Issue 35

S. Blasón et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 35 (2016) 187-195; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.35.22 188 In this work, the fatigue behavior of a steel D38MSV5S, used in the manufacture of crankshafts of compact vehicles, is investigated according to the two approaches mentioned above: on the one hand, by defining the S-N field from the experimental data obtained in resonance fatigue tests using a probabilistic model [5,6], and by the other hand, by deriving the crack growth rate curve from SENB specimens using the approach proposed in [7]. The latter represents an advance with respect to others models by providing an easy, normalized formulation of the crack growth rate curve as a cumulative distribution function by fulfilment of the dimensional requirements, whereby the value of the threshold stress intensity range appears as model parameter. Moreover, under certain conditions of the geometric factor, a unique reference crack growth curve a-N is obtained, which allows any other crack growth curve by simple analytical transformation for different values of the initial crack size and stress range to be derived. Understanding the theoretical fundamentals of the crack growth model as proposed in [7] facilitates the development of subroutines and their assembling into a practical program for general and comprehensible application of the crack growth rate curve irrespective of the initial crack size and applied load. Further, a possible extension to the variable loading case is envisaged. Derivation of propagation S-N curves is possible and, therefore, also of initiation lifetime curves once the conventional S-N field, representing the total fatigue life, is known. This will favor a future advance in what concerns the variability of the crack growth rate curves as well as the probabilistic concept of the Kitagawa-Takahashi diagram, nowadays still missed. E VALUATION OF THE S-N FIELD irst, as mentioned in the former Section, the probabilistic S-N field according to [5] was determined from the tests results carried out in a Rumul Testronic resonance machine using specimens taken out from the crankshaft axle, see Fig. 1. The tests were carried out at different constant stress ranges,  for a constant stress rate R=  mín /  max = - 1, for which the number of cycles until failure were registered. The test results pairs (  , N) obtained are shown in Tab. 1. Considering the random character of the fatigue phenomenon a statistical analysis of the results is advisable to permit the definition of the S-N percentile curves representing the same probability of failure. This is achieved after estimation of the Weibull model parameters using the ProFatige software program [6] whereby the run-outs are taking into account. The Weibull model parameters fitted are included in Tab. 2 with which, in this case, the probabilities P=0, 0.05, 0.50 and 0.95 were considered (see Fig. 2). Figure 1 : Specimen extraction and fatigue specimen geometry for resonance testing. The parameters B and C represent, respectively, the limit number of cycles and the fatigue limit, in the sense of true endurance limit for N→∞, that is, the value of the stress range below which fatigue does not occur. In this way, the problem consists in estimating, for given stress range, the number of cycles to failure at which failure is expected for the certain probability. F