Fatigue Crack Propagation

Syed Wilayat Husain

June 23, 2021

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Ductile fracture could be a life saver while brittle
fracture gives no warning. Overload Failures

Life usually is not simple.

Is ductility always good?

Let us look at the real world

Vibrations, cyclic stresses

High Temperature
Corrosive Environments
Enemies of High Strength Alloys
Enemies joining hands 2
 Fatigue
Answer the following questions related to Fatigue Failure:

• Why Fatigue is a big concern

• Why Cyclic (alternating) stress is required for fatigue failure
• How can we deal with frequent fatigue failures of a particular
component
• How can we assess remaining life of a component in which
fatigue crack has started.
• Why we may not see beach marks

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 Fatigue Failure

It has been recognized that a metal subjected to a

repetitive or fluctuating stress will fail at a stress
much lower than that required to cause failure on a
single application of load. Failures occurring under
conditions of dynamic loading are called fatigue
failures. Getting Tired

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 Fatigue of Metals
• Failure under cyclic loading, rotational, vibrational, etc.

• On microscopic scale, the stress can be much higher around

discontinuities such as surface notches or inherent defects in
the material. Micro-cracks form around these defects which
grow with cycles.

• As long as they stay under the critical value for the toughness
of the material, it is considered sub-critical crack growth. When
this critical value is exceeded, the crack growth becomes
unstable and the component usually fails catastrophically.

• Inspection techniques to monitor growth of cracks are

important for parts in service, such as aircraft components.

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 Jack hammer component,
shows no yielding before
fracture.

Crack initiation site

Fracture zone
Propagation zone, striation
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VW crank shaft – fatigue failure due to cyclic bending and torsional stresses

Propagation
zone, striations

Crack initiation site Fracture area

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928 Porsche timing pulley

Crack started at the fillet 8

Crank shaft

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Hawaii, Aloha Flight 243, a Boeing 737, an upper part of the plane's cabin
area rips off in mid-flight. Metal fatigue was the cause of the failure.

MAE dept., SJSU 10

 Fracture Surface Characteristics

Mode of fracture Typical surface characteristics

Ductile Cup and Cone
Dull Surface
Dimples
Inclusion at the bottom of the dimple

Brittle Intergranular Shiny

Grain Boundary cracking

Brittle Transgranular Shiny

Cleavage fractures
Flat

Fatigue Beachmarks
Striations (SEM)
Initiation sites
Propagation zone
Final fracture zone
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 Fatigue, Characterization

• The typical measure of fatigue resistance is expressed in terms

of numbers of cycles to failure.

• For a given number of cycles (required in an application),

sometimes the stress (that can be safely endured by the
material) is specified.

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 S-N Curves
• S-N Stress-Number of cycles to failure Curve

• Rotating-beam fatigue test is standard;

also alternating
tension-compression.

• Plot stress versus log(Nf).

• For frequencies < 200Hz,

metals are insensitive to
frequency; fatigue life in
polymers is frequency
dependent.
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 Fatigue testing, S-N curve
smean 3 > smean 2 > smean 1 The greater the number of
sa cycles in the loading
history, the smaller the
smean 1 stress that the material can
withstand without failure.
smean 2
xxxxxxx

smean 3 Statistical approach shows

log Nf significant distribution in Nf
for given stress.

Note the presence of a

fatigue limit in many
steels & Titanium alloys and
its absence in aluminum and
copper alloys.
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 Endurance Limits
• Some materials exhibit endurance limits, i.e. a stress below
which the life is infinite: Steels, Titanium Alloys ~ 0.5 UTS

• This is typically associated with the presence of interstitial solute

atoms (carbon, nitrogen) that pin dislocations and prevent
dislocation motion at small displacements or strains (which is
apparent in an upper yield point).

• Aluminum and Copper alloys do not show endurance limits; this

is related to the absence of dislocation-pinning solutes.

• At large Nf, the lifetime is dominated by nucleation.

Therefore strengthening the surface (shot peening) is beneficial
to delay crack nucleation and extend life.
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Alternating Stress Diagrams

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 Effect of Mean Stress
• Alternating stress  sa = (smax-smin)/2
• Raising the mean stress (sm) decreases Nf
• Various relations between fatigue limit at zero mean stress
and the ultimate (or yield) stress are known

sa

smean tensile strength 17

 *Variable Stress/Strain Histories
Cumulative Damage

• When the stress/strain history is stochastically

varying, a rule for combining portions of fatigue life is
needed.
• Palmgren-Miner Rule is useful: ni is the number of
cycles at each stress level, and Nfi is the failure point
for that stress.
ni
 1
i N fi
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 Cyclic Strain Control
• Strain is a more logical independent variable for
characterization of fatigue.
• Define an elastic strain range as ∆eel = ∆s/E.
• Define a plastic strain range, ∆epl.
• Typically observe a change in slope between the
elastic and plastic regimes.
• Low cycle fatigue (small Nf) dominated by plastic
strain: high cycle fatigue (large Nf) dominated by
elastic strain.

