Prediction of Low Cycle Fatigue Life Using Cycles Jumping Integration Scheme

Abstract : In this paper, cycles jumping scheme integration is used to numerically integrate fully coupled constitutive equations in order to predict the low cycle fatigue life under cyclic loading. This procedure avoids the calculation of the full loading cycles (some millions of loading cycles) while considering the transient stages due to the hardening (at the beginning) and the high damage-induced softening during the last tens of loading cycles. The model parameters have been identified using the results obtained from a 316L steel cylindrical specimen subject to symmetric tension-compression loading path. The effects of the specimen size as well as the mesh size on the fatigue life prediction are investigated.