Some considerations on fatigue crack closure at near-threshold stress intensities due to fracture surface morphology

It is noted that at near-threshold levels, in addition to the role of plasticity-and oxide-induced crackclosure, fracture surface roughness or morphology may promote significant closure effects in plane strain, as similarly noted by Minakawa and McEvily.This is considered to result from the fact that, where maximum plastic zones sizes are small compared to the grain size, fatigue crack growth proceeds by a single shear decohesion mechanism (Stage I) with associated Mode II+I displacements. The resulting serrated or faceted fracture surfaces (“microstructurally-sensitive growth”) coupled with Mode II crack tip displacements thus induce high closure loads (i.e., K cl/K max ~0.5) by wedging the crack open at discrete contact points. At higher growth rates where the plastic zone encompasses many grains, striation growthvia alternating or simultaneous shear mechanisms (Stage II) produces a more planar fracture surface, with pure Mode I displacements, and a corresponding reduction in closure loads. Such concepts of roughness-induced closure are shown to be consistent with observations of the role of coarse grain sizes in reducing near-threshold crack growth rates at low load ratios and of the absence of this effect at high load ratios.