FATIGUE PROPAGATION Ð SOME NOTES

Anders Ekberg
anek@solid.chalmers.se
Dep. of Solid Mechanics, Chalmers Univesity of Technology
1997-06-30

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

This report is part of the graduate course FATIGUE AND FRACTURE MECHANICS.
This is a “literature course” during summer of -97. The contents of the course
should be equivalent to 6 weeks of full time work.

The literature in the course is chosen in order to put the emphasis on multi-
axial fatigue and fracture mechanics. In this fatigue propagation part, several
papers and books on fatigue propagation, mainly with a fracture mechanics
approach, are used.
Note that the comments reflect my thoughts on the paper. I may well
have misunderstood some of the contents etc. Also, I have included my
own associations and comments in the notes below (not always explicitly
stated). So, read the following with a “suspicious mind”.
This paper is produced using FrameMaker™ 5.1.1 on a PowerMac™. The file has then been saved as a postscript™-file and moved to
a HP-workstation using Fetch™3.03. Finally, it has been converted to a pdf-file using Adobe Distiller™ 3.0. The document uses the
fonts New Century Schoolbook, Times and Symbol.

1. BASIC FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION

The following notes are mainly from Ch.10 in [1].

1
2 (10)

BASIC ANALYSIS OF CRACK GROWTH RATE

The area of fracture mechanics analysis of cracks is fairly well established as
long as restrictions are made to small scale plasticity, constant amplitude,
fairly large crack size and uniaxial loading (my comment).
The fracture mechanics approach is based on the assumption that the crack tip
conditions are uniquely defined by a single loading parameter, e.g. the stress
intensity factor. In the case of propagation of cracks, the range of the stress
cycle is used. Also, the mid value of stress will have an influence (for instance
du to the effect of hydrostatic stress acting on the crack), and the stress history
may have an interest. Under these assumptions, the crack propagation can be
characterized by the relationship
da
------- = f ( DK, R, H )
dN (1)

da K min
where ------- is the crack growth per cycle, DK º ( K max Ð K min ) , R º ------------ and H is
dN K max
a history term, which may have influence if Kmax or Kmin varies during the load
history. Note that (1) violates the assumption that the conditions at the crack
tip is uniquely defined by single loading parameter (if H=0). I.e. two
configurations with identical Kmax and Kmin values may experience different
crack growth rates. This will complicate the analysis considerably, which is the
reason why the assumption H=0 often is made. However, this will lead to
approximate expressions in the case of variable amplitude loading.

One equation of the type shown in, is Paris law, (1) , which can be written as
da m
------- = CDK
dN (2)

where C and m are material parameters. m varies from m»2 to 7. Note that the
physical unit of C depends on the magnitude of m.
Note that this equation does not include any influence of previous loading
history (i.e. H=0). Also, there is no influence of the R-ratio (which for example
has the consequence that the influence of a superposed hydrostatic stress is
neglected).

If the crack growth is studied experimentally, a plot of ( da ) ¤ ( dN ) vs. DK will

have a shape as shown in FIG. 1. From this plot, it can be concluded that Paris
law should mainly be used to model crack growth in region II. There are several
other models that are aimed at model all (or some parts of) the ( da ) ¤ ( dN ) - DK
relationship. The fatigue life can be directly estimated by integrating Paris law.
However, this procedure presumes that region II includes the dominating part
 3 (10)

of the fatigue life.

Two interesting features of the curve in FIG. 1, are the existence of a crack
growth treshold Kth and the existence of a critical value Kc. If the stress
intensity range do not exceed Kth, there will be no propagation of existing
cracks. At the other extreme, Kc, Kmax will approach the fracture toughness
and the material will fail.

Paris law presumes elastic conditions. In order to take plastic deformation into
account, the J-integral can be applied, i.e. the crack growth rate can be
approximated by the expression
da m
------- = CDJ
dN (3)

da
log
dN

I II III

logDK

DK th Kc

Fig. 1 Fatigue crack growth behavior in metals as described by the crack growth rate(da/dN) vs. the
width of the stress intensity factor during one loading cycle(DK).

