Numerical Simulation of Mechanical and Thermal Fatigue Crack Growth in FGM using XFEM

Somnath Bhattacharya
Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Raipur Raipur 492010, Chhattisgarh, India Email: somnabhatt.me@nitrr.ac.in

I.V. Singh
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India

B.K. Mishra
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract The present work investigates the fatigue life of a functionally graded material (FGM) made of aluminum alloy and alumina (ceramic) is simulated under cyclic mode-I and thermal loadings. The fatigue lives of aluminum alloy, FGM and an equivalent composite (having the same composition as of FGM) are compared for a major crack taken at the center in a rectangular plate. The extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate the fatigue crack growth under the specified loading conditions. Various discontinuities such as minor cracks, holes and inclusions of random sizes are incorporated at random locations in the domain along with the major crack for all the materials. On the basis of these studies it is found that the fatigue life of the FGM is the least for both types of loadings and the presence of the minor discontinuities considerably affects the fatigue life of the materials. Keywords FGM, Mechanical and Thermal loading, XFEM, Fatigue Crack growth.

and growth from inclusions. The major advantages of FGM over conventional materials are firstly, FGM satisfies the working conditions for which it is specifically built for and is also economical as it curtails material costs for particular engineering applications. Secondly, FGM can reduce the magnitude of residual and thermal stresses generated under working conditions. Thirdly, FGM increases fracture toughness and bonding strength. FGMs are now being widely used in the computer circuit industries and aircraft and aerospace industry because of their capability to withstand very high thermal gradients as in thermal barrier coatings (TBC). In other practical applications FGMs are also subjected to mechanical loading that induce fatigue in them. Thus the study of the mechanical and thermal fatigue strengths of FGMs becomes significant for implementing their design. II. BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recently a new class of graded composite materials more commonly known as functionally graded materials (FGMs) has been developed to meet the various needs of the engineering industry. A certain variation of the material properties is achieved in FGMs through local variation of their composition or microstructure or both. The FGM has a remarkable capability to withstand bending as well as stretching and is typically an inhomogeneous composite made usually from ceramic and metal. FGMs attain the multistructural status from their property gradation. By gradually varying the volume fraction of constituent materials, the material properties of FGMs exhibit a smooth and continuous change from one surface to another, thus eliminating interface problems and mitigating thermal stress concentrations. FGMs generally consist of two or more than two material phases. They are processed in such a way so that they possess continuous spatial variations in volume fractions of their constituents to generate a predetermined composition profile. These variations lead to the formation of a non-homogeneous macrostructure with continuously varying mechanical and/or thermal properties in one or more than one directions. The microstructure of FGM is generally heterogeneous and the dominant type of failure in FGM occurs from crack initiation

In the past, the fatigue analysis of FGMs has mainly been carried out using FEM [9, 10]. Till date, some efforts have already been made to study and analyze the behavior of FGMs. he static fracture analysis was performed to calculate the crack tip stress field [7]. The mixed mode SIF was analyzed for 2-D orthotropic FGM using interaction energy contour integrals [2, 8]. The unidirectional and bidirectional FGM under mixed mode loading was analyzed using boundary integral equation method [11]. The multilayered model of FGM was analyzed, and Fourier transform approach was used for performing the fracture analysis of multilayered model [4, 5]. The elastostatic analysis of anti-plane cracks was performed in unidirectional and bidirectional FGM using hyper singular boundary integral equation method [12]. Analysis of FGMs under thermal loading conditions has also been done and the thermal fracture behavior of plasmasprayed yttria stabilized zirconia-NiCoCrAlY bond coat alloy under thermal shock loading was experimentally investigated [6]. The suitability of the functionally graded materials subjected to thermal fatigue was also explored and estimated [3]. III. MOTIVATION

