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Procedia Structural
Structural IntegrityIntegrity
Procedia500
(2017) 430–437
(2016) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

2nd International Conference on Structural Integrity, ICSI 2017, 4-7 September 2017, Funchal,
2nd International Conference on Structural Integrity,
Madeira, ICSI 2017, 4-7 September 2017, Funchal,
Portugal
Madeira, Portugal
Probabilistic fatigue crack growth assessment of Al 7075-T6
XV Probabilistic fatigue
Portuguese Conference crackPCF
on Fracture, growth assessment
2016, 10-12 of Al
February 2016, 7075-T6
Paço de Arcos, Portugal
aerospace component
aerospace component
Thermo-mechanical modeling of a high pressure turbine blade of an
Ahmed Bahloulaa*,Amal Ben Ahmedbb,Chokri Bouraouiaa
Ahmed Bahloul airplane *,Amalgas Benturbine
Ahmed ,Chokri engineBouraoui
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Sousse, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sousse, Université de Sousse,BP 264, Cité Erriadh, 4023 Sousse,
a
a
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Sousse, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sousse, Université de Sousse,BP 264, Cité Erriadh, 4023 Sousse,
Tunisie.b
a b c
b
P. Brandão , V. Infante , A.M. Deus *
Laboratoire de Mécanique, Matériaux et Procédés, Ecole Nationale Tunisie.b
d’Ingénieurs de Sousse, Université de Sousse,BP 264, Cité Erriadh, 4023
b
Laboratoire de Mécanique, Matériaux et Procédés, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs
Sousse, Tunisie. de Sousse, Université de Sousse,BP 264, Cité Erriadh, 4023
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico,
Sousse, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Tunisie.
Portugal
b
AbstractIDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Portugal
Abstract
c
CeFEMA, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
In this paper, an engineering approach of fatigue crack Portugal growth mechanism of Al 7075-T6 aerospace component is
In this paper,
proposed. Theanproposed
engineering approach
approach wasofimplemented
fatigue crackbygrowth mechanism
coupling of Al Finite
of Extended 7075-T6 aerospace
Element component
Method (XFEM), is
proposed. The proposed
Residual Corrected Stress approach was implemented
intensity Factor (RC-SIF) andby coupling
Monte Carloof Extended(MCS)
simulation Finitemethod.
ElementParticular
Method focus
(XFEM),
was
Residual
put Correctedthe
on considering
Abstract Stress intensity
effect Factor
of material (RC-SIF)and
dispersions andtheMonte Carlo
residual simulation
stress (MCS)
distribution method.
near Particular
the crack focus was
tip for evaluating
put
FCGonlife
considering
of cracked theattachment
effect of material dispersions and the residual
lug. Lemaitre-Chaboche’s model hasstress distribution
been near the material
used to describe crack tip behavior.
for evaluating
The
FCG life their
During of cracked
iso-probabilistic a-N attachment
curves
operation, modern lug. Lemaitre-Chaboche’s
corresponding
aircraft to5%,
engine 50% andare
components model
95% ofhas been used
reliability
subjected aretodetermined.
to increasingly describe material
demanding behavior.
Theoperating
reliability ofThe
the
conditions,
iso-probabilistic
proposed a-N
especiallyengineering
the high curves
pressure corresponding
turbine
approach to5%,
(HPT) blades.
is verified 50%
Such
through and 95%
a conditions
comparison of these
cause
withreliability
parts toare
experimental determined.
undergo
FCGdifferent The reliability
types
life data. of the
of time-dependent
degradation,
proposed one of which
engineering is creep.
approach is A model through
verified using the afinite element method
comparison (FEM) was developed,
with experimental FCG life in order to be able to predict
data.
© the
2017creep behaviourPublished
The Authors. of HPT by blades. Flight
Elsevier B.V.data records (FDR) for a specific aircraft, provided by a commercial aviation
© 2017 The Authors.
company, were Published
used to by Elsevier
obtain thermalB.V.and mechanical data for three different flight cycles. In order to create the 3D model
© 2017 The Authors.
Peer-reviewunder
under Published
responsibility by Elsevier
ofScientific B.V. Committee of ICSI 2017.
the Scientific
Peer-review theresponsibility
needed forunder FEM of the
analysis, Committee of ICSI 2017 and its chemical composition and material properties were
Peer-review responsibility ofa the
HPT blade
Scientificscrap was
Committee scanned,
of ICSI 2017.
obtained. The data that was gathered was fed into the FEM model and different simulations were run, first with a simplified 3D
Keywords:MCS method; Fatigue life prediction, XFEM;RC-SIF; Aerospace component
rectangular block shape, in order to better establish the model, and then with the real 3D mesh obtained from the blade scrap. The
Keywords:MCS method; Fatigue life prediction, XFEM;RC-SIF; Aerospace component
overall expected behaviour in terms of displacement was observed, in particular at the trailing edge of the blade. Therefore such a
model can be useful in the goal of predicting turbine blade life, given a set of FDR data.
1. Introduction
1.©Introduction
2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Fatigue life isunder
Peer-review random in nature (Ghonem
responsibility and Dore
of the Scientific (1987))
Committee of and
PCFdeterministic
2016. models seem to be unable for predicting
Fatigue
FCG lifelife
of is randomstructures
cracked in naturein(Ghonem and Dore
more efficient and(1987))
reliableand deterministic
way. Looking formodels seem
a model to be unable
/Engineering for predicting
approach which
FCG life ofHigh
Keywords: cracked structures
Pressure in more
Turbine Blade; efficient
Creep; and reliable
Finite Element Method; way. Looking
3D Model; for a model /Engineering approach which
Simulation.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +216-28-062-275.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +216-28-062-275.
E-mail address:bahloulahmad1@outlook.fr
E-mail address:bahloulahmad1@outlook.fr
2452-3216 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review underThe
2452-3216 © 2017 responsibility of theby
Authors. Published Scientific Committee of ICSI 2017.
Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review underauthor.
* Corresponding responsibility
Tel.: +351of the Scientific Committee of ICSI 2017.
218419991.
E-mail address: amd@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
2452-3216  2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of ICSI 2017
10.1016/j.prostr.2017.07.192
 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437 431
2 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

