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© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25 1
2 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 3
helped to discover special features such as striations, Plasticity originating from the crack tip does not in-
which indicate the cycle per cycle nature of crack duce crack closure and closure arising from asperity
growth.22 The application of the fracture mechanics ridges due to oxides, corrosion products or surface
started with the use of the stress intensity factor range roughness is small and insignificant unless the crack
to describe fatigue crack propagation by Paris23 in the is completely packed with asperities.
beginning of the 1960s. Rice introduced a simple trans-
Despite some intense discussions45–49 and attempts of
formation scheme24 and suggested that the cyclic defor-
clarification,50–54 some discrepancies regarding the im-
mation in front of a crack could be described by the
portance of crack closure seem to be unsolved. The basic
same equations as in the case of monotonic loading.
questions are as follows:
One has only to exchange the stress intensity factor K
by the stress intensity factor range ΔK = KmaxKmin, • Can da/dN be described solely by ΔKeff (or another
and the yield stress becomes twice the monotonic yield effective driving force, for example, ΔJeff) and
stress. Hence, the cyclic plastic zone, the cyclic plastic • Can ΔKeff be simply calculated by
strain in front of the crack tip and the cyclic crack tip
opening displacement is only a function of the ΔK and ΔK eff ¼ K max K cl (1)
the cyclic plastic properties of the material. At the same
time, the first damage24 and geometrical deformation
where Kmax is the maximum of the stress intensity
models2–5 were proposed to explain the fatigue crack
factor and Kcl is the stress intensity factor where the first
propagation behaviour.
fracture surface contact takes place.
In 1970, Elber25,26 discovered that a contact between
This review will try to shed light onto some of these
the fracture surfaces could take place even during cyclic
discrepancies and will point out a few important open
tensile loading. He attributed the occurrence of this
questions.
fracture surface contact to the plastic deformation in the
wake of a growing crack. This mechanism is nowadays
usually called plasticity-induced crack closure. During
CLOSURE MECHANISMS
the following decade, several other mechanisms responsi-
ble for premature contact of the fracture surface were
In this chapter, the physical origin of plasticity-induced,
proposed: roughness-induced crack closure,27–31 oxide-
roughness-induced and oxide-induced crack closures will
induced crack closure or often termed corrosion
be discussed. As mentioned in the Introduction, they are
debris-induced crack closure32–37 and phase
especially important in ductile materials. Ligament and
transformation-induced crack closure.37–39
fibre bridging as well as sliding crack surface interference
A further important finding in the 1970s was the
will not be considered here. In the latter case, ΔKeff can
so-called short crack effect,40–43 which means that at the
definitely not be determined by Eq. (1), because there ex-
same driving force, ΔK, short cracks grow faster than
ists no defined Kcl. For the determination of the effective
long cracks, and short cracks can propagate even below
ΔK, the load transfer between the crack flanks at Kmin and
the ΔKth of a long crack. In the 1980s, it was shown that
Kmax would have to be known. In this case, a possible
it was very helpful to subdivide the short crack phenom-
method to determine experimentally the effective ΔK
ena into different types of short cracks, namely,
would be given by an accurate analysis of the near crack
microstructurally short, mechanically short, physically
tip opening displacement.13 Because of the 3D shape of
short and chemically short cracks.11,41
the crack, and when additionally plasticity is involved,
Most of the studies in the last four decades used the
this analysis can be quite difficult and is not in focus of
crack closure effect as a key to understand the effects of
this paper.
load ratio and load interaction, the behaviour of physi-
cally short cracks and many of the microstructural effects
Plasticity-induced crack closure
on fatigue crack propagation. Despite the huge number
of studies supporting the importance of crack closure, For the explanation of the plasticity-induced crack clo-
there are several papers that noticed doubts on this con- sure, one has to distinguish between plane strain and
cept; see, for example, Refs. [37, 44, 45]. plane stress case. For the plasticity-induced crack closure
In particular, plasticity-induced crack closure under under plane stress condition, the explanation is simple,
plane strain loading conditions has been mistrusted, and it is well accepted in the fatigue community.
