Fatigue of metals – What the designer needs?

•The whole fatigue domain has been defined and divided into zones and regimes.•Crack propagation calculation method for each zone has been introduced.•A comprehensive diagram that exhibits the zones and fatigue regimes is presented.•An inclusive fatigue design tool for engineers has been proposed.•Crack propagation for variable block loadings is clearly demonstrated.

Engineering designers have to tackle various fatigue problems in their routine work. Some problems are simple and other are complex. Most of the designers have been taught only a small part of the suitable fatigue knowledge needed to successfully deal with many of these problems except for the most trivial ones. The main reason is the vast amount and complexity of the fatigue discipline, and lack of a clear integrated approach to the main fatigue problems that may be conveniently utilized by designers. An integrated approach to fatigue, that has been introduced by one of the authors in the past, is here extended, simplified and proposed as a comprehensive fatigue design tool for engineers. The whole fatigue domain is divided into six zones that include different fatigue regimes. The propagating crack length is considered as the sole parameter to evaluate safe fatigue life, including the use of an “equivalent crack propagation rate”, which averages the intense variations of CPR in the vicinity of grain boundaries. Contrary to the many unified relations to evaluate fatigue crack propagation that were proposed in the past, the current study is based on separation. For each fatigue zone a unique prediction relation is presented. Flow chart of comprehensive software for calculation of crack propagation in the whole fatigue domain is explained, and simulation results show good fit to published test results. The method is claimed to fit for use mainly by design engineers, but possibly by fatigue experts as well.

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