CRACK GROWTH TRESHOLD

Elber, in 1970, discovered that crack closure exist in cyclic loading, even for
loads that are greater than zero. This crack closure will decrease the fatigue life
by reducing the effective stress intensity range. In FIG. 2, the stress intensity
during some load cycles is plotted. If the crack does not close, the stress
intensity range will be DK º K max Ð K min , but since the crack closes at K=Kop,
the effective stress intensity range will be DK eff º K max Ð K op . Elber thus
proposed a modified crack growth law
da m
------- = CDK eff (4)
dN

There are several mechanisms that can give rise to crack closure. One is
4 (10)

plasticity induced crack closure, where compressive residual stresses,

stemming from plastic deformation due to high tensile load in previous load
cycles, closes the crack.

K max

DK eff
DK

K op
Closed crack
K min

Fig. 2 Stress intensity range in cyclic loading and the influence of crack closure on the effective stress
intensity range.

The crack closure concept can be used to explain crack propagation thresholds
in a qualitative way as follows.

Assume a modified Paris law, i.e.

DK eff m
------- = CDK eff = C æ -------------- DKö
da m
dN è DK ø (5)

K max Ð K op m K max K opö m

= C æ æ ----------------------------ö DKö = C æ æ ------------------------------ - DKö
Ð --------
èè DK ø ø è è K max Ð K min DK ø ø

ææ ö öm
çç K ÷ ÷ K opö m
-÷ DK÷ = C æ æ ------------- Ð --------
- DKö
1 op 1
= C ç ç ---------------------- Ð --------
çç K min DK ÷ ÷ è è 1 Ð R DK ø ø
èè 1 Ð ------------ ø ø
K max

Where, the definitions R=Kmin/Kmax has been used.Treshold is obtained when

DKeff=0, which is equivalent to setting the inner parenthesis in (5) equal to
zero, i.e.
K op
------------- Ð æ ------------ ö = 0 ® DK th = K op ( 1 Ð R )
1
1 Ð R è DK th ø (6)

At this stress intensity level, the crack will not open at all during a load cycle
 5 (10)

and the crack will thus not propagate (note that Kop has been assumed constant
in (6)). The other extreme occurs when the inner parenthesis equals unity, i.e.
K op K op
------------- Ð æ --------- ö = 1 ® DK = ---------------------
- = K op æ ---- Ð 1ö
1 1
1ÐR è DK ø 1 è R ø (7)
------------- Ð 1
1ÐR

In this case no crack closure will occur in the load cycle and DKeff=DK.

The relation (5) is plotted in FIG. 3. Note that the treshold limit is dependent
on the R-ratio in such a manner that a superposed static tension (i.e. a positive
R) gives a lower crack growth treshold and a superposed static compression (i.e.
a negative R) gives a higher treshold. In other words, a superposed static
compression reduces the risk of fatigue crack growth.

Fig. 3 Simulation of crack growth treshold using the crack closure concept.

In reality, Kop is not a material parameter (constant), but depends also on the
type of loading, as well as on history effects. The actual mechanisms of crack
growth threshold is not entirely due to crack closure, but also depends on the
microstructure.
Comment: On top of this “mechanical treshold”, there is also a micro structural treshold,
where the small crack (from less than one to some grain diameters in size) can be
arrested due to interaction with grain boundaries etc. (see McDowell).
There exists a number of limitations to the concept of DKeff. Some of which are

❏ The equations for determining Kop are mostly empirical and only re-
liable to a particular loading regime.
❏ Fatigue data can not give an unanimous estimation of K eff (since the
estimation cK eff , where c is a constant, will also produce a correla-
6 (10)

tion of the fatigue data.

❏ History effects are almost never taken into consideration when K eff is
applied. In reality, Kop depends on the previous history.