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Strain amplitude - cycles

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 Cyclic Strain control: low cycle

• Fatigue life: Coffin Manson relation:

e p
 
c
 e f 2N f
2

• ef ~ true fracture strain; close to tensile

ductility
• c ≈ -0.5 to -0.7

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 Total strain (plastic+elastic) life
• Low cycle = plastic control: slope = c
• Add the elastic and plastic strains.
 e el e pl s f
   
b c
   2N f  e f 2N f
2 2 2 E
• Cross-over between elastic and plastic control is
typically at Nf = 103 cycles.
• Ductility useful for low-cycle; strength for high cycle
• Examples of Maraging steel for high cycle endurance,
annealed 4340 for low cycle fatigue strength.

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Fatigue fracture
surface
Fatigue failure surfaces have three
characteristic features:
–A (near-)surface defect as the
origin of the crack
–Striations corresponding to
slow, intermittent crack growth
–Dull, fibrous brittle fracture
surface (rapid growth)

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 Fatigue: Crack initiation and propagation
 Crack initiation: Quality of surface and sites of stress
concentration
(microcracks, scratches, indents, interior corners, dislocation slip
steps, etc.).
 Crack propagation
 I: Slow propagation along crystal planes with
high resolved shear stress. Involves a few
grains.
Flat fracture surface

 II: Fast propagation perpendicular to applied

stress.
Crack grows by repetitive blunting and
sharpening process at crack tip. Rough
fracture surface.

 Crack eventually reaches critical dimension and propagates very

rapidly
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 Fatigue Crack Nucleation
• Flaws, cracks, voids can all act as crack
nucleation sites, especially at the surface.
• Therefore, smooth surfaces increase the time
to nucleation; notches, stress raisers decrease
fatigue life.
• Dislocation activity (slip) can also nucleate
fatigue cracks.

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 Dislocation Slip Crack Nucleation

• Dislocation slip -> tendency to localize slip in bands

• Persistent Slip Bands (PSB’s) characteristic of cyclic strains
• Slip Bands -> extrusion at free surface
• Extrusions - intrusions and crack nucleation

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Fatigue Crack Nucleation Process
Fatigue crack Growth

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stage I growth on shear
planes (45°),
strong influence of
microstructure

stage II growth normal to

tensile load (90°)
 Mechanical Aspects

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 Mechanical Aspects

Crack Propagation

This crack . . . . . . . grows at the same rate as this one

if both experience the same stress intensity factors

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 *Paris Law

da
• Paris Law:  A(K ) m
dN

da
log( )  log A  m log(K )
dN

• m ~ 3 (steel); m ~ 4 (aluminum)

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 Striations - Life
• Striations occur by development of slip bands in each
cycle, followed by tip blunting, followed by closure.
• Can integrate the growth rate to obtain cycles
cf
dc
N II  
c0 dc / dN
dc
 A(K ) m
dN

cf
dc
N II  
A s c 
m m
c0
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 Striations, contd.
• Provided that m>2 and  is constant, can integrate.

A1s  m 1m / 2  1m / 2 

NII 
(m / 2)  1
c0 cf 
• If the initial crack length is much less than the final
length, c0 < cf, then approximate thus:

A1s  m 1m / 2 
NII  c0
(m / 2)  1
• Can use this to predict fatigue life based on known crack

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 *Damage Tolerant Design

• Calculate expected growth rates from dc/dN data.

• Perform NDE on all critical components.
• If crack is found, calculate the expected life of the
component.
• Replace, rebuild if too close to life limit.

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 Geometrical effects
• Notches decrease fatigue life through stress concentration.

• Increasing specimen size lowers fatigue life.

• Surface roughness lowers life, again through stress concentration.

• Moderate compressive stress at the surface increases life (shot

peening); it is harder to nucleate a crack when the local stress
state opposes crack opening.

• Corrosive environment lowers life; corrosion either increases the

rate at which material is removed from the crack tip and/or it
produces material on the crack surfaces that forces the crack
open (e.g. oxidation). Chemical reactions induce pits which act as
stress raisers.

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 Microstructure affects Crack Nucleation

• The main effect of da/dN

microstructure (defects,
surface treatment, etc.) is
almost all in the low stress I
intensity regime, i.e. Stage I.
Defects, for example, make II ∆Kc
it easier to nucleate a crack,
which translates into a III
lower threshold for crack
propagation (∆Kth).
• Microstructure also affects
fracture toughness and
therefore Stage III.

∆Kth ∆K 42
 Cleanliness effect on fatigue
• Inclusions nucleate cracks
 cleanliness (w.r.t.
coarse particles)
improves fatigue life, e.g.
7475 improved by lower
Fe+Si compared to 7075:

• 0.12Fe in 7475, compared

to 0.5Fe in 7075;
0.1Si in 7475, compared
to 0.4Si in 7075.

