Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382

0261-3069/04/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0261-3069(03)00157-2
A simple approach for multiaxial fatigue damage prediction based on
FEM post-processing
U. Kocabicak*, M. Firat
University of Sakarya, Faculty of Engineering, Esentepe Kampusu, Adapazari, Turkey
Received 29 January 2003; accepted 14 July 2003
Abstract
A simple methodology to predict crack initiation life is described in the fatigue damage assessment of metallic structures
typically used in ground vehicle industry. A phenomenological constitutive model is integrated with a notch stressstrain analysis
method and local loads under general multiaxial fatigue loads are modeled with linear elastic FE analyses. The computed stress
strain response is used to predict the fatigue crack initiation life using effective strain range parameters and two critical plane
parameters. The proposed methodology is employed in the fatigue test cycle prediction of the biaxial cornering tests of light-alloy
wheels. Numerical simulations indicate that estimates using critical plane models provide better correlations between the cornering
test cycles and predicted cycles. Also, comparisons in terms test failure locations and estimated crack initiation sites are given.
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Crack initiation; Fatigue life prediction; Local strain approach; Critical plane approach; FE method; Notch analysis
1. Introduction
In ground vehicle industry, fatigue damage predictions
early in the design phase play a major role in design
development and refinement studies. The service loads
in a vehicle may be characterized by field measurements
and load data editing studies
w
1,2
x
, and with the availa-
bility of digitally controlled servo-hydraulic testing sys-
tems more realistic simulations are now available at a
feasible price. However, understanding of fatigue failure
under multi-axial loading becomes more important at
component level, since complex cyclic deformations are
realized under constant amplitude or variable amplitude
block type of loading. While engineering analyses based
on FE method provide detailed information on the
deformation characteristics and stressstrain response
under general multiaxial loads, the use of FE method
for the sake of damage prediction may not be practical
because computational efforts for relatively long histo-
ries become extremely demanding even under simple
elastic deformations.
A computational approach for fatigue life prediction
analysis may follow different paths depending on the
*Corresponding author. Tel.yfax: q90-264-346-03-67.
E-mail address: umit@sakarya.edu.tr (U. Kocabicak).
assumptions and the available data, however, local strain
approach is a promising scheme compared to fracture
mechanics based methods since designer in ground
vehicle industry mostly interested in initiation life with
as much as little fatigue damage data required for design
iteration studies. Furthermore, FE analyses are conduct-
ed routinely at the component level and forms a suitable
database that can be employed in both prediction of
initiation life and fatigue critical locations. Moreover,
compared to the history analyses with FE method,
stressstrain analysis coupled with a notch correction
algorithm may serve as a feasible alternative solution
for relatively long loading histories. Therefore, a notch
stressstrain approximation method using a set of linear
elastic stresses calculated with FE method for the whole
geometry can be integrated with a proper cyclic plastic-
ity model, and computed material response can be input
in to damage assessment method using a multiaxial
damage parameter to determine fatigue damage for
individual loading cycles. Additionally, assuming valid-
ity of the local concepts, the calculated multiaxial fatigue
damage value is transformed into an equivalent uniaxial
fatigue damage process usually characterized by a
strainlife curve determined with smooth specimens.
Finally, a summation rule is employed to determine the
total damage and to estimate the fatigue life.
74 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
In this article, a practical engineering approach is
presented for fatigue damage analysis of metallic com-
ponents under general proportional and non-proportional
loadings and illustrated through an industrial application.
The fatigue test cycles of an aluminum alloy wheel in
biaxial wheel-cornering tests are predicted using effec-
tive strain and critical plane parameters. A compilation
of results in terms of the predicted test cycles and
estimated fatigue critical locations indicate that use of
critical plane models provide better correlations for the
present application.
2. Multiaxial fatigue damage prediction
The proposed approach is composed of three main
computational modules. Firstly, a multiaxial stress
strain analysis model coupled with a notch correction
algorithm is used to predict the material response.
