Thomas Seifert

Thermomechanical fatigue of 1.4849 cast steel: experiments and life prediction using a fracture mechanics approach

Abstract In this paper the thermomechanical fatigue properties of 1.4849 cast steel, which is used for exhaust manifolds and turbochargers, are investigated and a fracture mechanics based approach is used for fatigue life prediction. Isothermal low-cycle fatigue tests and thermomechanical fatigue tests are conducted in the temperature range from room temperature up to 1 000 °C. Fractographic investigations show that fracture occurs predominantly intergranularly at 600 °C, whereas mixed transgranular and intergranular crack growth is found otherwise. The methodology for fatigue life prediction is based on a time and temperature dependent cyclic plasticity model, which describes the transient stresses and strains, and on a law for time and temperature dependent microcrack growth. The crack growth law assumes that the increment in crack length in each cycle, da/dN, is correlated with the cyclic crack-tip opening displacement, δCTOD. An analytical fracture mechanics based estimate of δCTOD is used, which is derived for non-isothermal loadings. The fatigue lives of the low-cycle and the thermomechanical fatigue tests are predicted well with the model. Only predictions for the low-cycle fatigue tests at 600 °C, where integranular fracture is predominant, are non-conservative.

Simulation of fatigue crack growth under large scale yielding conditions

A simple mechanism based model for fatigue crack growth assumes a linear correlation between the cyclic crack-tip opening displacement (ΔCTOD) and the crack growth increment (da/dN). The objective of this work is to compare analytical estimates of ΔCTOD with results of numerical calculations under large scale yielding conditions and to verify the physical basis of the model by comparing the predicted and the measured evolution of the crack length in a 10%-chromium-steel. The material is described by a rate independent cyclic plasticity model with power-law hardening and Masing behavior. During the tension-going part of the cycle, nodes at the crack-tip are released such that the crack growth increment corresponds approximately to the crack-tip opening. The finite element analysis performed in ABAQUS is continued for so many cycles until a stabilized value of ΔCTOD is reached. The analytical model contains an interpolation formula for the J-integral, which is generalized to account for cyclic loading and crack closure. Both simulated and estimated ΔCTOD are reasonably consistent. The predicted crack length evolution is found to be in good agreement with the behavior of microcracks observed in a 10%-chromium steel.

Lifetime Assessment of Cylinder Heads for Efficient Heavy Duty Engines Part II: Component-Level Application of Advanced Models for Thermomechanical Fatigue Life Prediction of Lamellar Graphite Cast Iron GJL250 and Vermicular Graphite Cast Iron GJV450 Cylinder Heads

A complete thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) life prediction methodology is developed for predicting the TMF life of cast iron cylinder heads for efficient heavy duty internal combustion engines. The methodology uses transient temperature fields as thermal loads for the non-linear structural finite-element analysis (FEA). To obtain reliable stress and strain histories in the FEA for cast iron materials, a time and temperature dependent plasticity model which accounts for viscous effects, non-linear kinematic hardening and tensioncompression asymmetry is required. For this purpose a unified elasto-viscoplastic Chaboche model coupled with damage is developed and implemented as a user material model (USERMAT) in the general purpose FEA program ANSYS. In addition, the mechanismbased DTMF model for TMF life prediction developed in Part I of the paper is extended to three-dimensional stress states under transient non-proportional loading conditions. The material properties of the plasticity model are determined for lamellar graphite cast iron GJL250 and vermicular graphite cast iron GJV450 from isothermal and non-isothermal uniaxial tests. The methodology is applied to obtain a TMF life prediction on two cast iron cylinder heads for heavy duty diesel engine applications made from both cast iron materials. It is shown that the life predictions using the developed methodology correlate very well with observed lives from two bench tests in terms of location as well as number of cycles to failure.

Time and temperature dependent cyclic plasticity and fatigue crack growth of the nickel-base Alloy617B - experiments and models

Isothermal low cycle fatigue and thermomechanical fatigue tests are performed on Alloy617B in the solution-annealed and stabilized condition at temperatures between room temperature and 900 °C. In addition, the replica technique is applied to study the growth of microcracks. The Chaboche model is found to describe the cyclic viscoplastic behavior of both heats, except the pronounced cyclic hardening in the low-temperature branches of the TMF tests. A lifetime model based on the cyclic crack-tip opening displacement and the cyclic J integral is used to describe the measured lifetimes and crack growth rates. However, the description is not fully consistent, since the data for room temperature and for temperatures above 400 °C fall into two separate scatter bands.

Lifetime Assessment of Cylinder Heads for Efficient Heavy Duty Engines Part I: A Discussion on Thermomechanical and High-Cycle Fatigue as Well as Thermophysical Properties of Lamellar Graphite Cast Iron GJL250 and Vermicular Graphite Cast Iron GJV450

Cast iron materials are used as materials for cylinder heads for heavy duty internal combustion engines. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their service life. While high-cycle fatigue (HCF) is dominant for the material in the water jacket region, the combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material in the fire deck region, even including superimposed TMF and HCF loads. Increasing the efficiency of the engines directly leads to increasing combustion pressure and temperature and, thus, lower safety margins for the currently used cast iron materials or alternatively the need for superior cast iron materials. In this paper (Part I), the TMF properties of the lamellar graphite cast iron GJL250 and the vermicular graphite cast iron GJV450 are characterized in uniaxial tests and a mechanism-based model for TMF life prediction is developed for both materials. The model can be used to estimate the fatigue life of components by means of finite-element calculations (Part II of the paper) and supports engineers in finding the appropriate material and design. Furthermore, the effect of the elastic, plastic and creep properties of the materials on the fatigue life can be evaluated with the model. However, for a material selection also the thermophysical properties, controlling to a high level the thermal stresses in the component, must be considered. Hence, the need for integral concepts for material characterization and selection from a multitude of existing and soon-to-be developed cast iron materials is discussed.

