Fracture Toughness and Fatigue Crack Growth Analyses on a Biomedical Ti-27Nb Alloy under Constant Amplitude Loading Using Extended Finite Element Modelling

The human body normally uses alternative materials such as implants to replace injured or damaged bone. Fatigue fracture is a common and serious type of damage in implant materials. Therefore, a deep understanding and estimation or prediction of such loading modes, which are influenced by many factors, is of great importance and attractiveness. In this study, the fracture toughness of Ti-27Nb, a well-known implant titanium alloy biomaterial, was simulated using an advanced finite element subroutine. Furthermore, a robust direct cyclic finite element fatigue model based on a fatigue failure criterion derived from Paris’ law is used in conjunction with an advanced finite element model to estimate the initiation of fatigue crack growth in such materials under ambient conditions. The R-curve was fully predicted, yielding a minimum percent error of less than 2% for fracture toughness and less than 5% for fracture separation energy. This provides a valuable technique and data for fracture and fatigue performance of such bio-implant materials. Fatigue crack growth was predicted with a minimum percent difference of less than nine for compact tensile test standard specimens. The shape and mode of material behaviour have a significant effect on the Paris law constant. The fracture modes showed that the crack path is in two directions. The finite element direct cycle fatigue method was recommended to determine the fatigue crack growth of biomaterials.