Application of Differential Entropy in Characterizing the Deformation Inhomogeneity and Life Prediction of Low-Cycle Fatigue of Metals

The relation between deformation inhomogeneity and low-cycle-fatigue failure of T2 pure copper and the nickel-based superalloy GH4169 under symmetric tension-compression cyclic strain loading is investigated by using a polycrystal representative volume element (RVE) as the material model. The anisotropic behavior of grains and the strain fields are calculated by crystal plasticity, taking the Bauschinger effect into account to track the process of strain cycles of metals, and the Shannon’s differential entropies of both distributions of the strain in the loading direction and the first principal strain are employed at the tension peak of the cycles as measuring parameters of strain inhomogeneity. Both parameters are found to increase in value with increments in the number of cycles and they have critical values for predicting the material’s fatigue failure. Compared to the fatigue test data, it is verified that both parameters measured by Shannon’s differential entropies can be used as fatigue indicating parameters (FIPs) to predict the low cycle fatigue life of metal.