DDSim: A hierarchical, probabilistic, multiscale damage and durability simulation system - Part I: Methodology and Level I

Current tools for fatigue life prediction of metallic structural components are limited in some or all of the following capabilities: geometry of, and boundary conditions on, the affected structural component, automation of the simulation process, randomness of the primary variables, and physics of the damage evolution processes. DDSim, a next-generation damage and durability simulator, addresses each of these limitations with a hierarchical, multiscale, search and simulate strategy. This hierarchical strategy consists of three levels. Level I, described in this paper, performs an initial, reduced order, conservative screening, based on a linear finite element analysis of the uncracked component, to determine the most life-limiting locations for intrinsic material flaws. Initial flaw size can be specified deterministically, or generated randomly from statistical descriptions of the microstructure and used in Monte Carlo simulation. The result is a scalar field of predicted life over the entire domain of the structure. The benefits of the Level I analysis include a high degree of automation, solution speed, and easy implementation of high performance parallel computing resources. A validation case study of Level I is described. Levels II and III are outlined herein, but will be described in further detail in subsequent papers. The Level II analysis uses FRANC3D to accurately predict the number of cycles consumed by microstructurally large crack growth processes. Level III performs multiscale analyses to accurately predict the cycles consumed in microstructurally small crack growth processes. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.