Secondly, the fatigue damage per cycle is determined
with the computed stressstrain histories via a multiaxial
damage parameter using the strainlife curve as the
baseline data. Finally, a damage accumulation rule is
applied to assess the total fatigue damage and predict
the exhausted life. While real material behavior under
general multiaxial loads is time-dependent, history-
dependent and temperature-dependent; various plasticity
models employing several simplifications are introduced
to simulate the material stressstrain response with
varying success
w
36
x
. However, assuming that the
material is uniform and homogenous at the macroscopic
scale, and initially isotropic at room temperature, the
history of accumulated plastic strain is a dominant
parameter governing the stressstrain response. Addi-
tionally, the existence of an initial yield stress is assumed
to distinguish the limit of recoverable and irrecoverable
deformations. A survey in the literature shows that most
of the cyclic plasticity models that have been employed
in the fatigue damage assessment studies are multi-
surface type of algorithms following Mrozs kinematic
rules or its variants
w
715
x
. While an accurate simulation
of real material response requires an involved investi-
gation of different material response categories observed
under proportional and non-proportional multiaxial tests
w
1618
x
, an efficient constitutive model useful for mul-
tiaxial damage assessment should be able to follow the
experimental trends such as mean-stress relaxation and
cyclic-strain accumulation mostly observed under defor-
mation and load controlled loading processes, respec-
tively. Recent studies showed that the response predicted
with multiple-surface models might not reflect experi-
ment trends properly under unbalanced loading paths
w
1924
x
. However, cyclic plasticity algorithms based on
non-linear kinematic hardening rule form a promising
alternative in the modeling of stressstrain response
under general multiaxial unbalanced loading paths
w
22
26
x
. Consequently, due to the better correlations with
experimental trends under general unbalanced loading
paths, the cyclic plasticity model proposed by Chaboche
and his coworkers
w
2731
x
is integrated with the pseudo
stress approach of Koettgen and his coworkers
w
3234
x
to account the geometry constraint effects, and is
employed in the stressstrain analysis. The local loads
are described with elastic stresses as input to the stress-
controlled notch correction method, and the computation
of local loads is conducted using FE method. Next, the
real stresses are computed with the constitutive model
using calculated notch strains.
In various studies, it has been shown that the local
stressstrain state controls the fatigue strength, and the
local strain approach is a practical engineering approach
in durability assessment of structural components. In
literature, a number of multiaxial fatigue failure criterion
based on effective strain or stress measures have been
proposed and even implemented in engineering design
codes for non-proportional loadings,
w
35,36
x
. In addition,
energy-based approaches are also proposed
w
8,10
x
, and
good correlations are reported for balanced loading
paths. Besides physical observations, in which, fatigue
cracks initiate and grow on certain material planes have
lead to a number of critical plane damage models
w
13,3742
x
. Smith et al.
w
43
x
introduced a stressstrain
function to predict fatigue damage for materials whose
damage development was tensile (normal) strain domi-
nated, and critical plane is defined as the material plane
on which the normal strain amplitude function is maxi-
mized, and damage accumulation is postulated to occur
on this plane under multiaxial loading conditions.
Depending on stressstrain amplitudes, fatigue cracks
may also initiate in the plane of maximum shear strain
amplitude, which is the plane of maximum damage
w
44
x
.
In this models, the fatigue parameters governing fatigue
damage are the maximum shear strain and the strain
normal to the plane of maximum shear strain, and
critical plane is the material plane on which damage
function is maximized. Fatemi and Socie
w
40
x
suggested
another damage parameter for shear dominant failure
materials that includes the effect of mean stress and
non-proportional hardening. The critical plane for this
damage model is identified as the plane experiencing
the maximum shearstrain amplitude and the fatigue
life are estimated based on the accumulated damage on
this plane. In the recent years, several other damage
models using critical plane concept are proposed, indi-
cating an active research topic of phenomenological
fatigue assessment
w
12,13,15,4547
x
.
In the fatigue life predictions considered in this study,
ASME effective strain parameters, SmithWatsonTop-
per and FatemiSocie critical parameters are employed
due to the better correlations indicated in the literature
as well as familiarity within the fatigue engineering
community. Furthermore, the validity of Palmgren
Miner damage accumulation is assumed and linear
75 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
damage accumulation rule are employed in the fatigue
life predictions in this article.
