Analysis of fretting fatigue life of dovetail assemblies based on fracture mechanics method

High gradient stress near the edge of contact zone is a dominant factor for fretting fatigue life, and which can be analogical to the singular stress at the crack tip. Therefore, by introducing the characteristic of contact stresses of dovetail assemblies, an approach based on fracture mechanics is adopted to judge the crack growth path and further predict the life. Then the equivalent relationship between dovetail assemblies and fretting specimen is established to study the fretting behavior. The analysis process is performed by a numerical program based on boundary element method (BEM). Some useful conclusions can be applied to the structural design and the life evaluation of dovetail assemblies.

► We use an approach based on fracture mechanics to study the fretting fatigue.
► We build the equivalent relationship between dovetail and fretting specimen.
► We obtain two important parameters, propagation life and growth path.