Determination of the critical plane by a weight-function method based on the maximum shear stress plane under multiaxial high-cycle loading

• The weighted shear plane is proposed to determine the critical plane.
• The weighted shear plane is determined by two weight functions.
• The proposed method can predict multiaxial high-cycle fatigue life.

A weight function method for the determination of the critical plane is here proposed for the case of specimens under combined bending and torsion in the high cycle fatigue regime. The critical plane is assumed to be coincident with the mean maximum absolute shear stress plane, which is calculated by averaging the instantaneous angle between the specimen axis and the normal to the maximum absolute shear stress plane. Two kinds of weight functions are proposed to determine such a plane. The proposed method to determine the critical plane is verified by employing fatigue data available in the literature in terms of experimental fracture planes, and the multiaxial fatigue life is also predicted by a reformulation of the criterion proposed by Carpinteri et al. to verify the determined critical plane. The results show that the proposed method can be applied to determine the critical plane under both constant and variable amplitude loading.