2.1. Modeling local loads
The fatigue loads are modeled as pseudo stresses,
which are nothing but fictitious quantity computed with
the theory of elasticity for the same boundary value
problem
w
32
x
. Assuming small deformations, moreover,
the anisotropy of yield surface is modeled with a matrix
of scaling constants. Considering a set of M different
external loads, L, acting on a given component, the
pseudo-stress tensor s is the superposition of a set of
e
ij
M stress tensors equal to the elastic stress tensor calcu-
lated for each external load acting on the component
separately
M
e
s s C L (1) .m ij ij m
8
ms1
where are scaling coefficients that are equal to C .m ij
the elastic-stress tensor computed with FE analyses for
each single external load L with unit magnitude. To
m
relate the local loads to the elasticplastic response at a
structural point, a pseudo stressnotch strain, generated
with Neubers rule
w
48
x
is employed. The details of the
approach may be found in respective works in literature
w
13,3234,4951
x
.
2.2. Multiaxial stressstrain analysis
A brief description of the cyclic plasticity model
employed in the stressstrain analyses is presented
below, and the detailed mathematical formulation can
be found in the articles of Chaboche and his coworkers
w
2731
x
. Assuming small deformations and additive
decomposition of total strain, elastic deformations follow
Hookes law until the yield condition is satisfied. The
yield function is expressed as:
fsJ syX)yk (2)
2
where J is the second invariant of deviatoric relative
2
stress, and k is the yield stress in simple shear. X
represents the total backstress composed of m parts. A
Masing behavior is considered, consequently the shape
and the orientation of yield surface in stress space are
do not change, and a rigid yield surface is considered.
The evaluation equation including fading memory effect
of strain path is expressed as,
2
i i p i i ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
dX s C d yg X dp (3)
3
where represents the increment of ith backstress
i ( )
dX
part. C and g are material parameters, and dp is the
increment of accumulative plastic strain. The normality
hypothesis and the consistency conditions leads to the
expression of hardening modulus h as the sum of
hardening modulus from each backstress parts. Assum-
ing von Mises Criterion
m
i ( )
hs h (4)
8
is1
and
3 s9yX9
i i i i ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
h sC y g X : . (5)
2 k
Using the hypothesis of normal dissipativity, the
expression of increment of plastic strain tensor is
derived,
F 1 f f
p
d s :dps N :dsM (6a)
s h s s
9 9
2 syX
p
d s dp (6b)
3 J (syX)
2
where F is the flow potential. The material parameters
C and g are computed using the cyclic stressstrain
i i ( ) ( )
curve as the basic input. Following the method proposed
by Jiang
w
52
x
, the computation of material parameters
in the backstress evaluation may be outlined in the
following way; first m points are selected from the
uniaxial cyclic stressstrain curve determined with
cyclic, reversed tensioncompression tests of smooth
specimens. The material parameters C and g are
i i ( ) ( )
calculated via the following two equations
2 1
i ( )
g s (is1,2,...,m) (7)
p y
3
a i ( )

i ( )
C sH yH is1,2,...,m (8) .
i iq1 ( ) ( )
where H is the slope between points (iy1) and (i) at
i ( )
the stressstrain curve, and the following conditions are
taken
y s ss s 3k; s0; H s0. (9)
a 0 y a 0 Mq1 ( ) ( ) ( )
The incremental stressstrain relations are discretized
in time domain using implicit backward Euler method
w
53
x
, and following the solution method proposed by
Chaboche and Cailletaud
w
54
x
, a non-linear scalar func-
tion proposed by Hartmann and Haupt
w
55
x
is used to
describe the convergence condition for increment of
accumulated plastic strain for a given time step. The
76 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
Fig. 1. Schematics showing the components of strain vector, , on a material plane.
non-linear scalar equation is solved iteratively by a
successive substitution and updating the total backstress
and yield function.
2.3. Fatigue damage analysis
Two groups of fatigue damage parameters are used in
the multiaxial fatigue assessment. First, strain amplitudes
based on Salt and Seqa effective range measures are
employed as multiaxial damage parameters, following
the procedure is given in design codes
w
35,36
x
. Assum-
ing that the strain history is given, the steps in the
calculation of Salt and Seqa parameter may be outlined
as follows:
1. A reference history point t* in a given cycle is
chosen, a fictitious relative total strain h with respect
ij
to this history points is defined, and calculated as,
i *
t t
h s y (10) . .
ij ij ij
2. The principal strains k , k and k of fictitious relative
1 2 3
total strain h are determined, and the principal strain
ij
differences for the given cycle are computed.
k s k yk (11a) .
