A Unified Approach to Contact and Structural Fatigue

A unified model of fatigue that is applicable to a variety of mechanical in nature fatigue phenomena including contact and structural fatigue is introduced. The model considers two- and three-dimensional stress states. The model is based on crack mechanics, kinetics of crack propagation, and statistical treatment of material defects. The foundation of the model follows from the analysis [1, 2], a model of contact fatigue [3], and the asymptotic formulas for the stress intensity coefficients (see [4]) developed earlier. The model takes into account the local stress distribution, initial statistical distribution of defects versus their size, defect location and crack propagation directions related to the specific stress state of the material, material fatigue resistance parameters, etc. The main assumptions used for the model derivation and their validity are discussed.