MATERIALS

SCIERCE &
ENGINEERING

ELSEVIER Materials Science and Engineering A208 (1996) 181-187

A

Contribution of the cyclic loading portion below the opening load

to fatigue crack growth
D.L. Chen, B. Weiss, R. Stickler
Institute for Physical Chemistry-Materials Science, University of Vienna, Wihringer StraDe 42, A-1090 Vienna, Austria

Received 5 October 1995

Abstract

A simpletest procedureinvolving stressratio changesat the fatigue thresholdis proposedto reveal the role of the lower portion
of the loading cycle below KoPin the fatigue crack growth behaviour. It is observedfor both Al 2024-T3and Al 7475T761 alloys
that the initially non-propagatingfatigue crack at the fatigue threshold resumesgrowth upon diminishingKminwhile keeping
Kth,maxconstant. Theseexperimental findings can be interpreted by meansof a modified crack closureconcept in which the
contribution of the lower portion of the loading cycle below Kop(including also a part of compressiveloading if R < 0) to the
variation in the stressstate experiencedby the fatigue crack tip is taken into account.

Keywords: Fatigue; Fatigue threshold; Effective fatigue threshold; Fatigue crack growth; Crack closure; Aluminium alloy

1. Introduction ranges measured with CMOD gauges seriously underes-

Since the fatigue crack closure effect was discovered
by Christensen [l] in, 1963 and defined by Elber [2] in
1970, numerous papers have been published involving
crack closure mechanisms, models, measurement meth-
ods, affecting factors, etc. The concept of crack closure
has been applied widely to rationalize various aspects
of fatigue crack propagation phenomena, namely the
effects of material properties, microstructures, sample
geometry, loading conditions and environments on the
fatigue crack growth behaviour. In particular, it has
been stated that the near-threshold crack propagation
behaviour cannot be explained if the crack closure
effect is not taken into consideration when calculating
the effective stress intensity range.
However, in recent years some arguments on the
validity of the conventional crack closure concept have
been reported in the literature, e.g. [3-161. For exam-
ple, Vecchio et al. [3] and Garz and James [4] found
that “the conventionally measured closure level bears
little relation to the actual situation at the crack tip”
and concluded that “the use of conventional closure
concept to infer the level of the effective stress intensity
range is called into question”. Hertzberg et al. [7]
observed that “the conventional effective stress intensity
timate the observed crack growth rates in materials”.
Seetharam and Dash [13] pointed out that “the conven-
tional load-CMOD data analysis to obtain the stress
level at which the crack is completely open can fail to
estimate the correct crack driving force”. In particular,
a comparison of the conventional closure measurements
from the round robin tests organized by the authorized
ASTM Task Group E24.04.04 on the same material
and specimen geometry has indicated serious inconsis-
tencies depending on the laboratory, investigator and
technique used. One of the conclusions drawn from this
work was that “scatter of this magnitude would make it
very difficult to develop a clear picture of closure effects
and to verify quantitative models of closure effects
using data from the literature” [9]. Herman et al. [6]
and Finney and Deirmendjian [14] concluded that “the
usefulness of conventional effective stress intensity
range in predicting fatigue crack growth is thus brought
into question”.
More recently, Vasudevan et al. [16] have theoreti-
cally analysed the fatigue crack closure problem by
means of a continuum dislocation approach and found
that “there is no closure from plasticity, either from the
plasticity ahead of the crack tip or from the wake”.
This implies that their conclusions totally denied and

0921-5093/961$15.00 0 1996 - Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved

182 D.L. Chen et al. 1 Matesials Science and Engineering A-708 (1996) 181-157

contravened the very original concept proposed by Table 2

Grain sizes of specimen materials
Elber [2]. From the above statements presented in the
literature, it may be concluded that the conventional Orientation Grain size @m)
crack closure concept seems questionable. The question
arises as to whether the occurrence of these controver- Al 2024-T3 Al 7415-T761
sial and/or contradictory phenomena is only associated
Longitudinal 120 350
with experimental error or due to an inappropriate Transverse 65 150
definition of the conventional effective driving force. In Short transverse 25 20
our previous publications [17-211 we have proposed a
modified crack closure evaluation method by compar-
ing the load-COD (crack-opening displacement) be- controlled servohydraulic fatigue-testing system oper-
haviour of an idealized closure-free crack with that of a ated at room temperature and frequencies of 10 Hz for
realistic closure-affected crack. In this evaluation the Al 2024-T3 and 30 Hz for Al 7475-T761. Crack length
role of the lower portion of the loading cycle below KoP was monitored by a travelling stereo light microscope
in fatigue crack propagation has been taken into ac- coupled with a video system with a resolution of about
count, resulting in a larger effective driving force com- 10 pm. A load-shedding procedure was utilized to
pared with conventional closure evaluation. This paper measure the fatigue crack growth threshold correspond-
is thus aimed at testing the validity of the conventional ing to a crack growth rate da/dN < 10 -I* m cycle --I.
effective driving force concept by examining the contri- After determining the fatigue threshold, a special minia-
bution of the cyclic loading portion below KoP to the ture strain gauge technique [17-211 was applied to
fatigue crack propagation behaviour with the aid of a determine load-COD (near the crack tip) curves for the
stress ratio change experiment at threshold levels for measurement of fatigue crack closure.
two different Al alloys. The stress intensity factor for the centre-cracked ten-
sion specimens was calculated from the simple equation
K = Yo(m~)“~ (1)
2. Materials and experimental techniques
with
Two high strength aluminium alloys, 2024-T3 and 1
7475-T761, were selected -for this investigation. The
y= [l - (2n/W)2]1’2
chemical compositions of the specimen materials are
listed in Table 1. Thermomechanical. pretreatment of the where 0 is the externally applied stress, a is the half-
specimen materials resulted in’a typical elongated pan- crack length, W is the specimen width and Y is a
cake-type structure with grain sizes (measured by the geometric correction factor derived recently by means
mean intercept method) as given in Table 2. The tensile of the force balance method [22].
properties of the test materials are given in Table 3. In order to reveal the role of the lower portion of the
Bar-shaped through-thickness centre-cracked tension loading cycle below Kop in the fatigue crack growth
(CCT) specimens with cross-sections of 20 mm x 5 mm behaviour and further the validity of the conventional
for Al 2024-T3 and 20 mm x 6 mm for’A1 7475-T761 effective driving force concept, a special experimental
were machined (size of centre notch, 3 mm). Fatigue procedure involving a change in stress ratio at the
crack growth tests were conductkd with a computer- fatigue threshold level is applied as shown schematically
in Fig. 1. A fatigue threshold condition characterized
Table 1 by the threshold load range (AP,,, = Pth,,nnx- P~h,min) at
Chemical compositions of specimen materials
a given crack length was first attained at a selected
Element Content (wt.%) stress ratio (R = 0.3) by using the load-shedding tech-
nique. Then the load-COD curves were measured twice
Al 2024-T3 (nominal) Al 7475-T761 by slowly loading the specimen from Pth,min (the mini-
(actual)
mum threshold load) to Pth,mnx (the maximum
CU 4.5 1.8
Table 3
Mg 1.5 2.3
Tensile properties and dynamic Young moduli of specimen materials
Mn 0.6 0.5
0.04 at room temperature
Si 0
Zn 0 5.8
Alloy R, W4 hrn @Pa)
Cr 0 0.22
Fe - 0.10
Ti - 0.003 Al 2024-T3 345 450 72.5
Al 1415-T761 482 526 10.5
 D.L. Cllen et al. 1 Materials Science and Engineering A208 (1996) 181-187

daidN, m/cycle

First load-COD Second load-COD

measurement measurement

Threshold load Cyclic loading

range for b0.3 I I for Fi=O

Load shedding ste 10‘9 -

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of a two-stage test procedure, showing

a load-shedding process and a change in stress ratio at fatigue lO.‘O-
threshold level where the maximum applied load Pth,max remains
constant.

threshold load) and from zero to Pth,max respectively.

