Hr. Mayer et al., INFLUENCE OF TRANSFORMATION-INDUCED CRACK CLOSURE ON SLOW FATIGUE-CRACK GROWTH UNDER VARIABLE AMPLITUDE LOADING, Fatigue & fracture of engineering materials & structures, 18(9), 1995, pp. 935-948
Fatigue crack growth under constant and random loading conditions was
investigated for a metastable austenitic-bainitic steel in comparison
with a ferritic chromium steel at very low crack growth rates. Experim
entally determined random crack growth was compared with linear Miner
calculations on the basis of constant amplitude results. It was found
that the measured crack growth rates in transforming material are a fa
ctor of 10 lower than the calculated values, whereas the difference is
only a factor of 2 for the ferritic steel. The reason for the pronoun
ced crack growth retardation in the metastable alloy is transformation
of part of the austenitic phase into martensite in the stress field o
f the crack tip, accompanied by a volume increase and, consequently, r
esidual compressive stresses. Rare high load cycles in the random sequ
ence increase the closure level, which then leads to pronounced retard
ation of fatigue crack growth for the numerous successive low amplitud
e cycles.