Finite element analysis of fretting crack propagation

Henry Proudhon (1) , Stéphanie Basseville (2)

1 CDM - Centre des Matériaux
2 LISV - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes de Versailles

In this work, the finite elements method (FEM) is used to analyse the growth of fretting cracks. FEM can be favourably used to extract the stress intensity factors in mixed mode, a typical situation for cracks growing in the vicinity of a fretting contact. The present study is limited to straight cracks which is a simple system chosen to develop and validate the FEM analysis. The FEM model is tested and validated against popular weight functions for straight cracks perpendicular to the surface. The model is then used to study fretting crack growth and understand the effect of key parameters such as the crack angle and the friction between crack faces. Predictions achieved by this analysis match the essential features of former experimental fretting results, in particular the average crack arrest length can be predicted accurately.

Mots clés: Fretting crack; Stress intensity factor; Finite elements method; Mixed mode crack growth

Domaines: Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Henry Proudhon, Stéphanie Basseville. Finite element analysis of fretting crack propagation. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 2011, 78 (4), pp.685-694. ⟨10.1016/j.engfracmech.2010.11.016⟩. ⟨hal-00567222⟩