along with roughness-induced and debris-induced crack Under plane stress conditions, the volume elements in
closures. The criticisms were most clearly pointed out the plastic zone are elongated. This elongation is mainly
in a paper of Louat et al. with the following balanced by an out of the plane flow of the material – that
statement44: is, the thickness within the plastic zone is reduced, as
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
4 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 5
Fig. 2 Illustration of the effect of the plastic wake under plane strain and small-scale yielding conditions on a growing fatigue crack loaded
under constant ΔK. (a) The plastic shear deformation induces a material transport to the crack tip shown as a consequence of geometrically
necessary dislocations in the crack wake. (b) The rotation of the volume elements is visualized from the dislocation point of view: to realize the
shear deformation, the geometrically necessary dislocations are arranged for simplicity in a single band and induce the lattice rotation.59 (c)
Rotational transport of the material from continuum mechanics point of view for a single volume element and (d) for an arrangement of
volume elements forming a growing crack.51 The shear deformation opens the crack, and without an elastic constraint, this shear deformation
would result in a continuous increase of the crack opening displacement with increasing distance from the crack tip. In the unloaded case, the
elastic constraint reduces the crack tip opening at lager distances from the crack tip to zero, causes a rotation of the volume elements and
closing of the crack in the vicinity of the crack tip. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Fig. 3 Schematic illustrations of the effect of the plastic deformation of a growing crack illustrated for one specimen half. The resulting
displacements are enlarged compared with the size of the plastic zone. (a) Displacement field and the remaining contour, under plane strain
conditions; at larger distances from the crack tip, the rotation induced from the shear deformation remains, only near the crack tip a hump is
formed with an extension of the size of the monotonic plastic zone. (b) Displacement field and the resulting contour in the plane stress case.
Here, the elongation of the volume elements in the plastic wake form a wedge with a constant thickness, even a small effect of shearing takes
place (for details, see Ref. [67]). The effect of an overload on the ‘crack’ contour in the case of an overload is depicted for the plane strain (c)
and the plane stress (d) cases. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
6 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
Fig. 5 Illustration of the origin of the residual displacement difference Δu1 between the fracture surfaces. (a) From the dislocation point of
view, the crystal anisotropy in the wake of the crack causes an asymmetric arrangement of the geometrically necessary dislocations.69 (b)
From the continuum mechanics view, an asymmetric plastic zone develops in the crack wake. The variations in the displacement field on
opposite sides of the crack wake are displayed by red (5a) and white (5b) lines. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 7
zone is larger than the grain size, that is, the monotonic
plastic zone contains many grains, the asymmetric defor-
mation resulting from the crystal anisotropy is reduced.
A simple estimation of the local misfit of fracture sur-
faces Δu1 is given by
b x2
Δu1 ¼ α x2 ¼ ; (2)
d1
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8 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
triaxiality or to a local more plane stress state deforma- Riemelmoser et al.54 studied the effect of different
tion. This can lead again to an in and out-of-plane flow asperity geometries on the local stress intensities for
of material and form an additional plastic wedge. This linear elastic loaded fatigue cracks. In Fig. 8a, the
type of mixed roughness and plasticity-induced crack dotted line shows the contour of the crack at the first
closure has been discussed elsewhere.75 contact between the asperity and the crack (K = Kcl)
and the full line when the remote load is zero. It
Oxide-induced crack closure should be noted that in this figure, the scale of the
displacement in the x2 direction is enlarged by a factor
The volume of oxides or other corrosion products is typ- of 100. The width of the assumed asperity is 1/1000 of
ically larger than the volume of the corresponding base the distance between the crack tip and the contact (the
material. Hence, the forming of an oxide layer or corro- asperity).
sion debris on the fracture surface can be interpreted as From this figure, it is evident that during further
a wedge which is inserted into the crack. Hence, the re- unloading (K < Kcl), a significant deformation, that is,
duction of the effective stress intensity range due to the reduction of the local stress intensity occurs. In the
oxide-induced crack closure is straight-forward. The im- unloaded case, the local k is not Kcl but only a small por-
portance of the crack closure because of fracture surface tion of Kcl. The contribution to the shielding of the crack
oxidation has been pointed out by a vast number of re- tip is only 0.21 (KclKmin). This is in good agreement
searchers (for example, Refs. [32–36]) at ambient and at with the observation of Herzberg78 and the conclusion
elevated temperatures. drawn by Louat.44
The presence of an atmosphere leads to oxidation of In Fig. 8b, the effect of multiple asperities, where the
freshly formed fracture surfaces, which is often more contour of an unloaded crack with four small asperities,
pronounced in a moist atmosphere.35 The thickness of is plotted. The four asperities are located at 1000, 2000,
the oxide layer on a freshly formed surface in most metals 4000 and 8000 times the width of the contact, and the
and alloys is only a few nanometre at ambient tempera- height is chosen in such a way that all asperities close at
tures. Because of the fracture surface contact by plasticity the same stress intensity factor. Figure 8b illustrates that
and roughness-induced crack closure, the thickness of the the crack tip shielding by these four very small contacts is
oxide layer can significantly increase. The continuous significantly larger compared with the single asperity in
breaking and reforming during the contact and fretting Fig. 8a. This increase in crack tip shielding with increas-
can lead to a build up of oxide layers in the order of ing number of contacts is plotted in Fig. 8c. Equidistant,
100 nm. This build up of thick oxide layers on the frac- small asperities have a width of 1/1000 of the distance
ture surface is very pronounced at low R-ratios and very between the crack tip and the first contact. It can be seen
low crack growth rates, that is, near the threshold. In that 10 very small contacts can cause a crack tip shielding
steels, these thick oxide layers formed at such loading of about 70% of (KclKmin).
