Fo. Riemelmoser et R. Pippan, CRACK CLOSURE - A CONCEPT OF FATIGUE-CRACK GROWTH UNDER EXAMINATION, Fatigue & fracture of engineering materials & structures, 20(11), 1997, pp. 1529-1540
In recent literature it is asserted that the concept of crack closure
in fatigue fracture mechanics is not capable of explaining fatigue cra
ck growth behaviour. The reasons given are that both asperity induced
crack closure and plasticity induced crack closure should be either ne
gligible or non-existent. We have re-considered these hypotheses since
their correctness would completely change the established picture of
fatigue crack growth. In order to get mathematically tractable systems
the present studies are confined to long cracks loaded in mode I. The
results suggest that in case of asperity induced crack closure the pr
oposed hypothesis is only true in special cases and the demonstration
of the non-existence of plasticity induced crack closure is proved to
be wrong.