Multiaxial High Cycle Fretting Fatigue

Abstract

The aim of this work is to show that multiaxial fatigue can be successfully adpted to model fretting problems. For instance, the paper presents (i) the critical direction method, as an alternative to the critical plane concept, to model the crack initiation path under fretting conditions and (ii) studies on size effects considering the influence of incorporating fretting wear on the life estimation. A wide range of new data generated by a two actuators fretting fatigue rig considering Al 7050-T7451 and of Ti-6Al-4V aeronautical alloys is produced to validate these analyses. It is shown that, the development of appropriate tools and techniques to incorporate the particularities of the fretting phenomenon into the multiaxial fatigue problem allow an accurate estimate of the fretting fatigue resistance/life in the medium high cycle regime. Such tools and techniques can be extended to the design of other mechanical components under similar stress enviroments.