A MICRO‐MECHANICS ANALYSIS FOR SHORT FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH

Crack initiation and early growth of fatigue cracks in a fully annealed 0.4% carbon steel was investigated using plastic replicas and torsion loading. In a structure consisting of a 70/30 mixture of pearlite and ferrite the cracks are seen to develop and grow initially along slip bands in the ferrite phase. Energetic considerations lead to the formulation of a model which, while characterizing short crack growth rate, also considers those microstructural variables relevant to fatigue crack initiation and early crack growth. The driving force for crack growth is provided by the energy of the slip band; correspondingly crack growth per cycle is proportional to the strength of the slip band. In the short fatigue crack region, cracks grow initially at a fast rate but deceleration occurs quickly and, depending on the stress level, they either arrest or are temporarily halted at a critical length. This critical length is shown to coincide with the value of the threshold length for crack growth under LEFM conditions.

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