12 1 2
k s k yk (11b) .
23 2 3
k s k yk (11c) .
13 1 3
The steps 1 and 2 are repeated by switching t* point
for all history points in the cycle, and largest principal
strain difference is chosen. The Salt and Seqa parameters
are defined in the following equations, respectively
w z
1 1 1
SALT smax k , k , k (12) x |
12 23 23
) ) ) ) ) )
2 2 2
y ~
1
1
w z 2 2 2
x |
2 SEQA s k q k q k . (13) . . .
12 23 13 y ~
y2 1qq .
The fatigue cycles corresponding to the computed
strain amplitude is calculated by solving strainlife
equation iteratively, and the increment of fatigue damage
associated with the cycle is calculated to be,
1
DD s . (14)
SALT

N
f
In the second group, the SmithWatsonTopper and
FatemiSocie parameters using the critical plane con-
cept are employed. The critical planes according to these
damage parameters are defined as the material planes
on which the amplitude of normal strain, , and shear 9
xx
strain becomes maximum, respectively (Fig. 1). Consid-
ering the strainlife curve from cyclic reversed tension
compression and torsion tests of smooth specimens as
the baseline data, the SmithWatsonTopper and Fate-
77 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
miSocie parameter-life equations are given as;
2
(s9)
f 2b bqc
s s 2N qs99 2N (15) . .
a max f f f f
E
B E
(s ) t9
a max f
b c
C F g 1qk s 2N qg9 2N . (16) . .
a f f f
D G s 2G
y
The computation of maximum damage D and the
max
determination of the critical plane angles, u and
critical
f , in fatigue damage assessment with Smith
critical
WatsonTopper parameter for a given stressstrain his-
tory may be outlined in the following basic steps:
1. The material planes that are candidate for the maxi-
mum damage critical plane is determined by comput-
ing the transformation matrices for a given set of u
and f angles.
2. The stress and strain tensors at each history point is
transformed into the ith material plane, described by
angles u and f.
i i
3. A history point t* is chosen in a jth cycle, and a
relative normal strain for all remaining history D9
xx
points in the current cycle is computed as,
i *
t t
D9 s 9 y 9 (17) . .
xx xx xx
and the maximum value of is determined
j
(D9 )
xx max
for the jth cycle by sweeping all other history points
for t*. Once is determined, the maximum
j
(D9 )
xx max
amplitude of normal strain in the jth cycle
j
(D9 )
xx max
for the ith material plane is calculated as,
j
(D9 )
xx max
i j
(9 ) s (18)
xx a
2
and, multiplied with the corresponding value of ten-
sile normal stress to compute the SWT- (s9 )
xx max
parameter for the cycle.
4. The increment of damage associated with the ith
material plane for the jth cycle is calculated as,
1
i j
DDs (19)
N
f
where N is determined by solving the parameter-life
f
equation given in Eq. (18) iteratively.
5. The total damage for the ith material plane D is
i
determined by calculating the increment of damage
for all cycles in the stress history and by repeating
the steps 34.
Total damage for all the material planes are calculated
by repeating the steps 25, and the maximum damage
D computed with a linear accumulation rule is select-
max
ed as the largest total damage among all material planes
and the corresponding normal vector defined by angles
u and f , is the critical plane at the material
critical critical
point for the given strain history.
The computation of the critical plane angles, u
critical
and f , and maximum damage D according to
critical max
FatemiSocie parameter is performed following a sim-
ilar procedure as described below:
1. The material planes that are candidate for the maxi-
mum damage critical plane is determined by comput-
ing the transformation matrices for a given set of u
and f angles.
2. The stress and strain tensors at each history point are
transformed into the ith material plane, described by
angles u and f.
i i
3. A history point t* is chosen in a jth cycle, and a
magnitude of relative shear strain for all
i j
(Dg)
remaining history points in the current cycle is com-
puted with,
* 2 * 2
y Dgs w(9 )y(9 ) x qw(9 )y(9 ) x (20)
xy xy xz xz
and the maximum value of is determined for the Dg
jth cycle by sweeping all other history points for t*.
