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International audienceThe concept of ratchetting strain as a crack driving force in controlling crack growth has previously been explored at Portsmouth using numerical approaches for nickel-based superalloys. In this paper, we report the first quantitative experimental evidence of near-tip strain ratchetting with cycles, as captured in situ by digital image correlation (DIC) technique on a compact tension specimen of stainless steel 316L, using both Stereo and SEM systems. The evolution of the near-tip strains with loading cycles was monitored whilst the crack tip was kept stationary. The strains normal to the crack plane were examined over selected distances from 6 to 57 lm to the crack tip for a number of cycles. The results show that strain ratchetting occurs with loading cycles, and is particularly evident close to the crack tip and under higher loads. 3D finite element models have also been developed to simulate the experiments and the results from the simulation are compared with those from the DIC measurements. This is the first time that near-tip strain ratchetting has been captured in situ at the peak loads during cyclic loading

Crystal plasticity has been applied to model the cyclic constitutive behaviour of a polycrystalline nickel-based superalloy at elevated temperature using finite element analyses.A representative volume element, consisting of randomly oriented grains, was considered for the finite element analyses under periodic boundary constraints. Strain-controlled cyclic test data at 650°C were used to determine the model parameters from a fitting process, where three loading rates were considered. Model simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results for stress-strain loops, cyclic hardening behaviour and stress relaxation behaviour. Stress and strain distributions within the representative volume element are of heterogeneous nature due to the orientation mismatch between neighboring grains. Stress concentrations tend to occur within "hard" grains while strain concentrations tend to locate within "soft" grains, depending on the orientation of grains with respect to the loading direction. The model was further applied to study the near-tip deformation of a transgranular crack in a compact tension specimen using a submodelling technique. Grain microstructure is shown to have an influence on the von Mises stress distribution near the crack tip, and the gain texture heterogeneity disturbs the well-known butterfly shape obtained from the viscoplasticity analysis at continuum level. The stress-strain response near the crack tip, as well as the accumulated shear deformation along slip system, is influenced by the orientation of the grain at the crack tip, which might dictate the subsequent crack growth through grains.Individual slip systems near the crack tip tend to have different amounts of accumulated shear deformation, which was utilised as a criterion to predict the crack growth path.

Advanced microscopy characterisation and numerical modelling have been carried out to investigate oxygen diffusion and crack growth in a nickel-based superalloy under fatigue-oxidation conditions. Penetration of oxygen into the material and the associated internal oxidation, which leads to material embrittlement and failure, have been found from Focused Ion Beam (FIB) examinations. Applied fatigue loading tends to enhance the extent of internal oxidation for temperatures at 750°C and above. Using a submodelling technique, finite element analyses of oxygen penetration at grain level have been carried out to quantify the fatigue-oxidation damage and calibrate the diffusion parameters based on the measurements of maximum depth of internal oxidation. The grain microstructure was considered explicitly in the finite element model, where the grain boundary was taken as the primary path for oxygen diffusion. A sequentially coupled mechanical-diffusion analysis was adopted to account for the effects of deformation on diffusion during fatigue loading, for which the material constitutive behaviour was described by a crystal plasticity model at grain level. Prediction of oxidation-assisted crack growth has also been carried out at elevated temperature from the finite 2 element analyses of oxygen diffusion near a fatigue crack tip. A failure curve for crack growth has been constructed based on the consideration of both oxygen concentration and accumulated inelastic strain near the crack tip. The predictions from the fatigue-oxidation failure curve compared well with the experimental results for triangular and dwell loading waveforms, with significant improvement achieved over those predicted from the viscoplastic model alone.

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a b s t r a c tForeign object damage (FOD) to the leading edge of aerofoils has been identified as one of the main life-limiting factors for aeroengine compressor blades. Laser-shock peening (LSP) has been proposed as a means of increasing the material's resistance to such impact damage. In this work, a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model has been developed to simulate the residual stresses due to head on (0°) and 45°impacts by a cuboidal projectile on aerofoil specimens treated with LSP. The Johnson-Cook (JC) material model was employed to describe the strain rate-dependent material behaviour; whilst the JohnsonCook dynamic failure model was considered in 45°FOD simulation, where significant loss of material occurred. The strain rate sensitivity of the model at selected high strain rates was assessed against the data from the literature. The numerical results from the simulation of head-on impact were compared with the measurements by depth-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction on the mid-plane. The models were then used to predict the 3D residual stress distributions due to 0°and 45°FOD impacts, and the results were compared with the strain maps obtained from high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Good to excellent correlations between the simulations and the measurements have been found.

Characterisation of a fatigue crack tip in the presence of significant plasticity has been challenging due to the lack of suitable tools and lack of knowledge of material constitutive information under cyclic loading. In this paper, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and integrated finite element (FE) analyses have been used to characterise the crack-tip field beyond the small-scale yielding (SSY) regime in a stainless steel 316L of a compact-tension (CT) specimen under mode I loading conditions. The non-linear characteristics of the near-tip deformation field were verified by the poor fit to the William's regression and the overestimation of the stress intensity factor K. The extent of the crack tip plasticity was estimated using a detailed constitutive material model and compared with the estimated by Irwin. The displacement fields local to a stationary fatigue crack were mapped using DIC, and inputted into the FE model as boundary conditions so that an integrated FE analysis was carried out. Fatigue pre-cracking was simulated in the FE analysis prior to the full-field analysis of the fatigue crack tip, including stress/strain distributions ahead of the crack tip and the crack opening displacement (COD) under selected loading conditions. Although a distinct "knee" was captured from the compliance curves in both the DIC measurements and the FE analyses, consistent with the existing knowledge on the phenomenon of crack closure, it does not appear to correlate with the crack driving force measured by the J-integral.