condition can easily be seen with the naked eye on the A similar behaviour is observed when the width of the
fracture surfaces due to their black appearance. contacts is increased. Figure 8d shows the contour of the
The oxide-induced crack closure is important for the unloaded crack, where the width of the contact is equal to
explanation of different phenomena near the threshold: the distance between the beginning of the contact and
• The effect of environment, for example, the observa- the crack tip. The height of the contact is equal to the
tion of the larger ΔKth at low R ratios in moist air.35 crack tip opening displacement at the closure stress in-
• The effect of loading procedure to induce a pre-crack tensity factor. A comparison with the contour of the very
on the measured ΔKth72,76,77 small contact in Fig. 8a clearly shows that the elastic re-
• Unexpected load history effects, for example, load am- laxation of the crack tip of the unloaded crack is signifi-
plitudes below the threshold can reduce the growth cantly reduced by the increase of the width of the
rates during the following loading.77 contact; the shielding of the unloaded crack tip is in this
case about 80% of (KclKmin).
In contrast to single asperities, a contact that continu-
Asperity versus wedge-induced crack closure
ously closes from the crack tip, denoted as wedge-like
Herzberg et al.78 performed fatigue crack growth experi- contact, can completely shield the crack tip. Such
ments with single artificial contacts. At relatively large wedges-like contacts are depicted in Fig. 9. However,
distances from the crack tip (between 10 and 20 mm), the wedge must have a certain width, otherwise, the
shims of different thickness were inserted in the mouth stresses at the contacts will be too high, and the wedge
of the opened crack. The reduction in the crack growth will be ‘plastically compressed’. A simple estimation of
rate after introduction of the shims was significantly the minimum size of a wedge causing a complete
smaller than expected from the measured KmaxKop values. shielding, that is, no cyclic plastic deformation should
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 9
Fig. 8 (a) Illustration of the crack contour at the contact load and at zero load; the width of the asperity is 1/1000 of the distance between the
asperity and the crack tip. (b) Crack contour of an unloaded crack with four asperities with a width of 1/1000 of the distance between the first
asperity and the crack tip. (c) Increase of the local stress intensity with increasing number of equidistant asperities (thickness of the asperities is
also 1/1000 of the distance between the first asperity and the crack tip. (d) Effect of the increase of the asperity width on the crack contour. The
assumed width of the asperity is equal to the distance from the asperity to the crack tip. The large effect of the width on the local k is visible by
comparing (a) and (d); see also Refs. [53, 54].
take place, is illustrated in Fig. 9.51,53 At maximum load, calculation of xmin is identical with the derivation of the
an artificial wedge with different sizes is inserted immedi- monotonic plastic zone size. Hence, the minimum length
ately behind the crack tip. In order to estimate the mini- of the wedge required to induce a complete shielding is
mum length of such a wedge, the Dugdale model55 and equal to the size of the monotonic plastic zone (xmin = rpl)
the McClintock–Rice superposition principle24 are used. or 4Δrpl of the closure free crack. A consequence of this
In the Dugdale model, the plastic zone is replaced by a simple estimation is that one always needs a certain crack
narrow strip that extends a distance ω ahead of the crack extension to build-up crack closure, not only for the
tip and is loaded by tractions equal to the yield stress σ y wedge-like contacts of the plasticity-induced or oxide-
over a length xmin. During loading, the tractions cause a induced crack closure but also for the roughness-induced
negative stress intensity factor equal to the stress inten- crack closure.