Once is determined, the amplitude of shear
i j
Dg
max
strain in the jth cycle for the ith material plane is
calculated as,
i j
)Dg
max
i j
(g ) s . (21)
a
2
In order to compute the tensile normal stress on the
ith material plane for the jth cycle, , relative
i j
(s )
max
normal stress is computed using the same
i j
(Ds9 )
xx
time points at which the amplitude of shear strain
is calculated. Then mean normal (tensile) stress
i j
(g )
a
for ith material plane at jth cycle, , is calculated
i j
(s )
n
with,
j
(Ds9 )
xx
i j
(s ) s (22)
n
2
4. The increment of damage associated with the ith
material plane for the jth cycle is calculated as,
1
i j
DDs (23)
N
f
where N is determined by solving the parameter-life
f
equation given in Eq. (19) iteratively.
5. The total damage for the ith material plane D is
i
determined by calculating the increment of damage
for all cycles in the stress history, by repeating the
steps 34.
Total damage for all material planes are calculated by
repeating the steps 25, and the maximum damage
78 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
Table 1
The cornering tests loads and corresponding mean fatigue test cycles
TEST Wheel Vertical force Lateral force Number of test
ID load (kg) F (N)
V
F (N)
L
cycles (Nf)
1 500 7550 5660 2.27Eq06
2 600 9060 6800 1.03Eq06
3 650 9810 7350 8.55Eq05
4 700 10 570 7920 5.26Eq05
is selected as the largest total damage among all D
max
the material planes and the corresponding normal vector
defined by angles u and f , is the critical plane
critical critical
at the material point for the given stressstrain history.
3. Fatigue analyses of biaxial wheel cornering fatigue
test
The wheels are one of the most critical component in
ground vehicle industry, and the operational strength of
aluminum alloy wheels are becoming more important
when compared to the disk type of wheel designs, due
to increasing production share in recent decay. The
wheel manufacturers generally use constant amplitude
tests to validate the operational strength and cornering
tests of wheel-hub assemblies are applied to confirm the
component durability conducted with increased wheel
vertical and lateral loads. While wheel rotates with a
constant rotational speed in the test machine, the service
loading is simulated by applying constant vertical and
lateral forces in a static manner
w
56
x
. In general, the
service life of a typical wheel is over 10 million cycles,
and to eliminate the cost due to increased testing periods
cornering test loads are scaled with factors given in
engineering standards
w
57
x
. The test bending moment
M is calculated following a simple procedure, and may
b
be expressed as,
M sF dqF R (24)
b V L
and,
F smF (25)
L R
where F and F are the vertical and lateral wheel
V L
loads, respectively. m is the coefficient of friction
between the ground and tire, and R and d are the radius
of the statically loaded tire mounted on the wheel and
wheel center offset, respectively. The test machines
operate mostly under load control, and the test case
terminates when the operational load drops by 58%.
There are four set of cornering loads applied for each
load level in total 16 biaxial fatigue tests, and the mean
of corresponding number test cycles are given on Table
1.
3.1. Computational modeling of biaxial cornering
fatigue tests
It is known that test failure locations in the cornering
tests may change from one design to another as well as
with increasing test loads for the same design. Prediction
of the number of cornering test cycles is important, and
a fatigue damage analyses indicating test failure loca-
tions and estimating number of test cycles is a practical
need in design development iterations, especially in the
case of new designs. Regarding biaxial cornering fatigue
tests, the stresses on the wheel may be classified as
stresses developed due to the mechanical loads and as
residual stresses induced by the manufacturing and heat
treatment operations. While heat treatment processes
may influence material properties and fatigue strength
depending on the degree of porosity induced during the
casting process, their control on the fatigue strength due
to lack of direct quantitative measure is relatively diffi-
cult to model in the fatigue damage analysis. However,
the mechanical stresses developed on the wheel during
cornering tests may be grouped as pre-stresses mainly
on the hub region due to bolt pre-tension and as the
dynamic stresses due to the centrifugal forces and
cornering forces. The assembly stresses are due to
mounting to the test machine hub via four bolts, with a
35 Nm assembly moment, and to the clamp plate at six
locations. At the start of each test, lateral and vertical
loads on the wheel are set to the test levels and kept
static throughout the test, then the rotation of the wheel
starts and the rotational speed reaches a constant value
of 600 rev.ymin approximately in 100200 cycles.
