Fatigue modeling

The significant progress in technology is allowing to increase the fatigue-life of components employed in several industrial fields, ranging from the mechanical to the biomedical one. An understanding of both boundary conditions and material behavior is essential for achieving longer fatigue lives. Numerical approaches offer a way to fill the gaps associated to experimental investigations, e.g., due to devices of small size, high costs/times, reproducibility of real conditions.

The aim of this activity is to propose new fatigue criteria and methodologies for the numerical lifetime assessment of components made of metallic alloys. Investigated materials range from classical stainless steels to shape-memory alloys. The proposed methodologies have been applied to the analysis of stents whose great success in treating cardiovascular diseases is actually undermined by their long-term fatigue failure, thus threatening patient’s safety and life.

Key publications:

  • G. Scalet. A convex hull based approach for multiaxial high cycle fatigue criteria, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 44(1), 14-27, 2021. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • F. Auricchio, C. Maletta, G. Scalet, E. Sgambitterra. Fatigue and fracture, in Shape Memory Alloy Engineering. Antonio Concilio, Ferdinando Auricchio, Elio Sacco, Vincenza Antonucci, Leonardo Lecce (eds), Butterworth-Heinemann - Elsevier, 195-243, 2021. (doi)

  • G. Scalet, C. Menna, A. Constantinescu, F. Auricchio. A computational approach based on a multiaxial fatigue criterion combining phase transformation and shakedown response for the fatigue life assessment of Nitinol stents, Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, 29(19), 3710-3724, 2018. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • G. Scalet. An efficient algorithm for the solution of min-max problems in multiaxial fatigue, International Journal of Fatigue, 112, 117-129, 2018. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • R. Guerchais, G. Scalet, A. Constantinescu, F. Auricchio. Micromechanical modeling for the probabilistic failure prediction of stents in high cycle fatigue, International Journal of Fatigue, 87, 405-417, 2016. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • F. Auricchio, A. Constantinescu, C. Menna, G. Scalet. A shakedown analysis of high cycle fatigue of shape memory alloys, International Journal of Fatigue, 87, 112-123, 2016. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • F. Auricchio, A. Constantinescu, M. Conti, G. Scalet. Fatigue of Metallic Stents: From Clinical Evidence to Computational Analysis, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 44(2), 287-301, 2016 (pre-print version) (doi)

  • F. Auricchio, A. Constantinescu, M. Conti, G. Scalet. A computational approach for the lifetime prediction of cardiovascular balloon expandable stents, International Journal of Fatigue, 75, 69-79, 2015. (pre-print version) (doi)

  • F. Auricchio, A. Constantinescu, G. Scalet. Fatigue of 316L stainless steel notched μm-size components, International Journal of Fatigue, 68, 231-247, 2014. (pre-print version) (doi)