could evaluate FCG life of mechanical structures with an acceptable confidence level, still remains among a
challenging point in several industrial sectors.

Lug type joint is considered as the most critical engineering component in the aerospace industry. It is used generally
to assemble components with other mechanical structures such as wings to fuselage and spoilers to wings. Since lug
type joints are a very sensitive component in the aeronautical industry, several researches [Kim et al.(2003),
Mikheevskiy et al. (2012), Baljanovic and Maksimovic (2014), Naderi and Iyyer (2015) and Bahloul et al. (2017) ]
have dealt with the problem of fatigue crack growth for these structures.

The present paper aims at developing an engineering approach for FCG life prediction of 7075-T6 Aluminum alloy
cracked lug component taking into account the effect of residual stress distribution around the crack tip and material
dispersions. The XFEM was implemented for FCG modeling. The RC-SIF parameter is proposed to consider the
effect of residual stress distribution near the crack tip and the MCS is used to determine the iso-pobabilistic a-N curves
corresponding to 5%, 50% and 95% of reliability. A comparison between the suggested approach and available
experimental data is performed.

2. Computational Engineering Approach

2.1. Numerical procedure for FCG life prediction

In fatigue fracture analysis, traditional empirical models examine the FCG rate within the framework of linear elastic
fracture mechanics (LEFM). However, a crack tip plastic zone can be almost developed when a growing crack occurs
in ductile materials. This plastic zone’s size varies depending on various parameters such as specimen thickness, crack
length, applied load, yielding stress…etc. It is generally admitted that the local strains/stresses, located in this zone,
control the FCG mechanism. It was showed [Noroozi et al.(2007)] that the relationship between the stress intensity
factor and the stresses/strains field near the crack tip is often affected by residual stresses generated by reversed plastic
deformations. Since stress intensity factor is defined as a driving force parameter for predicting crack growth path,
FCG rate and fatigue life, it is necessary to quantify the residual stress impact in terms of SIF. Using the weight
function method, the residual stresses can be converted to residual stress intensity factor K res as follows:
𝑥𝑥=𝑎𝑎

𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = ∫ 𝜎𝜎𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑚𝑚(𝑥𝑥, 𝑎𝑎)𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

𝑥𝑥=0
(1)

