A continuum damage coupled unified viscoplastic model for simulating the mechanical behaviour of a ductile cast iron under isothermal low-cycle fatigue, fatigue-creep and creep loading

A novel continuum damage coupled unified viscoplastic model is used for simulating the stress–strain responses of SiMo 4.06 cast iron under Low-Cycle Fatigue (LCF), fatigue-creep and creep loading for temperatures up to 650 °C. The advanced constitutive model that is developed within the framework of the Chaboche model allows the simulation of various effects including strain rate sensitivity, cyclic hardening and softening, static recovery and strain range dependency. The hyperbolic sine flow rule and the static recovery of kinematic hardening rule are proposed in order to effectively simulate both stress relaxation and creep strains. The isotropic damage variable is introduced into the constitutive equations to represent the effects of material degradation. Three main damage mechanisms are considered: fatigue, creep and ductile damage. In addition, the model is further modified to take into account the progressive microdefects closure effect. Finally, the prediction capability of the proposed model is illustrated for the experimental data obtained from the various uniaxial material tests. A good correlation was achieved between the simulated and the experimental results.