Crack closure and growth behavior of short fatigue cracks under random loading (part II: gorwth behavior and growth life prediction)

Crack closure and growth behavior of physically short fatigue cracks under random loading are investigated by performing narrow - and wide - band random loading tests for various stress ratios. The importance of the crack closure phenomenon is examined by predicting the growth lives of short cracks using obtained crack opening behavior. Artificially prepared two-dimensional, short through-thickness cracks are used. The crack opening load of short cracks is much lower under random loading than under constant-amplitude loading corresponding to the largest load cycle in a random load history. This result indicates that the largest load cycle in a random load history has an effect to enhance crack opening of short cracks. Most of the life prediction ratios are within the factor of 2 scatter band except several data at very short crack sizes, indicating that crack growth predictions based on the measured crack opening data are excellent. From the results obtained in this study, it can be concluded that crack closure is the primary factor governing fatigue crack growth of short cracks under random loading as well as under constant-amplitude loading