A Model of Fatigue Crack Growth Based on Damage Accumulation

A fatigue crack growth model based on cumulative damage is presented, when a material element ahead of the crack tip, is approached by the tip of the crack. The cyclic plastic zone and process zone ahead of the crack tip are taken as the area where damage accumulation takes place when the material element, first, enters into the cyclic plastic zone and then into the process zone. During this period, the Coffin-Manson damage law in conjunction with Miner’s linear damage accumulation is used to determine the damage in the material element. A constant strain gradient was assumed along the process zone ahead of the crack tip and the size of process zone was taken to be variable and dependent on the range of stress intensity factor. For a cyclic loading, the effective crack driving force takes into consideration the crack tip blunting process. The model results are in good agreement with experimental data available in literature for a number of materials.