Shakedown Fatigue Limits for Materials With Minute Porosity

The intention of this study is to predict the fatigue-safe long life behavior of elastoplastic porous materials subjected to zero-tension fluctuating load. It is assumed that the materials contain a dilute amount of voids (less than 5%) and obey Gurson’s model of plastic yielding. The question to be answered is what would be the highest allowable stress amplitude that a porous material can endure (the “endurance limit”) when undergoing an infinite number of loading/unloading cycles. To reach the answer we employ the two shakedown theorems: (a) Melan’s static shakedown theorem (“elastic shakedown”) for establishing the lower bound to fatigue limit and (b) Koiter’s kinematic shakedown theorem (“plastic shakedown”) for establishing its upper bound. The two bounds are formulated rigorously but solved with some numerical assistance, mainly due to the nonlinear pressure dependency of the material behavior and the complex description of the plastic flow near stress-free voids. Both bounds (“dual bounds”) are adjusted to capture Gurson-like porous materials with noninteractive voids. General residual stresses (either real or virtual) are presented in the analysis. They are assumed to be time-independent as generated, say, by permanent temperature gradient between void surfaces and remote material boundaries. Such a situation is common, for instance, in ordinary porous sleeves (used in space industry and alike). A few experiments agree satisfactorily with the shakedown bounding concept.