Evaluation of fatigue and creep-fatigue damage levels on the basis of engineering damage mechanics approach

Progressive degradation of material mechanical properties in the low cycle fatigue (LCF) and creep-fatigue (CF) interaction at high temperature affects the safe operation of in-service materials. By considering material degradation, the present work aims to establish a method for evaluating LCF and CF damage levels with wide applicability. Material-level data accumulations as well as theoretical foundations of LCF and CF are presented, including interrupted LCF and CF tests, subsequent tensile tests and energy-based damage models. A damage variable representing the degradation of material mechanical properties is then defined based on the tensile plastic strain energy density (TPSED), the physical mechanism of which is reflected in the microstructure evolution and fracture appearance. By taking into consideration the material degradation threshold in the traditional damage summation rule, a new three-dimensional (3D) damage interaction diagram is established, where the additional third axis indicates the material degradation level. Finally, taking GH4169 alloy and P92 steel as examples, this work demonstrates the implemented procedures of damage level evaluation, which has been validated via the experimental data.