Real-time damage evaluation method for multiaxial thermo-mechanical fatigue under variable amplitude loading

Abstract A real-time multiaxial thermo-mechanical damage evaluation method was proposed under variable amplitude loading. In order to achieve real-time damage evaluation, a real-time multiaxial cycle counting method that can take into account temperature loading history was proposed. The proposed multiaxial cycle counting method can obtain the reversals one by one in order with the reading of the load-time history data, which can realize the damage calculation immediately as a single reversal is counted out. At the same time, to consider the effect of temperature loading on the damage accumulation, an equivalent temperature was determined for the time period of the counted reversal. A fatigue-oxidation-creep damage model that can consider the influence of the non-proportional additional hardening on the fatigue, oxidation and creep damages was used to predict the lives in cases of isothermal axial-torsional fatigue, uniaxial thermo-mechanical fatigue and axial-torsional thermo-mechanical fatigue under constant and variable amplitude loadings. The results showed that the prediction errors were within a factor of 2.