sity factor induced by the applied far-field loading. The Real cracks at low stress ratios have both type of con-
cyclic plastic zone of a closure free crack is given in the tacts, asperity-like and wedge-like contacts. The afore-
same way as the monotonic plastic zone, with the differ- mentioned estimations show that only from the single
ence that the loading parameter is replaced by the stress (or few) asperity-induced crack closure a determination
intensity range and the tractions by twice the yield stress. of ΔKeff = KmaxKcl overestimates the effect of crack clo-
Figure 9e shows the reduction of the cyclic crack tip sure and underestimates the resulting crack propagation
opening displacement with increasing size of such an rate. However, in most cases, the main problem is not
artificial wedge, which also can transfer stresses up to whether the crack tip is shielded completely below Kcl
the yield stress of the material. If the deformation during or not, but rather the experimental determination of Kcl
complete unloading should be prevented by a wedge with itself, because it is very difficult to detect the first fracture
the minimum width xmin, the tractions induced by the surface contact near the crack tip accurately. The length
wedge should cause the same stress intensity factor as scales involved in this process are quite small as demon-
the far-field loading at maximum load. Therefore, the strated in the next section.
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10 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
Fig. 9 Illustration of the minimum length of a wedge filled into the crack to obtain a certain crack tip shielding. The used Dugdale model is
shown in (a) to (d). (a) Crack tip contour of a closure free loaded crack. (b) Configuration of the completely unloaded crack respectively. (c) and
(d) present the effect of an inserted wedge on deformation. (e) Decrease of the cyclic crack tip opening displacement with increasing width of
the wedge compared with the cyclic crack tip opening displacement without closure.53
The cyclic plastic zone size The large variation of the length scales is clearly evi-
dent from the estimation of the characteristic parameters
ΔK 2 controlling fatigue crack propagation in Table 1. It has to
Δr pl ¼ (4) be noted that the estimation of ΔCTOD near the thresh-
π4σ 2y
old by Eq. 5 significantly overestimates the value; hence,
the variation is even larger.81 This indicates that charac-
and the cyclic plastic crack tip opening displacement teristic dimensions vary between nanometre and metre,
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 11
Table 1 Illustration of the variation of the size of plastic zone, rpl, for stress ratio R = 0, the size of the cyclic plastic zone Δrpl and cyclic crack
tip opening displacement ΔCTOD using the estimations of Eqs 3–5, crack closure for the cyclic values are not taken into account
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12 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
• in situ X-ray tomographic techniques,95–97 does not propagate when it is closed, and it can only
• in situ X-ray stress or strain measurements.95,97 propagate if ΔK is larger than ΔKeff,th, and Kmax is larger
than the Kcl + ΔKeff,th.53,98 Two possible loading proce-
Near crack tip techniques are usually more sensitive to dures to determine Kcl by such method are shown in
measure the fracture surface contacts. However, for some Fig. 12. In both cases, the crack growth experiments are
of them, the sensitivity depends strongly on the distance interrupted at Kmin. In the technique depicted in Fig. 12a,
between the sensor and the crack tip and the contact.86 at first, a very small ΔK, although larger than ΔKeff,th, is
The typical load displacement or load strain curves are applied and increased in steps until the crack starts to
depicted in Fig. 11. In the case of a single asperity located propagate. From the ΔK value where the crack starts to
at larger distances from the crack tip, a well-pronounced propagate, the Kcl can be calculated with
single change of compliance should be observed (Fig. 11a Kcl = KmaxΔKeff,th. Another possibility (Fig. 12b) is to
loading case α). But real fatigue cracks close continuously apply a small ΔK, which is somewhat larger than ΔKeff,th
from the crack tip, caused by plasticity-induced crack and increase the mean load until the crack starts to prop-
closure (and maybe by oxide-induced crack closure) and agate. Kcl can be determined in the same way as in the
some asperities caused by roughness-induced crack clo- first technique.