After these measurements the specimen was cyclically
loaded at the loading condition of R = 0 with identical
maximum threshold load, i.e. the applied loading range
becomes 0 - Pth,max to examine whether the growth of
the initially non-propagating fatigue crack can be re-
sumed. From such a procedure it should be possible to
learn the role of the loading cycle below KQp in the
fatigue crack growth behaviour.
3. Experimental results
Following the experimental procedure described, the
fatigue crack propagation behaviour obtained during
the load-shedding procedure is shown in Fig. 2 for the
two materials tested. At the stress ratio R = 0.3 the
da/dN, m/cycle
6 a 10 12
4,
Crack length 2a, mm
Fig. 3. Fatigue crack growth rate vs. crack length for Al 2024-T3
alloy.
fatigue threshold for Al 2024-T3 alloy was determined
to be 2.2 MPa n-1~1~,consistent with that obtained in
Ref. [23] for the same material, while the fatigue
threshold for Al 7475-T761 alloy was 1.6 MPa ml/‘.
The fatigue crack propagation data obtained as a
function of crack length are plotted in Fig. 3 for Al
2024-T3 alloy. It can ,be seen that the fatigue threshold
was obtained at a crack length 2a = 9.7 mm, corre-’
sponding to a loading condition of Pth,max = 2.13 kN
and &tin = 0.64 kN (i.e. R = 0.3). Then keeping the

to’8 same maximum threshold load unchanged and reducing

the externally applied load from 0.64 kN to zero (i.e.
Al 7475-T761 R = 0) causes a resumption of growth of the initially
non-propagating fatigue crack.
lo+ The load-COD curves measured at R = 0.3 (corre-
sponding to the threshold level) and R = 0 (for the
same Pth,max) are presented in Fig. 4. It can be seen that
the upper portions of the curves for both measurements
1O”O are superimposed within experimental accuracy. The
lower portion of the load-COD curve for the second
measurement, used to determine the closure effect of
the subsequent loading condition of R = 0, exhibits just
10”’ a continuous extension of the curve of the first mea-
surement. It should be pointed out that the strain
signals from the strain gauges are relative values and
the zero position of COD was placed at the point of
lo= intersection of the extended line from the upper linear
10 closure-free portion with the zero-load line. These ex-
AK. MPaim perimental observations will be discussed later.
Fig. 2. Near-threshold fatigue crack growth behaviour determined Obviously the experimental data presented in Fig. 4
during load-shedding process for both Al 2024-T3 and Al 7475-T761 indicate that the opening stress intensity Kop values for
alloys. both loading conditions should be the same. This im-
184 D.L. Chen et al. 1 Materials Science and Engineering A208 (1996) 181-187

da/dN, m/cycle
plies that the conventional effective driving force
AK,, (conv) after the reduction of K,, from Kth,minto
zero is equal to the conventional effective fatigue
threshold AKth,&conv) determined prior to the change
in the stress ratio (1.1 MPa m’j2). As a result, no
further fatigue crack growth should occur when chang-
ing from R= 0.3 at the threshold level to R = 0 by
maintaining Kth,max constant. (For facility of compari-
son the load data in Fig. 4 and in the subsequent figures
are expressed by the stress intensity values.) However,
the current experimental observations clearly illustrate
that such a change in stress ratio causes a further
growth of the originally non-propagating fatigue crack
as shown in Fig. 3. It appears that the conventional
effective driving force defined by Km,, - Kop seems
questionable.
Another experiment was performed in the same man-
ner for the Al 7475-T761 specimen.’ The fatigue crack
growth rate obtained as a function of crack length is
shown in Fig. 5. Similarly, under the condition of
Crack length 2a, m m
identical maximum threshold load a reduction of the
minimum applied load from Pth,min to zero also gives Fig. 5. Fatigue crack growth rate vs. crack length for Al 7475-T761
rise to a resumption of growth of the initially non-prop- alloy.
agating fatigue crack. The load-COD curves measured
at R = 0.3 (corresponding to the threshold level) and 4. Discussion
R = 0 are plotted in Fig. 6. Again, since the effective
stress intensity range AK&conv) obtained after the In order to reveal the role of the lower portion of the
change in stress ratio equals the conventionally evalu- loading cycle below Kopin fatigue crack propagation,
ated effective fatigue threshold AKrh,Jconv), the ob- the load-COD curves have to be measured with the
served fatigue crack propagation behaviour cannot be loading range restricted to the threshold load range
explained by the conventional concept of the effective prior to the R-ratio change and then to the subsequent
driving force for fatigue crack growth. load range after the R-ratio change. The experimental
results presented in Figs. 4 and 6 illustrate that the