Where 𝜎𝜎𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎(𝑥𝑥, 𝑎𝑎) are the residual stress in the vicinity of crack tip and the weight function expression [21],
respectively.
2 𝑥𝑥 1⁄2 𝑥𝑥 1 𝑥𝑥 3⁄2
𝑚𝑚(𝑥𝑥, 𝑎𝑎) = ⌊1 + 𝑀𝑀1 (1 − ) + 𝑀𝑀2 (1 − ) + 𝑀𝑀3 (1 − ) ⌋
√2𝜋𝜋(𝑎𝑎 − 𝑥𝑥) 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎
(2)
The coefficient 𝑀𝑀1 , 𝑀𝑀2 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑀𝑀3 are dependent on the cracked component geometry. It was assumed that for a positive
stress ratio, only the maximum stress intensity factor is affected by the crack tip residual stress distribution, without
significant changes in the minimum stress intensity factor [Noroozi et al.(2007)]. Therefore, the residual-corrected
stress intensity factor (RC-SIF) can be written as:
∆𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = ∆𝐾𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 + 𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟
(3)
Hence, the number of load cycles for each step of crack propagation can be determined as follows:

∆𝑎𝑎
∆𝑁𝑁𝑖𝑖 = 𝑚𝑚
𝐶𝐶∆𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟

(4)
432 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437
Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3

Finally, the total FCG life at the end of each iteration is evaluated as follows:

𝑁𝑁𝑖𝑖 = 𝑁𝑁𝑖𝑖−1 + ∆𝑁𝑁𝑖𝑖

(5)

2.2. FE modeling

2D FE analysis using ABAQUS commercial software was implemented. The attachment lug was considered to
estimate the residual fatigue life under different load ratios (R=0.1 and R=0.5). The geometry of the lug is shown in
Fig.1, having L=200 mm, D=38.1 mm, t=12.7 mm and w=3D. A crack was positioned near the hole edge with an
initial size equals to 0.635 mm. In order to compute the high stress distribution in the vicinity of the crack, a very fine
structured mesh has been modeled around the crack region with 0.05 mm element size. The finite element mesh of
the cracked lug is illustrated in Fig.1. The non-linear isotropic/kinematic hardening model is considered to describe
the material behavior. This plasticity model is capable to characterize the material behavior during cyclic loading
considering the Baushinger effect, mean stress relaxation, ratcheting and cyclic hardening. During FE analysis, a
growing crack is considered. When the applied load reaches its maximum value, a constant crack growth increment
length is released during a loading cycle. The residual stress distributions near crack tip are evaluated at each crack
growth increment at the end of the unloading step, from which the residual stress intensity factor can be evaluated
using the weight function.

2.3. Computation of FCG Reliability

In this section, a probabilistic approach for predicting FCG life of cracked attachment lug, under cyclic loading is
implemented. The main procedure for developing the probabilistic model using FE-analysis, RC-SIF and Monte
Carlo simulation method is summarized as follows:

(i) In the first stage, a FE model is developed upon ABAQUS commercial code. An elastic-plastic analysis using
the non-linear isotropic/kinematic hardening model is used to extract the residual stress distribution
surrounding the crack tip. Crack growth path is simulated using XFEM .In this context, a numerical fatigue
crack growth code was developed by an iterative procedure within the framework of Python script.

(ii) The residual corrected stress intensity factor RC-SIF parameter is used to predict the FCG life of the cracked
attachment lug.

(iii) Due to the significant fatigue data scatter of the attachment lug, the proposed approach was carried out by
taking into account the effect of residual stress distribution near crack tip and material dispersions which are
assumed to be normally distributed. The reliability is computed using the Monte Carlo simulation method.

(iv) The iso-probabilistic a-N curves of the cracked attachment lug are determined at 5% ,50% and 95% of
reliability.