sure or corrosion debris, which results in a continuous A result of such somewhat modified experiment is
change of the compliance (Fig. 11a loading case γ). In ad- shown in Fig. 13a and b, which was used to determine
dition, the cyclic plastic deformation and friction of the the crack closure load during constant amplitude loading
fracture surfaces result in a small hysteresis of the load dis- in an austenitic steel. The difference between the loading
placement or the load strain curve (compare with Fig. 11a procedure shown in Fig. 12b and the used one in Fig. 13a
loading case δ), which makes the determination of Kcl even is that after each small load step, few constant load ampli-
more difficult. Only a measurement of the strain, the tudes of the base loading were applied. The resulting
stress or the displacement very near the crack tip permits fatigue fracture surface is presented in Fig. 13b. Because
accurate determination of the fracture surface contact of the well-formed striations generated during the base
near the crack tip and to determine accurate the effective loading, the load step where the first crack propagation
fatigue crack driving force (Fig. 11b). When the crack occurred can be clearly detected (load block C), and Kcl
closes over larger distances, the evaluation of the Kcl is can be determined very accurately from the relation
more straightforward. Hence, in most cases, the problem Kcl = KmaxΔKeff th. For comparison, the very near crack
to determine ΔKeff is not that Kcl overestimates the real tip opening displacement measured with a special com-
ΔKeff due to asperity contacts as shown in the last section, pliance technique obtained from direct measurement of
but rather the experimental difficulties with the detection the crack tip deformation was used at the same ΔK and
of the near crack tip contacts. R-ratio (Fig. 14). The two independent measurements
The second group of techniques, the crack propaga- of the closure load are in good agreement. At this rela-
tion techniques, are based on the assumption that a crack tively large ΔK, oxide-induced and roughness-induced
Fig. 11 Schematic illustration of load versus crack opening displacement curves.53 (a) Effect of different contacts, α: single contact at larger
distances from the crack tip, β: two contacts at different distances behind the crack tip, γ: a continuous closing crack and δ a continuous
closing crack where cyclic plastic deformation and friction between the fracture surfaces takes place. (b) Influence of distance between contact
and the position where the displacement is measured. The position of the measurement and the corresponding compliance record are depicted
in the schematic. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 13
Fig. 12 Schematic representation of the loading procedures to measure the crack opening load, Kop, after Ref. [89]. [Colour figure can be
viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
crack closures are not relevant, and the plane strain con- from closing crack flanks.101 The advantage of these
ditions were fulfilled, therefore these experiments clearly methods is that they permit a through thickness evalua-
support the existence of the plasticity-induced crack clo- tion of the closure process. Furthermore, the acoustic
sure under plane strain during constant amplitude load- emission when the crack faces come into contact has been
ing. Kcl is about 0.25 Kmax in the plane strain case, used to determine the closure load.
which is in good agreement with the results of the finite The electrical resistivity of the oxide layer on the
element simulations (for example, Ref. [100]). It should fracture surface of most metals and alloys is very high;
be noted that this is significantly smaller than for the therefore, the change of the potential drop during the
plane stress case where Kcl at R = 0 is about 0.5 Kmax. fracture surface contact is very small. Only for fatigue
The third group of techniques try to measure the crack propagation in high or ultra-high vacuum the clo-
occurrence of a contact by optical,86–89 acoustic101 or sure of the fracture surface contacts significantly effects
electrical methods.102 In transparent materials, optical the potential drop.102 But few friction contacts of the
technics can be used to determine both the change of fracture surface causes potential drop changes during
crack tip opening displacement during the load cycle by the whole loading range, which makes the determina-
a Newton interference method and determine the tion of the mechanically effective contacts difficult. Sim-
contact area and location.88,89 The acoustic methods use ilar problems arise in the use of the acoustic emission
the change of transmission or reflection of acoustic waves method.
Fig. 13 (a) Modified loading procedure to measure the crack opening load with crack propagation technique in materials with a well-defined
striation appearance in fatigue. (b) The resulting fatigue fracture surface of such a test53, the first crack extension at the small load is clearly
visible at the load block C. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
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14 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 15
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16 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
stress state. These experimental results and estimations of However, in the first few cycles after the overload,
the deformation conditions, which have to be taken into cracks propagate faster than before the overload (Fig. 16),
account for an accurate prediction of the propagation and then the crack growth rate decreases below the
behaviour, reflect the complexity of this simple loading growth rate of the base amplitude loading; this phenom-
case. Only a careful 3D finite element simulation of the enon is usually called the delayed retardation. Because of
different loading cases could deliver a description of the the more extensive blunting at the overload, the fracture
observed phenomena. surface contact is reduced or disappears completely,
Besides the loading effect, the influence of how the which causes the initial increase of the crack propagation
plastic properties of the material as cyclic and monotonic rate. On the new fatigue fracture surface generated in the
hardening or softening affect this phenomena is not loading cycles after the overload, the fracture surfaces
analysed in detail. Despite the importance of the predic- come again into contact, and compressive stresses are
tion of crack closure, it is surprising that such basic open transferred; this leads to a continuous decrease of the
questions are not satisfactorily solved.120,125–128 growth rate.99 Because of larger plastic deformation at
the overload, the contact stresses and the region where
this contact stresses act are larger than during constant
Crack closure versus compressive residual stress
amplitude loading. In other words, the closure load is
It is well known that residual stresses significantly affect larger than during the base loading, or the effective stress
the fatigue crack propagation behaviour.1,30,129–131 intensity range is smaller than during base amplitude
Macroscopic residual stresses can be considered as an loading. If not only the residual stresses at the minimum
additional applied static loading, and they change locally load in front of the crack but also the fracture surface
the stress ratio. In special cases, the effect of the residual contacts were taken into account, the residual stress
stresses on the fatigue crack propagation rate can be used concept would allow to describe the delayed retardation
to estimate these local variations of the residual stresses.131 and would be more or less equivalent to the closure
Because of plastic deformation in front of the crack in concept.
