Role of plasticity-induced crack closure in fatigue crack growth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.25.19Keywords:
Crack closureAbstract
The premature contact of crack surfaces attributable to the near-tip plastic deformations under cyclic loading, which is commonly referred to as plasticity induced crack closure (PICC), has long been focused as supposedly controlling factor of fatigue crack growth (FCG). Nevertheless, when the plane-strain near-tip constraint is approached, PICC lacks of straightforward evidence, so that its significance in FCG, and even the very existence, remain debatable. To add insights into this matter, large-deformation elastoplastic simulations of plane-strain crack under constant amplitude load cycling at different load ranges and ratios, as well as with an overload, have been performed. Modeling visualizes the Laird-Smith conceptual mechanism of FCG by plastic blunting and re-sharpening. Simulation reproduces the experimental trends of FCG concerning the roles of stress intensity factor range and overload, but PICC has never been detected. Near-tip deformation patterns discard the filling-in a crack with material stretched out of the crack plane in the wake behind the tip as supposed PICC origin. Despite the absence of closure, load-deformation curves appear bent, which raises doubts about the trustworthiness of closure assessment from the compliance variation. This demonstrates ambiguities of PICC as a supposedly intrinsic factor of FCG and, by implication, favors the stresses and strains in front of the crack tip as genuine fatigue drivers.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright
Authors are allowed to retain both the copyright and the publishing rights of their articles without restrictions.
Open Access Statement
Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale (Fracture and Structural Integrity, F&SI) is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the DOAI definition of open access.
F&SI operates under the Creative Commons Licence Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). This allows to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, to remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, but giving appropriate credit and providing a link to the license and indicating if changes were made.