Data-Driven Correlation Analysis Between Observed 3D Fatigue-Crack Path and Computed Fields from High-Fidelity, Crystal-Plasticity, Finite-Element Simulations

Systematic correlation analysis was performed between simulated micromechanical fields in an uncracked polycrystal and the known path of an eventual fatigue-crack surface based on experimental observation. Concurrent multiscale finite-element simulation of cyclic loading was performed using a high-fidelity representation of grain structure obtained from near-field high-energy x-ray diffraction microscopy measurements. An algorithm was developed to parameterize and systematically correlate the three-dimensional (3D) micromechanical fields from simulation with the 3D fatigue-failure surface from experiment. For comparison, correlation coefficients were also computed between the micromechanical fields and hypothetical, alternative surfaces. The correlation of the fields with hypothetical surfaces was found to be consistently weaker than that with the known crack surface, suggesting that the micromechanical fields of the cyclically loaded, uncracked microstructure might provide some degree of predictiveness for microstructurally small fatigue-crack paths, although the extent of such predictiveness remains to be tested. In general, gradients of the field variables exhibit stronger correlations with crack path than the field variables themselves. Results from the data-driven approach implemented here can be leveraged in future model development for prediction of fatigue-failure surfaces (for example, to facilitate univariate feature selection required by convolution-based models).