an unloaded sample or component, always a characteris-
tic residual stress field remains, depending on the applied
load history. During changes of the load amplitude, the Physically short crack effect
residual stress field changes. There are several authors
Short cracks grow often significantly faster than long
which try to describe the load interaction effects solely
cracks and can propagate below the long crack threshold
by changes of the residual stresses in front of the crack.
stress intensity range. This was first presented by
In principle, such approaches could be used to take into
Pearson.40 A vast number of papers and several confer-
account all effects – stress ratio, load interaction or phys-
ences are devoted to this important problem. In order
ical short crack effects. However, a detailed description of
to understand the different phenomena, it is very helpful
the residual stresses including the contact stresses at the
to divide the different short cracks41,135 into classes.
minimum load in each load cycle should be incorporated.
Such approach is more or less equivalent with a detailed • For microstructurally short cracks, the crack size is com-
description of the cyclic plastic deformation in front of parable or smaller than the characteristic microstruc-
the crack tip in each cycle, which is very difficult. In order tural dimension, such as the grain size or the spacing
to avoid the cumbersome calculations, simple estimations of different phases in composites.
are introduced, which can reflect some observations during • For mechanically short cracks, the plastic zone size is in
variable amplitude loading.132–134 However, several details the order of the crack length or larger, so that small-
cannot be described with such simplifications of the effect scale yielding is not fulfilled, which is often the case
of the residual stresses in front of the crack. For single during low and high cycle fatigue testing of smooth
overload, the arising problems will be shortly discussed. specimens. How crack closure changes for this class
A sufficient large overload induces a ‘residual of cracks will be discussed in the next chapter.
blunting’ that opens the crack (for example, Ref. [99]. Be- • Fatigue cracks or flaws in components where small-
cause of the additional plastic deformation induced by the scale yielding is applicable but crack tip shielding
overload, a larger zone with compressive residual stresses mechanisms not fully developed are denoted as physi-
develops. These larger compressive residual stresses are cally short cracks or extrinsically short cracks.
used to explain the retardation effect.132–134 The largest • In aggressive environments, cracks below a certain
residual stresses in front of the crack are present immedi- crack size behave differently and are termed chemically
ately after the overload, hence the largest reduction of short cracks. This is caused not only by a change of the
the crack propagation rate should be observed immedi- chemical transport in the crack but also by a change of
ately after the overload. asperity-induced crack closure.
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FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 17
Cracks emanating from small flaws or sharp notches and the crack propagation below the long crack thresh-
usually are initially open over the full load range. With old. Therefore, the crack growth of physically short
crack extension, the newly generated fatigue fracture sur- cracks could be either described by the increase of crack
face can come into contact, and the closure stress inten- closure or can be interpreted as an R-curve behaviour of
sity factor increases. This corresponds to the physically fatigue cracks. In fracture mechanics, the increase of the
short crack case. fracture resistance is denoted as an R-curve behaviour.
Figure 17 shows the fatigue crack propagation behav- Such R-curves are depicted in Fig. 18.137 It shows the
iour on very sharp deep notches, in ARMCO iron (tech- necessary ΔK to obtain a certain crack propagation rate.
nically pure Fe). The experiments are performed at Such R-curves for different growth rates are unusual,
constant ΔK at different stress ratios. At stress ratios be- because they are difficult to measure. An exception is
tween 0.5 and 1,136 the crack growth rate is independent the R-curve for the threshold of stress intensity range,
of the crack length measured from the notch root. For which represents the R-curve for da/dN = 0.42,72,75,137–139
smaller stress ratios, the growth rate decreases till it A relatively simple technique to measure such R-
either becomes constant or drops towards zero. For very curves for ΔKth is the stepwise increasing load amplitude
short crack extension, the crack growth rate is indepen- test on deep notched specimens.139 The requirement for
dent of stress ratio and independent whether the experi- such measurement is to produce a pre-crack, which is
ment is performed in remote compression loading open during the full load amplitude and contains no or
(R = 2;∞), tension–compression (R = 1) or in tension at least very small residual stresses in front of the crack.
