Cyclic Creep Damage in Thin-Walled Structures

Thin-walled structural elements are often subjected to cyclic loadings. This paper presents a material model describing creep behaviour under high-cycle loading conditions (N ≥ 5 × 104-105). Assuming that the load can be split into two joint acting parts (a static and a superposed, rapidly varying small cyclic component), the asymptotic expansion of two time-scales has been applied to the governing equations of the initial-boundary value creep problem. The system of equations determine two problems. The first is similar to the creep problem by quasi-static loading. The second is the problem of forced vibrations. Both the problems are coupled by constitutive equations. The model is applied to the simulation of the cyclic creep damage behaviour of thin-walled structural elements. The results are discussed for two special numerical examples (a conical shell and a circular plate). The simulations show that the creep and the damage rates as well as the failure time are strongly sensitive to the redistribution of the stress state cycle asymmetry parameter A_s. The values of A_s increase during the creep process. For particular cases of the loading frequency, A_s can exceed the critical value. In this case the material model must be extended in order to consider the creep-fatigue damage interaction.