Centrifugal force acting on the wheel is modeled as a
distributed body force, with a constant angular speed of
value 10 Hz, acting statically. Furthermore, the total
stress at any point of the wheel is assumed to be the
sum of the stress due to the bolt pre-tension, the stress
due to centrifugal force and the stresses due to the
vertical and lateral cornering forces. The linear elastic
FE analyses are employed to calculate the scaling
constants of pseudo-stress tensor history at each material
point on the wheel, and pseudo stress tensor history
s (t) at a material point is described as,
e
ij
0 0 e
s (t) s C q C . . bolt-pretension centrifugal ij ij ij
out-of-phase
q C F q C F f(t) . . lateral vertical ij L ij v
in-phase
q C F g(t) (26) .vertical ij v
where is a set of six scaling constants
0
C .bolt-pretension ij
corresponding to a constant bolt pretension,
is a set of six scaling constants correspond-
0
C .centrifugal ij
ing to a constant centrifugal force due to the wheel
rotation, and (C ) is a set of six scaling constants
ij lateral
corresponding to a unit lateral force on the wheel during
biaxial cornering test. The scaling constant sets
and are intended to account
out-of-phase in-of-phase
C C . . vertical vertical ij ij
79 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
Fig. 2. (a) Wheel FE mesh, (b) Schematics showing boundary
conditions.
Table 2
The material properties and fatigue life parameters of aluminum alloy
wheel
Youngs modulus (GPa) 74
Cyclic strength coefficient (MPa) 430
Poissons constant 0.31
Cyclic yield stress (MPa) 40
Fatigue strength coefficient (MPa) 205
Fatigue strength exponent y0.1182
Fatigue ductility coefficient 0.068
Fatigue ductility exponent y0.409
Fig. 3. Test cycles predicted with effective parameters.
the vertical wheel force of unit magnitude during one
revolution of wheel, and the time functions f(t) and
g(t) are simple harmonic functions with a phase differ-
ence of 908. The scaling constant set for
out-of-phase
C .vertical ij
the whole wheel is computed with a linear elastic FE
analysis in which only F is acting on the wheel. The
1
scaling constant set is computed similarly
in-phase
C .vertical ij
while only F is active. In both the cases, unit magni-
2
tudes are considered. Using the wheel rotation angle w
as a reference, the functions f(t) and g(t) may be
expressed as,
f(t)scos(w) (27)
g(t)ssin(w) (28)
A converged finite element mesh, composed of
114 564 linear tetrahedral elements, for the wheelhub
assembly is generated (Fig. 2). Scaling constant sets
, are the elastic stress com-
0 0
C C . . bolt-pretension centrifugal ij ij
ponents on the wheel corresponding to separate FE
analyses considering the bolt pretension of 35 Nm and
constant angular speed of 10 Hz, respectively. The
maximum effective values for each case are computed
to be 42 MPa and 1.2 MPa, respectively. The maximum
elastic stress is observed in both cases on the transition
section from hub to the hub-to-rim connection arms due
to the notch constraint effects. Regarding the other set
of coefficients in pseudo stress tensor computations for
each point, three-additional linear elastic analyses are
done. The aluminum alloy used in the production of
wheel is designated as G-AlSi11Mg whose mechanical
properties together with strainlife parameters are given
in Table 2.
3.2. Test cycle predictions
The pseudo stress-notch strain curve employed for
the stressstrain analysis of complete wheel is calculated
for each material point, equivalent in this content to a
node, based on the Neubers rule as a uniaxial approx-
imation formula. In fatigue test cycle predictions, the
strain life curve determined from the strain-controlled
fatigue tests of uniaxial smooth specimen described
using CoffinManson strain-life equation is employed.
The computational fatigue analyses of wheel biaxial
cornering fatigue tests are conducted for all material
points on the surface of wheel are analyzed for a single
test cycle. The fatigue damage distribution on the surface
of the wheel is predicted, and the fatigue cycles at a
material point, is estimated by using multiaxial damage
parameters described in pervious sections. First, the
stressstrain history of all wheel surface nodes is ana-
lyzed for a single cycle following a pre-loading step
including the bolt pre-tension and centrifugal forces.