loading (R = 0.1; 0.5), that is, the effective driving force A load procedure to measure such R-curve for ΔKth is
is always ΔK or Kcl = Kmin. These experimental results shown in Fig. 19. In this case, the pre-crack is generated
clearly show that only the cycle deformation determines in pure compression. The load should be as small as pos-
the crack propagation behaviour, or in other words, the sible (hence a sharp notch is required), and the number of
contribution of the monotonic deformation can be cycles should be relatively large to reduce residual
ignored in this ductile materials at these relatively low stresses to a minimum. The opening stress intensity is
ΔK values. A similar behaviour can be also seen on the in such case about the maximum stress intensity factor
fractograph in Fig. 10b, where the initial decrease of of the pre-cracking (which is zero or a small negative
the growth rate due to the building up of crack closure value) minus the effective threshold of stress intensity
at the beginning loading block with a large load ampli- range. If possible, an annealing to reduce further the
tude is clearly visible. residual stress is an option.
The reduced effect of crack closure in physically short In the stepwise increasing load amplitude test, to mea-
cracks is responsible for the abnormal fast crack growth sure the R-curve for the threshold, one starts with a very
small load amplitude. If ΔK is smaller than ΔKeff,th, no
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
18 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
Fig. 19 Illustration of stepwise increasing load amplitude test to determine the R-curve of the threshold of stress intensity range, the long crack
threshold and the long crack da/dN versus ΔK behaviour. The loading procedure, the resulting crack extension as a function of number of
cycles, the resulting R-curve for ΔKth and da/dN versus ΔK curve are schematically illustrated.139 [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
crack propagation will be observed. If ΔK is larger than From small-scale yielding to large-scale yielding
ΔKeff,th but smaller than the long crack threshold ΔKth,
the crack will start to propagate till the effect of the For long fatigue cracks under small-scale yielding condi-
closure crack reaches a value that ΔKeff ≤ ΔKeff,th. tions, the closure load is always a tensile load. Only im-
If the load amplitude corresponds to a ΔK larger than mediately after an overload or in the case of large
ΔKth, the crack will not stop to propagate, and the stan- compressive contribution with compressive stresses near
dard da/dN versus ΔK behaviour can be determined from the yield stress the opening load or closure load is near
the crack length versus the number of cycles. ΔKeff,th is zero load.141 What happens when the small-scale yield-
between the ΔK values of the load blocks where no crack ing condition is not fulfilled? This question was treated
propagation and the first crack propagation is observed at first by Dowling and Iyyer.142
which might be difficult to measure, especially in high Figure 20 shows this extreme behaviour of the short
strength materials, where the R-curve for ΔKth is often crack under low cycle fatigue loading. The experiment
very steep. The long crack threshold ΔKth lies between at constant strain amplitude was performed in a scanning
the ΔK values of the load blocks where the crack stops electron microscope91 (SEM). The obtained stress–strain
for the last time and the load block where the crack does behaviour and the SEM images of the near crack tip
not stop anymore. From the stopping crack extension regime at the different loads are depicted in Fig. 20.
and corresponding ΔK, the R-curve for ΔKth can be de- Because of the large strain amplitude, a typical hysteresis
termined. The increase of ΔKth in such R-curve can be of the stress–strain curve is observed.
interpreted as the increase of crack closure stress inten- Figure 14 showed also the crack tip opening displace-
sity as a function of the crack length at the threshold of ment measured directly at the crack tip of the same
stress intensity range (for details, see Ref. [139]). austenitic steel (however in a cold worked state) of a long
The short crack behaviour is especially pronounced crack under small-scale yielding conditions with compa-
at low and negative R-ratios, because there, the rable cyclic crack tip opening displacement and compara-
decrease of ΔKeff with increasing crack length is very ble da/dN; for experimental details, see Ref. [9].
pronounced. Furthermore, it should be noted that for The essential differences between small-scale yielding
negative R-ratios, the Kcl (or the closure value) may also and low cycle fatigue are as follows:
depend on the applied minimum stress and not solely • Under small-scale yielding and constant amplitude load-
on the R-ratio as presented in Fig. 17. Especially ing, the crack closure and crack tip opening loads are
pronounced is this effect when the negative applied about equal, but under low cycle fatigue (LCF) loading,
stresses become into the order of the yield stress,140 the crack closure and the crack opening stresses are very
because due to the high contact stresses, the contacts different. The crack closes near the minimum stress
may deform plastically, and the closure value decreases, (Position 4) and opens near the transition from com-
that is, ΔKeff increases. pression to tension (between Positions 6 and 7).
