A Markov Chain Approach to Damage Evolution in Die-Cast ZAMAK

Abstract

ZAMAK components typically have a high load-bearing capacity but show large variations in their limit loads and in the number of life cycles they can sustain. In this paper a new stochastic approach to account for accumulated damage is resented where weakening effects, such as impurities, pores and cracks, are considered as distributed defects and a Markov process is used to model the defect evolution. The basic ideas of this stochastic model are presented and sample calculations on die-cast ZAMAK components illustrate the field of application and the versatility of this approach.