High Cycle Fatigue and a Finite Element Analysis

We aim to develop a systematic method of designing structures, by finite element methods, for high cycle fatigue under periodic constant load systems. After having defined a precise terminology, we quickly list those multiaxial fatigue criteria which can be found in the literature. Some criteria, derived from a microscopic approach (Dang Van's, Papadopoulos' and Deperrois' criteria) are extensively presented. The criteria which can be reasonably retained for numerical analyses of structures are underlined and compared to one another. As a conclusion, we describe a high cycle fatigue CAD system which can be derived from this analysis.