RESEARCH PROGRAM

Title: Phase Field Simulations for Fatigue Failure Prediction in Processing

 

Name: Sikang Yan

E-Mail: yan@rhrk.uni-kl.de

Phone: 0631 – 205 - 2126

 

 

Project description:

 

Starting Situation

In the last decade, the phase field method was developed to simulate fracture processes. The biggest advantage of phase field modeling is a unified framework, in which the entire fracture evolution is covered. The phase field method is well established for quasi-static and dynamic brittle fracture. However, within manufacturing processes like cutting, turning and milling, cyclic loads are involved, which usually do not lead to an immediate failure, but rather a failure caused by a fatigue crack growth after a large number of loading cycles. In this spirit, a new phase field model that can handle complex cyclic fatigue process is required.

 

Approach

The current implementation of the phase field model for fatigue crack propagation is based on FEAP [1] with Fortran as an underlying programming language. For massive and efficient computing in real manufacturing systems, the existing phase field model will be implemented into a new computing platform (FEniCS) [2] with object-oriented languages, such as C++ and Python. Next, boundary value problems which occur in manufacturing processes will be simulated with the newly developed numerical tool.

 

Expected Results

A phase field model is developed to predict the lifetime of tools in manufacturing processes and identify the process parameters relevant to detect the onset of damage.