Experimental and numerical lifetime assessment of Al 2024 sheet

In the present paper, a thorough analysis of the low-cycle fatigue behavior of flat sheets of aluminum Al 2024-T351 is given. For that purpose, material characterization is combined with material modeling. The experimental analyses include monotonic and cyclic loading tests at high stress levels. For the assessment of microstructural characteristics, advanced imaging technology is used to reveal, e.g. crack initiation loci and particle sizing. The numerical simulation is done using a novel ductile-brittle damage model. Thereby, the model parameters are optimized by means of an inverse parameter identification strategy which, overall, leads to a very good agreement between experimentally observed and computationally predicted data. For demonstrating the prediction capability of the novel coupled model also for complex engineering problems, a certain stringer assembly, as used in fuselage parts of airplanes, is analyzed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.