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 Casting porosity affects fatigue
Gravity cast
versus
squeeze cast
versus
wrought
Al-7010

• Casting tends to result in porosity. Pores are effective sites for

nucleation of fatigue cracks. Castings thus tend to have lower
fatigue resistance than wrought materials.
• Casting technologies that reduce porosity tend to eliminate this
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difference.
 Alloy steel heat treatment
• Increasing hardness tends to raise the endurance limit for
high cycle fatigue. This is largely a function of the
resistance to fatigue crack formation (Stage I in a plot of
da/dN).

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 Titanium alloys

• For many Ti alloys, the proportion of hcp (alpha) and bcc (beta) phases
depends strongly on the heat treatment. Cooling from the two-phase region
results in a two-phase structure. Rapid cooling from above the transus in the
single phase (beta) region results in a two-phase microstructure with
Widmanstätten laths of (martensitic) alpha in a beta matrix,
• The fatigue properties of the two-phase structure are significantly better (more
resistance to fatigue crack formation) than the Widmanstätten structure.
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• .
 Fatigue: Summary

• practical use of structural materials.

• Fatigue affects most structural components, even
apparently statically loaded ones.
• So many variables
• Lot of work
• Important in DTA
• ******

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Thanks for Patience

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 *Design Considerations
• If crack growth rates are normalized by the elastic
modulus, then material dependence is mostly
removed!
• Can distinguish between intrinsic fatigue [use Eq.
12.4 for combined elastic, plastic strain range] for
small crack sizes and extrinsic fatigue [use Eq.
12.6 for crack growth rate controlled] at longer
crack lengths.
• Inspection of design charts, shows that ceramics
sensitive to crack propagation (high endurance
limit in relation to fatigue threshold).

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 *Design Considerations: 2
• Metals show a higher fatigue threshold in relation to
their endurance limit. PMMA and Mg are at the
lower end of the toughness range in their class.
• Also interesting to compare fracture toughness with
fatigue threshold.
• Note that ceramics are almost on ratio=1 line,
whereas metals tend to lie well below, i.e. fatigue is
more significant criterion.

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 Slip steps
and the
stress-strain
loop

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 Defects in Materials
• Voids are introduced either by gas evolution in solidification
or by incomplete sintering in powder consolidation.
• Inclusions are second phases entrained in a material during
solidification. In metals, inclusions are generally oxides from
the surface of the metal melt, or a slag.
• Grain boundary films are common in ceramics as glassy films
from impurities.
• In aluminum alloys, there is a hierachy of names for second
phase particles; inclusions are unwanted oxides (e.g. Al2O3);
dispersoids are intermetallic particles that, once precipitated,
are thermodynamically stable (e.g. AlFeSi compounds);
precipitates are intermetallic particles that can be dissolved or
precipitated depending on temperature (e.g. AlCu
compounds).
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 Metallurgical Control: fine particles
• Tendency to localization of
flow is deleterious to the
initiation of fatigue cracks,
e.g. Al-7050 with non-
shearable vs. shearable
precipitates (Stage I in a
da/dN plot). Also Al-Cu-
Mg with shearable
precipitates but non-
shearable dispersoids, vs.
only shearable ppts.

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*Fatigue
property
map

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*Fatigue
property
map

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 Strain
control of
fatigue

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 Fatigue Crack Propagation
• Three stages of crack
da/dN
growth, I, II and III.
• Stage I: transition to a finite
crack growth rate from no I
propagation below a
threshold value of ∆K. II ∆Kc
• Stage II: “power law” III
dependence of crack
growth rate on ∆K.
• Stage III: acceleration of
growth rate with ∆K,
approaching catastrophic
fracture.

∆Kth ∆K 69
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 Endurance Limits / Fatigue Strength
Typical values of the limit (Se) for steels are 1/2 the ultimate
tensile strength, to a maximum of 100 ksi (690 MPa).

For iron, aluminium, and copper alloys, Se is typically 0.4

times the ultimate tensile strength. Maximum typical values
for irons are 24 ksi (165 MPa), aluminums 19 ksi (131 MPa),
and coppers 14 ksi (96 MPa).

Note that these values are for smooth "un-notched" test

specimens. The endurance limit for notched specimens (and
thus for many practical design situations) is significantly
lower.

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 Definitions: Stress Ratios
• Alternating Stress  s a
• Mean stress  sm = (smax +smin)/2
• Pure sine wave  Mean stress=0
• Stress ratio  R = smin/smax
• For sm = 0, R=-1
• Amplitude ratio  A = (1-R)/(1+R).

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 Effect of Mean Stress
• Alternating stress  sa = (smax-smin)/2
• Raising the mean stress (sm) decreases Nf
• Various relations between fatigue limit at zero mean stress
and the ultimate (or yield) stress are known as
• Soderberg (linear to yield stress)
• Goodman (linear to ultimate) and
• Gerber (parabolic to ultimate)

endurance limit at zero mean stress

 s mean 
sa s a  s fat 1  
 tensile strength

smean tensile strength 79