VARIABLE AMPLITUDE LOADING

As described above, there is a history effect involved in the propagation of
cracks. The mechanism behind this is similar to the mechanism of plasticity
induced crack closure, as described on page 3. Consider an overload applied to
a crack. The overload will cause plastic flow in an area ahead of the crack tip.
Because of redistribution of stresses in unloading, there will be a compressed
zone just ahead of the crack tip. If the overload is high enough, there can even
be a compressive yield zone ahead of the crack, see FIG. 4. This will lead to a
retardation in the crack growth rate, since the compressive zone will both
reduce the effective stress intensity factor (due to crack closure) and also reduce
the tensile stress ahead of the crack tip in the following load cycles.

Loading Unloading

sY

crack crack
Plastic
zone
(tension) Plastic zone
sY (compression)

Fig. 4 The influence of a compressive overload.

One model for analyzing this behavior is the Wheeler model, which compares a
“current” plastic zone (which is the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip due to the
current load cycle) to the tensile plastic zone due to the overload. Retardation
effects are assumed to take place only when the “current” plastic zone is within
the overloading plastic zone. The retardation factor is defined by Wheeler
through the relations

æ ------
da ö Da + rd c g
F R = æ --------------------ö
da
- = F R -------
è dN ø R dN , where è rd o ø (8)

g is a fitting parameter that depends on material properties and stress

 7 (10)

spectrum. The diameters of the plastic zones are given by

1 Ko 2 1 K max 2
rd o = ------ æ ------- ö d c = ------ æ ------------ ö
bp è s Y ø and bp è s Y ø (9)

Ko is the stress intensity factor at overload, b is 2 for plane stress and 6 for
plane strain. Da is defined in FIG. 5.

do

crack

Da dc

Fig. 5 Plastic zone size due to overload, and plastic zone due to the current loading.

History effects can be rather pronounced in variable amplitude loading if the

rate of change of the stress intensity (dK/da) is low or the variable amplitude
loading is not confined to single overloads. In the latter case, there are of course
marked history effects as long as the crack is propagating within the plastic
zone stemming from the overload. Luckily, simple fatigue laws, that do not take
retardation effects into account, are usually conservative. However, the most
accurate means of quantifying fatigue life under variable amplitude loading is
today a cycle.-by-cycle integration of a crack propagation law that takes
retardation effects into account.

SHORT AND LONG CRACKS

Short cracks can be divided into two categories, microstructurally short and
mechanically short cracks.

The microstructurally short cracks have a size up to some grain diameters.

They are interacting closely with the microstructure. This leads to severe
problems in determining the crack growth behavior since, at this scale, the
material can not be considered homogenous. This leads to a oscillatory growth
rate behavior as the crack propagates through grains and boundaries. More
information is given in [2].

Cracks shorter than some mm:s are often considered mechanically short. They
are long enough for continuum theory to be applicable (i.e. the surrounding
material to be considered homogenous), but the cracks do not behave as long
cracks. They typically grow faster than long cracks which experience similar
8 (10)

DK-levels. This is due to the plastic zone size which, for small cracks, is
significant compared to the crack size (compare with the Irwin plastic zone
correction). Also, the crack closure load is higher for small cracks (especially for
low DK magnitudes), which leads to a higher DKeff-value than for corresponding
long cracks.
Comment: The latter can be motivated by the fact that a short crack has a larger portion of
uncracked materia in its surrounding that unloads the crack faces.
For small magnitudes of DK (region I in FIG. 1), the crack propagation is, as
mentioned above, difficult to predict. It is very dependent on microstructure
and flow properties of the material and the growth may experience an arrest.
The crack growth rate is sensitive to the size of the grains in this region.
However, it is rather difficult to predict in which manner, since finer grains will
lead to a closer spacing of grain boundaries, which the crack has to break
through. Also, the yield stress will probably increase. On the other hand, the
roughness of the crack will decrease with decreased grain size an this will lead
to less roughness induced crack closure and higher DKeff magnitudes.

