A new damage mechanics based approach to fatigue life prediction and its engineering application

An approach based on continuum damage mechanics to fatigue life prediction for structures is proposed. A new fatigue damage evolution equation is developed, in which the parameters are obtained in a simple way with reference to the experimental results of fatigue tests on standard specimens. With the utilization of APDL language on the ANSYS platform, a finite element implementation is presented to perform coupling operation on damage evolution of material and stress redistribution. The fatigue lives of some notched specimens and a Pitch-change-link are predicted by using the above approach. The calculated results are validated with experimental data.