A Simple Analogous Model for the Determination of Cyclic Plasticity Parameters of Thin Wires to Model Wire Drawing

Cyclic stress-strain measurements have to be performed in order to determine the cyclic plasticity parameters of material models describing the Bauschinger effect. For thin wires, the performance of tensile tests is often not possible due to necking of the specimen on exceeding the yield stress, whereas compression tests are uncritical. This paper presents an approach to determine the cyclic plasticity parameters by performance of compression tests for wires before and after drawing. Here, a simple analogous model is used instead of finite-element (FE) simulations. This approach has been applied for two different integration time steps in order to evaluate their influence on the fit and the accuracy of the integration. It is shown that good accuracy can be obtained for the cyclic plasticity parameters. For FE simulations using larger integration time steps, large deviations have been noted. However, there the analogous model could also be adopted in order to find appropriate model parameters. In general, it is the intention of this paper to show that searching an analogous model can be a very time- and cost-saving task.

Lifetime models for high-temperature components

Fraunhofer IWM has proposed a methodology for calculating the lifetime of thermo-mechanically loaded engine components. It comprises models for cyclic plasticity and microcrack growth, a finite element implementation and a test procedure to determine the model parameters. Together with BMW, the method is applied to an exhaust manifold.

A temperature dependent cyclic plasticity model for hot work tool steel including particle coarsening

Hot work tools are subjected to complex thermal and mechanical loads during hot forming processes. Locally, the stresses can exceed the material’s yield strength in highly loaded areas as e.g. in small radii in die cavities. To sustain the high loads, the hot forming tools are typically made of martensitic hot work steels. While temperatures for annealing of the tool steels usually lie in the range between 400 and 600 °C, the steels may experience even higher temperatures during hot forming, resulting in softening of the material due to coarsening of strengthening particles. In this paper, a temperature dependent cyclic plasticity model for the martensitic hot work tool steel 1.2367 (X38CrMoV5-3) is presented that includes softening due to particle coarsening and that can be applied in finite-element calculations to assess the effect of softening on the thermomechanical fatigue life of hot work tools. To this end, a kinetic model for the evolution of the mean size of secondary carbides based on Ostwald ripening is coupled with a cyclic plasticity model with kinematic hardening. Mechanism-based relations are developed to describe the dependency of the mechanical properties on carbide size and temperature. The material properties of the mechanical and kinetic model are determined on the basis of tempering hardness curves as well as monotonic and cyclic tests.Hot work tools are subjected to complex thermal and mechanical loads during hot forming processes. Locally, the stresses can exceed the material’s yield strength in highly loaded areas as e.g. in small radii in die cavities. To sustain the high loads, the hot forming tools are typically made of martensitic hot work steels. While temperatures for annealing of the tool steels usually lie in the range between 400 and 600 °C, the steels may experience even higher temperatures during hot forming, resulting in softening of the material due to coarsening of strengthening particles. In this paper, a temperature dependent cyclic plasticity model for the martensitic hot work tool steel 1.2367 (X38CrMoV5-3) is presented that includes softening due to particle coarsening and that can be applied in finite-element calculations to assess the effect of softening on the thermomechanical fatigue life of hot work tools. To this end, a kinetic model for the evolution of the mean size of secondary carbides based on Ostwald ri...

Modelling the TMF-Life of a Salt Bath Experiment With Viscoplastic Constitutive Equations

The salt bath experiment was chosen because of the load characteristics. It is simple enough to allow treatment at moderate cost while containing a geometrical concentration of stress subject to cyclic loading under displacement control (equivalent to thermal control) and leading to a typical situation of creep and localized plasticity with realistic levels of stress and temperature. The specimen (see 1) employed is known as a ‘Type 2 Salt-Bath Specimen’. It is an ax symmetric hollow piece of Type 316 stainless steel as shown in the illustration. The righthand side, in particular the region around the 5 mm radius curve, represents a typical geometrical feature of a tube-tubeplate junction. The left hand-side is a removable plug, allowing periodic inspection of the interior surface, and it is not of structural significance. Specimens are subjected to a purely thermal loading cycle. The cycle is attained by automatically moving specimens back and forth between two baths of a molten salt, at 250 and 600 °C. The total cycle time of the cycle is 16 hours. Viscoplastic constitutive equations with two back-stress variables were used to model the non-isothermal elastic-plastic material behavior. The model parameters were adjusted to tensile, creep and cyclic data for temperatures between 200 and 600 °C. The behavior of the salt bath specimen was calculated with the finite-element program ABAQUS using the UMAT-interface. Two initial states were considered: new material and fully hardened material. For the state ‘new material’ 100 cycles were calculated in order to investigate the local cyclic hardening of the specimen. For the prediction of the lifetime under thermo-mechanical fatigue conditions a damage parameter for TMF-conditions (DTMF ) was used. This parameter was calibrated to lifetime data of a similar austenitic material. The location of crack initiation and the number of cycles until crack initiation corresponds reasonably well to the experimental findings.Copyright