Multiaxial fatigue life prediction of a high temperature steam turbine rotor using a critical plane approach

This paper deals with the problem of multiaxial fatigue life assessment of engineering components. A computer-based procedure for multiaxial fatigue life assessment incorporating critical plane multiaxial damage models, suitable for use in design evaluations of engineering components based on finite element analysis results, is presented and applied to correlate results from tests conducted on SAE 1045 steel notched shaft specimens. The results from the two variants of critical plane models are compared vis-a-vis the results from the conventional local strain based life prediction method. Fatigue life prediction of a high temperature steam turbine rotor is also carried out using the above procedure. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.