From the studies carried out so far, it was found that fatigue crack growth analysis of FGM has not been performed in the presence of multiple discontinuities under mode-I and thermal loading conditions. As such, the

traditional fatigue failure theories do not consider the effect of defects/discontinuities in the materials. Therefore, in this work, the fatigue life of FGM, the equivalent composite and aluminum alloy plate are evaluated in the presence of various discontinuities under mode-I and thermal loading conditions. A crack of an initial length is incorporated at the center of the FGM, pure aluminum alloy and an equivalent composite plate having the same composition as the FGM. XFEM has been used to simulate fatigue crack propagation and thus evaluate the fatigue life of the cracked plate using Paris equation. IV. DISPLACEMENT APPROXIMATION IN XFEM The approximation of unknown displacement field in the presence of internal flaws such as cracks, holes and inclusions is given as in [1]:
4 (x) - (xi )]ai + [ba (x) - ba (xi )]ba i + ui + [ 1 4 4 2 4 4 3 n a =1 1 44424443 inr uh (x) = Ni (x) in A i =1 j(x) ci + [y (x) -y (xi )]di 1 2 3 1 4 4 2 4 4 3 inh ini

where, superscript a represents the auxiliary state, superscript m denotes the mechanical component, q is a weight function which is one at the inner path G1 , zero at the outer path G2 , and arbitrary elsewhere, and g is the coefficient of thermal expansion. In case of aluminum alloy and the equivalent composite (homogeneous materials) we tip substitute S ijkl = S ijkl ( x) in Eq. 2. The SIF is extracted from M 12 at the location of the crack tip and the generalized Paris law is used for stable crack propagation. VI. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS A rectangular FGM plate of dimensions L = 100 mm and D = 200 mm of graded material (with 100% aluminum alloy on the left side and 100% ceramic (alumina) on the right side) is taken for the purpose of analysis. A uniform mesh consisting of 117 equally distributed nodes in x -direction and 235 equally distributed nodes in y -direction is used for the simulations. Nine node quadrilateral elements are used with a total of 6786 elements in the domain. For each case, the boundary conditions are depicted in the figures. The gradation in material property is taken along horizontal direction i.e. x-direction where x varies from x = 0 to x = 100 mm. In all the cases, an initial crack of a = 20 mm length is assumed at the edge of the plate. The dimensions of the plate are taken same as that of FGM for the study of composite and pure aluminum alloy. A cyclic tensile load varying from s max = 70 MPa to s min = 0 MPa is applied in all the simulations. For simulating thermal fatigue a thermal cyclic load is applied to the plate, and is calculated in such a way that it becomes equivalent to the mode-I fatigue load corresponding to Ds = 70 MPa . The temperature difference ( DT ) thus obtained using the properties of the equivalent composite Ds = Ecomposite g composite DT is found to be DT = 23.86 oC . An increment of Da = a = 2 mm is taken 10 to evaluate the fatigue failure life of aluminum alloy, FGM and equivalent composite in the presence of a major discontinuity. Moreover, other discontinuities like holes, inclusions and minor cracks and their combinations are also incorporated in the plate in addition to the major center crack. The material properties of the inclusions are taken as = 20 GPa and n = 0.2 in all the simulations. A. Fatigue Crack Growth under Mode-I Loading in a Plate with a Major Center Crack A center crack plate along with its geometry, loading and boundary conditions is shown in Figure 1a. The fatigue life of various materials is obtained by using Paris law of fatigue crack growth under mode-I mechanical load. The plots of the fatigue life for aluminum alloy, composite and FGM are shown in Figure 1b. On the basis of present simulations, it has been found that the FGM, the equivalent composite and aluminum alloy withstand 22306 cycles, 24621 cycles and

(1)

where, ui = unknown nodal displacement vector; n = set of all nodes in the mesh; nr = set of nodes belonging to those elements which are completely cut by the crack; n A = set of nodes belonging to those elements which are partially cut by the crack; H ( x) = discontinuous Heaviside function;

a i =nodal enriched degrees of freedom associated with Heaviside function; ba (x) = the asymptotic crack tip
enrichment functions, b a = nodal enriched degrees of i freedom vector associated with crack tip enrichment ba ( x) ;

ni = set of nodes belonging to those elements which are cut by inclusions; nh = set of nodes belonging to those elements which are cut by holes; ci = nodal enriched degrees of freedom associated with j (x) , b i = nodal enriched degrees
of freedom associated with y (x) . V. EVALUATION OF STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS A domain based interaction integral approach is applied for calculating the stress intensity factors for homogeneous and functionally graded materials under thermal loading conditions [1]. Using this approach the modified interaction integral M 12 can be written as:
uia a ui a m M12 = sij x + sij x - sikeik d1 j 1 1 Ao q x dA+ j

