Life prediction by ferrite–pearlite microstructural simulation of short fatigue cracks at high temperature

•The short crack’s fatigue behavior was simulated based on Monte Carlo method.•The material’s microstructure was modeled by correctional Voronoi-polygons.•Basal energy was introduced to present the microstructure’s inherent energy to cracking.•The energy increment was introduced to simulate the driving force.•The simulation results have a satisfying agreement with the experimental ones.

This paper dealt with fatigue behavior simulation based on ferrite–pearlite microstructure modeled by correctional Voronoi-polygons. The model took grain size, grain orientation and the percentage of pearlite and ferrite into consideration. The basal energy was proposed to represent the inherent energy for slip-band and grain boundary to cracking. The driving force for crack initiation and propagation caused by load condition was considered as the energy increment of slip-band and grain boundary. The fatigue behavior including crack initiation, propagation, coalescence and interference were simulated based on Monte Carlo method. The simulation results show a satisfying agreement with the experimental ones.