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 19
Fig. 20 Illustration of the crack closure under low cycle fatigue loading (full-scale yielding conditions). Scanning electron microscope images
are taken at different positions of the stress–strain hysteresis curve.91 In this graph, the stresses and strains refer to the uncracked cross-section
of the specimen. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
• For loading with constant strain amplitude, the strain amplitude (Fig. 22). This is especially pronounced when
where the crack closes and opens is equal. Hence, for the plastic strain amplitude becomes very small.
LCF, it makes more sense to define an effective strain The term crack closure has been originally introduced
amplitude and not an effective load or stress amplitude. to incorporate that growing fatigue cracks are not open
The effective strain amplitude during constant strain during the complete tension part of the load amplitude.
amplitude loading is about During LCF loading, the term crack closure is used here
somewhat more general, if a crack is closed over a certain
Δεeff ¼ Δε εy part of the strain amplitude. But we have already seen
that physically short cracks can be open also during the
where εy is the elastic component of the strain amplitude compression phase of the load amplitude; however, the
Δεel/2. In principle, under small-scale yielding, a defini- closure load in this case increases till it reaches the long
tion of an effective strain amplitude is also useful. Be- crack closure value, which is in the tension regime. That
cause of the linear relation between stress and strain, it is different in the LCF regime, where the effective strain
is not important how one evaluates the effective crack amplitude remains relatively constant independent of the
driving force by Δσ eff or Δεeff. crack extension. The crack closure during LCF loading is
The consequence of this change of the closure behav- simply a consequence of the elastic load bearing capacity
iour from the LCF to the small-scale yielding case is of the crack wake. Cyclic creep may shift the opening
schematically depicted in Fig. 21. At large plastic strain load into the compression regime.
amplitudes, considering a strain-controlled experiment, The origin of the crack closure in the LCF regime is
in metallic materials, usually a stress ratio of 1 develops, therefore different to the crack closure under small-scale
independent of the starting condition, hence the sche- yielding condition. Because of the high stresses on the
matic Fig. 21 is drawn for a stress ratio of 1. It is evident crack flanks, which can lead to a plastic deformation of
from this figure that the effect of crack closure is small at a the crack wake, the roughness-induced and oxide-induced
very large strain amplitude and increases with decreasing crack closures are of minor importance in this case. A
strain amplitude. In other words, the ratio of the effective change of the loading amplitude from the LCF to the
driving force to the macroscopic applied crack driving high cycle fatigue regime and the small-scale yielding re-
force decreases significantly with decreasing plastic strain gime will change the closure mechanisms from the simple
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
20 R. PIPPAN AND A. HOHENWARTER
Fig. 21 Illustration of the effect of crack closure on the effective crack driving force in the different loading regimes of fatigue crack propaga-
tion, from full-scale yielding to small-scale yielding.91 [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
© 2017 The Authors Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 00 1–25
FATIGUE CRACK CLOSURE 21
• Plasticity-induced crack closure is in principle predict- 11 Suresh, S. (1991) Fatigue of Materials, Cambridge University
able; however, there are many open questions in the Press: Cambridge.
12 Lawn, B. (1993) Fracture of Brittle Solids, Cambridge University
exact prediction, especially the 3D effects, transition Press: Cambridge.
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effect of cyclic and monotonic softening or hardening bridging tractions during subcritical crack growth under
on the closure behaviour of the crack. monotonic and cyclic fatigue loading in a grain-bridging silicon
• Prediction of roughness-induced and oxide-induced carbide ceramic. Acta Materialia, 46, 609–616.
14 Gilbert, C. J. and Ritchie, R. O. (1997) Mechanisms of cyclic
crack closures requires extensive additional experimen- fatigue crack propagation in a fine grained alumina ceramic:
tal and theoretical studies. the role of crack closure. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering
• Crack closure is not only important under small-scale Materials and Structures, 20, 1453–1466.
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Acknowledgements reinforcement toughening in γ-TiAl intermetallic-matrix
composites: effects on fracture toughness and fatigue-crack
Funding of this work has been provided by the European propagation resistance. Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 42,
893–911.
Research Council under ERC Grant Agreement No.
18 Pippan, R., Höck, M., Tesch, A., Motz, C., Beschliesser, M.
340185 USMS and by the Austrian Science Fund and Kestler, H. (2003) Fracture processes, fracture resistance
(FWF) in the framework of research project P26729- and fatigue crack propagation in gamma TiAl. In: Gamma
N19. Titanium Aluminides 2003 (Edited by Y. W. Kim, H. Clemens
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