Low cycle fatigue of components manufactured by rod extrusion: Experiments and modeling

The performance of formed components is significantly influenced by the initiation of ductile damage. Preceding forming operations, for instance, affect the service life determined in fatigue tests. In the current investigation, the effect of ductile damage in forming is isolated by changing the shoulder opening angle in forward rod extrusion. Forming-induced ductile damage is then related to measurements of void area fraction, density and Young’s modulus. Subsequent fatigue tests in the low cycle range indicate that the service life of the extruded components can be improved through a reduction of the forming-induced damage. A novel constitutive model considering forming-induced damage and fatigue damage is proposed to account for the observed behavior in axial fatigue tests of extruded components. The non-local ductile damage formulation is formulated in the framework of Generalized Standard Materials. Kinematic and isotropic hardening are considered. Based on earlier work of Lemaitre and Desmorat, the fatigue damage initiation criterion is extended to take the observed mechanical behavior in low cycle axial fatigue tests of formed components into account. The extended model is able to capture the effect of forming-induced damage on the service life.