A plasticity-induced crack-closure model was used to study fatigue crack growth and closure in thin 2024-T3 aluminum alloy under constant-R and constant-Kmax threshold testing procedures. Two methods of calculating crack-opening stresses were compared. One method was based on contact-K analyses and the other on contact crack-openingdisplacement (COD) analyses. These methods gave nearly identica...

A major part of fracture mechanics is concerned with studying the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. This typically requires constant monitoring of crack growth during fatigue cycles which necessitates automation of the whole process. If the rate of crack growth can be determined the experimenter can vary externally controlled parameters such as load level, load cycle frequency and s...

The interior defect-induced fracture of surface-hardened metallic materials in the long life region has become a key issue on engineering design. In the present study, the axial loading test with fully reversed condition was performed to examine the fatigue property of a surface-carburized low alloy gear steel in the long life region. Results show that this steel represents the duplex S-N (stre...

An assessment of the effects of microstructure on room temperature fatigue crack initiation and short crack propagation in a Ni-base superalloy is presented. The assessment was carried out on microstructural variants of U720Li, including as-received U720Li, U720Li-LG (large grain variant) and U720Li-LP (large intragranular coherent γ′ variant). Fatigue tests were carried out at room temperature...

The role of crack-tip shielding in in ̄uencing mixed-mode (mode I‡ II) fatigue-crack growth thresholds for large, through-thickness cracks in a Ti±6Al±4V turbine blade alloy is examined under high-cycle fatigue loading conditions, i.e., at a loading frequency of 1000 Hz in ambient temperature air for load ratios (Kmin=Kmax) of R ˆ 0:1±0.8. Techniques are developed to quantify crack-tip shielding...

An understanding of the evolution of toughness is essential for the mechanistic interpretation of the fracture of cortical bone. In the present study, in vitro fracture experiments were conducted on human cortical bone in order to identify and quantitatively assess the salient toughening mechanisms. The fracture toughness was found to rise linearly with crack extension (i.e., rising resistance-...

Although the propagation of fatigue cracks has been recognized as a problem of clinical significance in dentin, there have been few fracture mechanics-based studies that have investigated this issue. In the present study, in vitro cyclic fatigue experiments were conducted over a range of cyclic frequencies (1-50 Hz) on elephant dentin in order to quantify fatigue-crack growth behavior from the ...