(2)

Ao

s (S
ij

tip ijkl

- Sijkl(x)

s ) x

a kl

DT a g + sij x DT + g x dij q dA 1 1

33451 cycles respectively before failure. Thus, it is found that the FGM plate fails earlier as compared to the equivalent composite plate. This is attributed to the fact that as the right tip of the center crack advances towards the ceramic rich region, where fracture toughness of FGM goes on decreasing. The FGM shows the minimum fatigue life as compared to the other materials. The composite has a moderate fatigue life whereas the aluminum alloy has the maximum fatigue life. Now 36 minor cracks of random size and orientation are added in the plate of aluminum alloy, composite and FGM as shown in Figure 2a. The minor cracks are randomly distributed in the plate above and below the major crack. The size of the minor cracks varies from 3.5 mm to 4.5 mm and their orientation varies from 0o to 60o. In addition to these minor cracks, 15 holes and 15 inclusions of diameter varying randomly from 3 to 4.5 mm are also added in the plate. The holes and inclusions are also randomly distributed in the domain above and below the major crack. The fatigue life of aluminum alloy, equivalent composite and FGM plates are evaluated using Paris law under plane strain condition, and are shown in Figure 2b. From these simulations, it is found that the number of cycles to failure in case of aluminum alloy, FGM and composite are about 29441 cycles, 11990 cycles, and 15873 cycles respectively. Thus, the fatigue life of the aluminum alloy, FGM and the composite plate is reduced by 11.99%, 46.25% and 35.53% due to the presence of minor cracks, inclusions and holes. B. Fatigue Crack Growth under Thermal Loading in a Plate with a Major Center Crack Figure 3a shows a plate with a center crack subjected to cyclic thermal load along with the boundary conditions. The plots of the fatigue life with crack extension are shown in Figure 3b. These plots show that the equivalent composite survives 28264 cycles before it fails while the FGM withstands 25530 cycles, and aluminum alloy undergoes 41589 cycles before failure. It is also observed that the crack advances at much faster rate towards the ceramic side in comparison to aluminum alloy side in FGM. The FGM shows the least life as compared to other materials. The equivalent composite shows a moderate life whereas the alloy shows the maximum fatigue life among all these materials. Now the minor discontinuities like minor cracks, holes and inclusions are added in the same manner and in same proportions as in the case of mode-I loading but with appropriate boundary conditions (as depicted in Figure 4a). From these simulations, it is found that the number of fatigue failure cycles in case of aluminum alloy, FGM and composite are found to 38232, 17722, and 20878 cycles respectively (Figure 4b). Thus, the fatigue life of aluminum alloy, FGM and the composite plate is reduced by 8.07%, 30.58% and 26.13% due to the presence of minor cracks, inclusions and holes. The FGM shows the least life, whereas the equivalent composite shows a moderate life and alloy show the maximum fatigue life among these materials.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Ds

100% Alloy

100% Ceramic

a
D

D 2
L

Fig. 1a: Center crack plate under mode-I loading

FGM (left crack tip) FGM (right crack tip) Equivalent composite Aluminum alloy

Crack Extension (mm)

0.5

1.5 2 No. of Cycles

2.5

3.5 x 10
4

Fig. 1b: A plot of crack extension with number of cycles

Ds

20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 FGM (left crack tip) FGM (right crack tip) Equivalent composite Aluminum alloy

100 % Alloy

100 % Ceramic

a
D

D 2
L
Fig. 2a: Plate with a center crack under mode-I loading

Crack Extension (mm)

