Abstract

Putting a mechanical structure under repeated cyclic loading can lead to fatigue crack initiation and propagation in materials. In engineering processes, a fatigue crack evolution behavior can be very complicated when the structure is in a complex environment. It has been shown that internal friction is one of the most important factors for the fatigue behavior of materials. However, there is still a lack of studies on how to predict the influences of internal friction on fatigue crack evolution. In this work, we show that the phase field model provides an elegant solution for structures under different loading frequencies and temperatures. Although the phase field fatigue model has been studied for years for mechanical loading situations, the question of how to include thermal fatigue effect remains open. In this work, we add thermal stresses to the phase field model as the second fatigue driving force. It is shown that the model is able to predict thermal fatigue behavior.