Next, assuming a cyclically stable behavior, the test
cycles are calculated using the multiaxial damage assess-
ment parameters. A compilation of predicted lives with
effective strain and critical plane damage parameters are
presented in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively.
The correlations with ASME effective strain parame-
ters are non-conservative for low wheel loads and
become conservative up to factor 10 at high load levels.
Compared to Seqa parameter Salt strain parameter per-
forms better in the whole range, and provides estimates
with fewer shifts for higher cycles. The fatigue damage
distributions with effective strain parameters are same
80 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
Fig. 4. Test cycles predicted with critical plane parameters.
Fig. 5. The fatigue critical locations predicted with critical plane Fate-
miSocie damage parameter.
Fig. 6. (a) Fatigue crack on wheel arm, (b) the normal vector of
critical plane according to FatemiSocie damage parameter.
for all tests regardless the load level, and the most
critical locations are found to be on wheel hub-to-arm
transition regions. However, fatigue test cycles predicted
with critical plane based parameters using stressstrain
functions lead significantly better in the whole life range
(Fig. 4). FatemiSocie parameter predicts all tests
within a band of factor 5, and all predicted lives are
conservative except Test 3, while SmithWatsonTop-
per parameter shown a similar trend, nonetheless the
predicted lives becomes non-conservative excluding Test
4. Regarding the test failure sites identified on the
surface of the wheel with dye penetrant inspections, the
backside of hub-to-rim connection arm close to the hub
side is observed for all tests. For tests with 650 kg
wheel loads, either one or two arms are determined that
have fatigue cracks approximately on the same side
close to hub notch radius, while the number of failed
arms increases to three for all tests under 700 kg load
(Fig. 5). A comparison of estimated fatigue critical
locations and the test failure side shows that none of
the predictions have indicated the wheel arm backside
form as the most critical point, and FatemiSocie
parameter indicated this point, shown on the FE mesh,
with the third highest damage, and located approximate-
ly on the path of final fatigue crack observed in tests.
Similarly, the SWT parameter indicated the same point
with fifth highest damage. Furthermore, only Fatemi
Socie parameter tracks the test trends accurately in the
given load range. Finally, it is worth to note that a
reasonable correlation is obtained with the critical plane
and the fatigue crack propagation direction as indicated
in Fig. 6.
4. Concluding remarks
A fatigue damage prediction methodology is proposed
applicable to constant amplitude out-of-phase loading of
structural components made of typical engineering met-
als. The proposed fatigue life prediction methodology
was based on the local strain-life approach, and available
models were used for multiaxial cyclic plasticity, notch
analysis and multiaxial damage estimation. A cyclic
plasticity model based on non-linear kinematic harden-
ing rule is integrated with an approximation method for
notch stressstrain analysis, and the four multiaxial
damage parameters are employed for fatigue damage
assessment analyses along with linear accumulation rule.
Following the short description of computational mod-
els, the fatigue damage simulation of an industrial
application is conducted. Fatigue cycles and crack ini-
tiation locations of an aluminum alloy wheel in biaxial
cornering tests are estimated. Fatigue critical locations
estimated considering all surface points are conducted
using the linear elastic FE stress analyses considering
isolated load cases, and the wheel hubarms connection
sections are identified as the fatigue critical locations. It
is found that correlations with critical plane parameters
are reasonably better when compared with effective
parameters. Furthermore, fatigue test cycles predicted
using FatemiSocie damage parameter based on critical
plane concepts is considerably close to test cycles for
all the wheel loads, and falls into a band within a factor
of 35. Lastly, it is worth to note that the critical plane
parameters involving mean stress terms perform equally
similar predictions under non-proportional unbalanced
81 U. Kocabicak, M. Firat / Materials and Design 25 (2004) 7382
loading case considered here, and FatemiSocie and
SmithWatsonTopper models based on critical plane
concept constitute a pair of damage parameters appli-
cable in both cases within the margin of acceptable
accuracy from engineering point of view in the design
of wheels with conformance to anti-fatigue requirements
in biaxial cornering tests.
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