Numerical estimation of fatigue life of aluminum alloy specimen with surface defects based on stress-life approach

This paper presents a numerical study for fatigue life estimation of a cylindrical specimen made of aluminum alloy under high cycle fatigue regime. The fatigue life is assessed through the stress-life approach. The sample is weakened by either a cluster of surface defects or by an equivalent defect. Two different forms of defects are considered. The load conditions are assumed to be uniaxial tension-compression with a load ratio R = 0.1. To account for non-zero mean stress the Goodman correction is used. The material properties are considered to be combined nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening implemented in ANSYS Workbench software.