Assessment of fatigue crack closure under in-phase and out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue loading using a temperature dependent strip yield model

•Plasticity-induced crack closure under thermomechanical fatigue loading is studied.•A temperature dependent strip yield model is developed.•Crack closure is influenced by the temperature dependent yield stress.•Crack closure is influenced by the phase angle.•Implications for fatigue lives are demonstrated.

In this paper fatigue crack closure under in-phase and out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) loading is studied using a temperature dependent strip yield model. It is shown that fatigue crack closure is strongly influenced by the phase relation between mechanical loading and temperature, if the temperature difference goes along with a temperature dependence of the yield stress. In order to demonstrate the effect of the temperature dependent yield stress, the influence of in-phase and out-of-phase TMF loading is studied for a polycrystalline nickel-base superalloy. By using a mechanism based lifetime model, implications for fatigue lives are demonstrated.