AN ANISOTROPIC DAMAGE MECHANICS MODEL FOR FATIGUE FAILURE

The development of an anisotropic theory of continuum damage mechanics for fatigue failure is described. The fatigue damage evolution model is based on earlier publications of the author on the anisotropic ductile damage and uniaxial fatigue damage theories. A more general damage characteristic tensor capable of characterizing micro-crack growth on the maximum shear plane as well as on the plane normal to the maximum tensile stress is formulated. The validity of the damage model proposed is verified by comparing the predicted and measured number of cycles to failure for RS50 steel and excellent agreement has been achieved.