FCP Report No. 133

Mechanics Aspects of Crack Closure

by

Paul L. Lalor
Materials and Design Division
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Abstract

The discovery by Elber [1-3] of the crack closure phenomenon has provided a rationale for, among other things, fatigue thresholds, stress ratio and overload effects on crack growth, and recently, ‘small crack’ behavior in fatigue. To date, much of the work in the field of crack closure has been experimental and has been limited to cases where linear elastic fracture mechanics representations were valid. Relatively few mechanics analyses of the crack opening and closure phenomenon have been performed in the elastic and inelastic cycling regime. The need exists for developing such analyses to provide insight into material factors and the nature of the applied loading that contribute to crack opening and closure behavior.

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