Fatigue Crack Growth Simulations of FGM Plate under Cyclic Thermal Load by XFEM

In many practical applications, functionally graded materials (FGMs) are subjected to cyclic thermal loads which cause thermal fatigue failure of the components. Thus, the thermal fatigue needs to be considered in instrumenting the design of the components made from FGMs. In the present work, the numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth in three different materials namely a unidirectional FGM made of aluminum alloy and alumina (ceramic), an equivalent composite consisting of the same volume fractions of alloy and the ceramic as the FGM, and the aluminum alloy, is carried out using extended finite element method under thermal cyclic load. These simulations show that the presence of multiple flaws greatly influences the fatigue life of the plate.