3. Results and discussion

(i) FCG simulations are determined using the XFEM. In this context, a numerical code was developed
within the framework of Python script. In the first step, model geometry, mesh generation, loading
conditions and material parameters are implemented in Abaqus. Then, the Python code was called to
extract SIF for each increment in which the first five contour integrals are chosen for evaluating the
average of SIFs. Fig.2 shows the crack growth path of different structure configurations, under cyclic
loading.
4 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000
Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437 433

Fig. 1. Finite element mesh of the cracked lug

Fig. 2. FCG path simulation

434 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437
Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5

(ii) Fig.3 shows the crack growth path simulation of the cracked attachment lug. A good agreement is found
between experimental and numerical result In order to highlight the effect of residual stress distribution
∆𝐾𝐾
near the crack tip on the stress intensity factor (SIF) range. Tab.1 shows the evolution of 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟⁄∆𝐾𝐾 versus
crack length for the attachment lug. Two different stress ratios are considered (R=0.1 and R=0.5). It is
∆𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟⁄
observed that the ratio ∆𝐾𝐾 decreases as the crack length increases. The difference between
∆𝐾𝐾𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 ∆𝐾𝐾 can reach 20% for the attachment lug as illustrated in Tab.1. This result can be explained
by the fact that the plastic zone surrounding the crack tip increases as the crack size increases.
Accordingly, a compressive residual stress occurs and reduces the effect of the tensile stress during crack
propagation.

Fig. 3.Crack growth path of the attachment lug

Table 1. Effect of residual stress distribution on the SIF.

a (mm) ∆𝑲𝑲𝑹𝑹𝑹𝑹⁄
∆𝑲𝑲
R=0.5 R=0.1
3 0.957 0.923
5 0.939 0.891
7.5 0.933 0.879
10 0.918 0.853
12.5 0.914 0.845
15 0.897 0.816
17.5 0.903 0.826

(iii) In order to validate the proposed approach’s performance for predicting fatigue life, cracked attachment
lug subjected to different load ratios are considered. The effect of residual stress distribution surrounding
the crack tip is evaluated using the RC-SIF as previously mentioned. The material dispersions are
assumed to be normally distributed with coefficient of variance equals to 1.75%, having for R=0.1:
C=2.1E-08 and m=3.86 and for R=0.5: C=11.3E-08 and m=3.7. due to the random aspect in fatigue life
data for cracked lugs, the suggested method consist in determining the iso-probabilistic a-N curves
corresponding respectively to 5%, 50% and 95% fatigue reliability. Fig.4 shows a comparison between
the proposed model and the relevant experimental data for various loading conditions (R=0.1 and
 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437 435
6 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

R=0.5). The suggested approach exhibits good ability in predicting fatigue crack growth life of the
cracked attachment lugs comparing with experimental results [Kathiresan and Hsu (1984)].The obtained
iso probabilistic a-N curves are very useful in engineering application for evaluating FCG life with an
acceptable confidence level. These curves can be used as a practical tool to ensure an optimal
maintenance planning for cracked components. The proposed engineering approach consist in improving
the deterministic models by considering the effect of residual stress distribution near crack tip and
material dispersions, leading to predict the residual FCG life in more efficient and reliable way.
436 AhmedAhmed Bahloul
Bahloul et al. /etStructural
al. / Procedia Structural
Integrity Integrity
Procedia 5 (2017)
00 (2017) 430–437
000–000 7

Fig. 4.The iso-probabilistic curves for: (a) R=0.1; (b) R=0.5.

4. Conclusions

This attempt addresses the prediction of fatigue crack growth life of cracked aircraft component. An engineering
probabilistic approach was specially developed using XFEM, RC-SIF and MCS. Particular focus was put on
considering the effect of residual stress distribution near the crack tip and material dispersions for predicting the
residual fatigue life. According to the findings, it can be concluded that:

(i) The XFEM presents an efficient and powerful toll for fatigue crack growth modelling.
(ii) The RC-SIF parameter exibits good ability in considering the effect of residual stress distribution near
crack tip.
(iii) Fatigue life data is random in nature and deterministic models seem to be unable for evaluating the
remaining fatigue life of cracked structures due to the material dispersions, which confirms the need for
an engineering approach that takes into account this random aspect. The iso-Probabilistic a-N curves
corresponding to 5%, 50% and 95% fatigue reliability loadings have been performed. This method
allows engineers to be engaged in practical problems for predicting the remaining fatigue life of cracked
structures in a more efficient and reliable way.
.
 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 430–437 437
8 Ahmed Bahloul et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

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growth driving force. Int J Fatigue 29:1616-1633.
Khthiresan K., Hsu TM., 1984. Advanced life analysis methods-crack-growth, analysis methods for attachment lugs. AFWAL-TR-84-3080,Vol.II.