Fretting fatigue crack propagation lifetime prediction in cylindrical contact using an extended MTS criterion for non-proportional loading

Fretting fatigue is a phenomenon that may lead to premature failure of many common mechanical components. Under fretting conditions, the crack growth phase is considerably different from plain fatigue, because of the effect of the contact stresses distributions on the crack and vice-versa. Being able to accurately model those stresses and the propagation phase, finite element method has become an interesting tool to predict lives of components under fretting conditions. For the modelling of propagation stage, it is known that classical linear elastic fracture mechanics orientation criteria do not predict correct crack paths under fretting conditions. In the present paper, an extension of the maximum tangential stress (MTS) orientation criterion taking into account the effects of non-proportional loading and crack face interactions is considered with the goal of improving the predictions of crack path and propagation lives for a cylindrical pad configuration. It is found that the extended MTS criterion provides better crack path prediction than the classical MTS criterion in case of cylindrical fretting fatigue problem.