抄録
Probabilistic life prediction is needed in structural reliability analyses of structures because considerable scatter is often observed in fatigue crack growth data. The primary source of this scatter is material inhomogeneity which causes the variability of a material's resistance against fatigue crack growth. One of the useful ways to analyze stochastic fatigue crack growth due to random crack growth resistance is the Tsurui-Ishikawa solution which is derived from the generalized Fokker-Planck equation based on the Markov approximation method. However, no practical methods to determine the parameter of their solution, which determines the distribution of crack growth fatigue life, have been reported. Thus, this paper presents a simplified method to determine the parameter of the Tsurui-Ishikawa solution. The proposed method requires only a few constant ΔK-controlled fatigue crack growth tests and the procedure is quite simple. In order to confirm the proposed method, Monte-Carlo simulations are also performed and satisfactory results are obtained.
