An empirical multiaxial high cycle fatigue criterion for automotive cylinder head design

PSA Peugeot Citroën uses for many year the Dang Van criterion for cylinder head high cycle fatigue design. If this well-known criterion is very efficient for a large number of solicitations, tests on engine bench showed it is very conservative for local stress state corresponding to biaxial tension with high mean stress. An experimental campaign conducted in collaboration with the LAMPA (Laboratoire Arts et Métiers ParisTech d’Angers), focused on equi-biaxial tensile tests, confirmed the inability of the Dang Van criterion to estimate the correct fatigue strength for such loadings. An empirical criterion was developed, based on the modification of one parameter of the Dang Van criterion with respect to the biaxiality rate and to the load ratio. This criterion was successfully tested on an important number of biaxial fatigue tests from the literature and on cylinder head simulations.