Fracture Mechanics Based Models of Structural and Contact Fatigue

Abstract

The approach presented in this section provides a unified model of contact and structural fatigue of materials [1,2]. The model development is based on a block approach, i.e. each block of the model describes a certain process related to fatigue and can be easily replaced by another block describing the same process differently. For example, accumulation of new more advanced knowledge of the process of fatigue crack growth may provide an opportunity to replaced the proposed here block dealing with fatigue crack growth with an improved one. Two examples of the application of this model to structural fatigue are provided. Initial statistical defect distributionIt is assumed that material defects are far from each other and practically do not interact. However, in some cases clusters of nonmetallic inclusions located very close to each other