Investigation of plasticity-induced fatigue crack closure

Abstract

Abstract: Plasticity induced crack closure and constraint effects due to finite plate thickness are both fundamental aspects in the mechanics of fatigue cracks. Moreover, plasticity induced crack closure provides an effective first-order correction to the crack driving force, as used in the correlation and prediction of fatigue crack growth. The approach developed in this study utilises the distributed dislocation technique to model fatigue cracks growing under constant amplitude loading in finite thickness plates. Numerical results are obtained through the application of Gauss-Chebyshev quadrature and are presented for the crack opening stress ratio. An excellent agreement is observed with previous three-dimensional finite element studies.