth only at predefined growth paths. The eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is a recent improvement of the FEM, developed to allow the growth of discontinuities within bulk solids along an arbitrary path, by enriching degrees of freedom with special displacement functions, thus overcoming the main restriction of CZMs. These two techniques were tested to simulate adhesively bonded single-and double-lap joints. The comparative evaluation of the two methods showed their capabilities and/or limitations for this specific purpose.

This paper conducts a comparative evaluation on typical critical plane criteria, including Fatemi-Socie, Wang-Brown, modified Smith-Watson-Topper (MSWT) and proposed modified generalized strain energy (MGSE) criteria for multiaxial fatigue analysis of ductile/brittle materials. Experimental datasets of four materials under uniaxial tension, torsion and proportional/non-proportional multiaxial loadings are introduced for model comparison. This study results indicate that criteria with additional material constants yield robust life predictions for different materials. Moreover, the criteria with shear and uniaxial fatigue properties are respectively suitable for ductile and brittle materials, particularly the MGSE superior to others for ductile/brittle materials while MSWT only for brittle materials.

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Fatigue damage modelling and life prediction of engineering components under variable amplitude loadings are critical for ensuring their operational reliability and structural integrity. In this paper, five typical nonlinear fatigue damage accumulation models are evaluated and compared by considering the influence of load sequence and interaction on fatigue life of P355NL1 steels. Moreover, a new nonlinear fatigue damage accumulation model is proposed to account for these two effects. Experimental datasets of pressure vessel steel P355NL1 and four other materials under two‐block loadings are used for model comparative study. Results indicate that the proposed model yields more accurate fatigue life predictions for the five materials than the other models.

Notch features including holes, fillets, shoulders, and grooves commonly exist in engineering components. When subjected to external loads, these geometrical discontinuities generally act as stress raisers and thus present significant influences on the component strength and life, which are more remarkable under complex loading paths. Accordingly, numerous theories and approaches have been developed to address notch effects in metal fatigue as well as damage modelling and life predictions, which aim to provide theoretical support for structural optimal design and integrity evaluation. However, most of them are self‐styled or focus on specific objects, which limits their engineering applicability. This review recalls recent developments and achievements in notch fatigue modelling and analysis of metals. In particular, four commonly used methods for fatigue evaluation of metallic notched components/structures are summarized and elaborated, namely, nominal stress approaches, local stress‐strain approaches, and critical distance theories and weighting control parameters‐based approaches, which intend to provide a reference for further research on notch fatigue analysis and promote the integration and/or development among different approaches for practice.

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