For larger magnitudes of DK, the crack growth rate will be governed by a power
law (such as Paris law). In this region (region II in FIG. 1), the crack growth rate
is fairly insensitive to the microstructure (however, the constants m and C are
different for different materials).

If the stress intensity ratio is increased even further (region III in FIG. 1), the
crack growth rate will accelerate. Finally fracture will occur. The behavior of
this fracture is rather sensitive to the microstructure and flow properties of the
material.

DESIGNING AGAINST FATIGUE Ð DAMAGE TOLERANCE METHODOLOGY

The steps in this design process is as follows.
❏ For a certain component, subjected to a certain loading, a critical flaw
size, ac, is estimated. If a flaw of this size exists in the component, it
will lead to fracture.
❏ A safety factor is applied to the critical flaw size in order to define a
tolerable flaw size at. Preferably, this size should be chosen such that
it would take a reasonable amount of time to propagate the crack
from at to ac.
❏ Now, the component is subjected to inspections and an initial flaw
size a0 is set as the largest flaw size this inspection could have
missed (note that this value should be much larger than the detect-
ability limit, which is the smallest crack that might be detected ).
❏ The time to grow the crack from a0 to at is computed. The time in-be-
tween the inspections should be lesser than this time. Preferably, one
inspection should be able to miss the crack without a failure of the
 9 (10)

component (i.e. the time should be at least twice the growth time).
❏ If a crack is detected, there are two possibilities. The first is to repair
the component (or take it out of service). The second possibility is to
make a new inspection at a time which is smaller than the computed
time for the crack to grow from the detected length to a t.

This approach can be combined with an analysis to ensure that the failure of a
component will not lead to catastrophic failure of the structure.

REFERENCES
1. Andersson T.L., FRACTURE MECHANICS, CRC-Press,
2. McDowell, D. L., BASIC ISSUES IN THE MECHANICS OF HIGH CYCLE METAL
FATIGUE, Int. J of Fract., vol.80, pp.103-145, 1996

APPENDIX
MATLAB code used to plot diagrams in the text above.

CRACKCLOSE.M
% MATLAB-program to study the influence of crack
% closure on crack propagation treshold.
% The equation plotted is (10.17) in Andersson -
% ÒFracture MechanicsÓ
% I.e. da/dN/C=( (1/(1-R) - Kop/dK )*dK )^m
% -> da/dN/(C*Kop^m)=1/(1-R)*(dK^m/Kop^m) -dK^(m-1)/Kop^(m-1)

% Assignment of constants
R0=0;
R2=.2;
R4=.4;
R6=.6;
R_2=-.2;
R_4=-.4;
R_6=-.6;
m=3;

% Use dK/Kop as parameter

dkkop=0:0.05:10;
10 (10)

% Calculate results for different R-ratios

% Use the expression above to calculate the nondimensional
% crack growth rate
dadn0=1./(1-R0).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn2=1./(1-R2).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn4=1./(1-R4).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn6=1./(1-R6).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn_2=1./(1-R_2).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn_4=1./(1-R_4).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);
dadn_6=1./(1-R_6).*dkkop.^m-dkkop.^(m-1);

% Plot the results in a log-log-diagram

loglog(dkkop,dadn_6,Õ--Õ,dkkop,dadn_4,Õ:Õ,dkkop,dadn_2,Õ*Õ,...
dkkop,dadn0,ÕoÕ,dkkop,dadn2,ÕxÕ,dkkop,dadn4,Õ.Õ,dkkop,dadn6)
axis ([0.1 10 0.01 100])
legend(ÔR=-0.6Õ,ÕR=-0.4Õ,ÕR=-0.2Õ,ÕR=0Õ,ÕR=0.2Õ,ÕR=0.4Õ,ÕR=0.6Õ)
xlabel(Ô\DeltaK\divKopÕ)
ylabel(Ôda\divdN \times 1\div(C\timesKop^m)Õ)