0.5

1.5 2 No. of Cycles

2.5

3.5 x 10
4

Fig. 2b: A plot of crack extension with number of cycles

25 FGM (left crack tip) FGM (right crack tip) Equivalent composite Aluminum alloy

20

Crack Extension (mm)

100 % Alloy

100 % Ceramic

15

a
D

10

D 2
L

0.5

1.5

2 2.5 No. of Cycles

3.5

4.5 x 10
4

Fig. 3a: Plate with a center crack under thermal loading

Fig. 3b: A plot of crack extension with number of cycles

REFERENCES
[1] Bhattacharya S., Singh I.V., Mishra B.K. and Bui T.Q. (2013): Fatigue crack growth simulations of interfacial cracks in bi-layered FGMs using XFEM, Computational Mechanics, Vol. 52, pp. 799-814. [2] Dolbow, J.E. and Gosz, M. (2002): On the computation of mixed-mode stress intensity factors in functionally graded materials, International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 39, pp. 25572574. [3] Fazarinca, M., Muhib, T., aleja, A., Bomba a, D., Fajfara, P, Terelja, M and Kuglera, G. (2011): Thermal fatigue testing of bulk functionally graded materials, Procedia Engineering, Vol. 10, pp. 692697. [4] Huang, G.Y., Wang, Y.S. and Dietmar, G. (2003): Fracture analysis of functionally graded coatings: plane deformation, European Journal of Mechanics, A/Solids, Vol. 22, pp. 535544. [5] Huang, G.Y., Wang, Y.S. and Yu, S.W. (2005): A new model for fracture analysis of functionally graded coatings under plane deformation, Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 37, pp. 507516. [6] Kokini, K., DeJongea, J., Rangaraja, S. and Beardsleyb, B. (2002): Thermal shock of functionally graded thermal barrier coatings with similar thermal resistance, Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 154, pp. 223231. [7] Prabhakar, R.M. and Tippur, H.V. (2000): Numerical analysis of cracktip fields in functionally graded materials with a crack normal to the elastic gradient, International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 37, pp. 53535370. [8] Rao B.N. and Rahman S. (2003): An interaction integral method for analysis of cracks in orthotropic functionally graded materials, Computational Mechanics, Vol. 32, pp. 4051. [9] Sabuncuoglu, B., Dag, S. and Yildirim, B. (2012): Three dimensional computational analysis of fatigue crack propagation in functionally graded materials, Computational Materials Science, vol. 52, pp. 246 252. [10] Xu, F.M., Zhu, S.J., Zhao, J, Qi, M., Wang, F.G., Li, S.X., and Wang, Z.G. (2004): Effect of stress ratio on fatigue crack propagation in a functionally graded metal matrix composite, Composites Science and technology, Vol. 64, pp. 17951803. [11] Zhang, C., Sladek, J., and Sladek, V. (2004): Crack analysis in unidirectionally and bidirectionally functionally graded materials, International Journal of Fracture, Vol. 129, pp. 385406. [12] Zhang, C., Sladek, J., and Sladek, V. (2005): Antiplane crack analysis of a functionally graded material by a BIEM, Computational Materials Science, Vol. 32, pp. 611619.

100 % Alloy

100 % Ceramic

a
D

D 2
L
Fig. 4a: Plate with a center crack under thermal loading

25 FGM (left crack tip) FGM (right crack tip) Equivalent composite Aluminum alloy

20

Crack Extension (mm)

15

10

0.5

1.5

2 2.5 No. of Cycles

3.5

4.5 x 10
4

Fig. 4b: A plot of crack extension with number of cycles

VII. CONCLUSIONS The present study explores fatigue crack growth simulations in FGM, equivalent composite and aluminium alloy under mode-I mechanical and thermal cyclic loadings using XFEM. The presence of holes/voids, inclusions and minor cracks in the plate in addition to the major crack has also been simulated under both categories of loadings. The fatigue life of aluminium alloy, FGM and equivalent composite is found to be reduced substantially when the discontinuities are simultaneously present in the domain. The life of the aluminum alloy is found out to be the maximum under both types of loadings. The equivalent composite exhibits greater fatigue life as compared to the FGM under both categories of fatigue loadings.