Development of a Fatigue Damage and Lifing Assessment Method for Inconel 625 and Aluminum 6061-T6

An energy based fatigue damage and lifing assessment method is developed for a high temperature material, Inconel 625, and Aluminum 6061-T6. A newly developed experimental method is used for interrogating accumulated fatigue damage and evolution for low and high cycle fatigue (LCF/HCF) at continuum scales. The proposed fatigue lifing assessment method is based on assessing the total strain energy dissipated to cause fatigue failure of a material, known as the fatigue toughness. From the fatigue toughness and experimentally determined fatigue lives at two different stress amplitudes, the cyclic parameters of the Ramberg-Osgood constitutive equation that describes the hysteresis stress-strain loop of a cycle are determined. Stress controlled mechanical fatigue tests are performed to construct room temperature stress-life (S-N) curves and to determine damage progression based on accumulated fatigue damage. The predicted fatigue life obtained from the present energy based approach is found in good agreement with experimental data.