K, MPaJm
K, MPadm
23..
Klh,mau
:th,max

AKeff(new) l,5- AKelf(new) AKlh

l,O-

.y KOP
Kmi”,aa,--;, **_-----_-.--------------------Y-. Klh,mln
:th,min A
/’ . 0,5-
. 8’ .
I’ ,’
,’ AKsh : /’ AKsh *
/ . .
. /
/’ .
/’ y V
0,o 4’ Kmln
V v :min 0,0005 0,001o 0,0015 0,002o
0,001 0,002
Strain proporlional to COD
Strain proporlional to COD

Fig. 4. Load (stress intensity)-COD curves of Al 2024-T3 alloy Fig. 6. Load (stress intensity)-COD curves of Al 7475-T761 alloy
measured (a) from Pth,+” to P,,,,,,, corresponding to threshold measured (a) from Plh,min to Pth,mnx, corresponding to threshold
condition under R = 0.3 and (b) from zero to Prh,max,corresponding condition under R = 0.3, and (b) from zero to P,h,mnx,corresponding
to subsequent loading condition under R = 0. to subsequent loading condition under R = 0,
 D.L. Chen et al. I Materials Science and Engineering A208 (1996) 181-187 la5

I
I
tional definition of effective stress intensity range the
lower portion of the loading cycle below Kop(including
Kth.max
T I *
I t
AKth.be(co”“) f AK~H(cow) also a compressive loading part if R < 0) was not
K ,,-P”il-L ----- g ___--__ I ---_ considered to play a role in the variation in the stress
! AK state experienced by the fatigue crack tip and further in
Kthmin I the fatigue crack propagation. This has actually been
I
I
I
pointed out to be incorrect in Refs. [3,4,27-301 and
I 4
several other publications [17-211.
Kmin
t I
In our preceding publications [17-211 a modified
evaluation procedure of fatigue crack closure has been
(a) Conventional evaluation procedure
proposed on the basis of a comparison of the load-
COD curves between an idealized closure-free crack
and a realistic closure-affected crack, as illustrated sche-
K!h.max matically in Fig. 8. If the COD range near the fatigue
crack tip is considered to be a controlling parameter of
the driving force for fatigue crack propagation, e.g.
AKeri(new)
Kmin,ad(tJ
[31], several parameters, e.g. the shielding stress inten-
Kth,min sity range AKSh and the actual stress intensity transmit-
ted to the crack tip corresponding to the minimum
i
Kmin,acp)

applied load K,,,,,,, can be defined. The effective driv-

Kmin
c
I
I
I
ing force was defined in our concept as
AK&new) = Km,, - Kmin,acr
= AK - AKSh (3)
(b) Proposed evaluation procedure
which is used to replace the conventional definition
Fig. 7. Schematic illustration of the effect of diminishing Kmi, from
(Km,,- K,,) of the effective driving force. If the applied
Kth,min and keeping Kth,max constant on effective stress intensity
range: (a) conventional evaluation procedure; (b) proposed evaluation minimum stress intensity is smaller than a value Kclosed
procedure. below which the crack is fully closed, AK in Eq. (3)
should be substituted by an apparent stress intensity
currently obtained load-COD curves are practically range defined as
superimposed in the equivalent loading ranges with
AK+ A&,, = Km,, - Kclosed for Tin 6 hosed (4)
experimental accuracy, whereas the lower portion of
the curve exhibits a continuous extension from the One of the important features of the proposed clo-
upper portion, This can be interpreted by the fact that sure evaluation is that the contribution of the lower
both load-COD curves were measured within the elas- portion of the applied loading cycle between Kop and

--
tic regime of the test materials, either from Pth,max to Kti, to the variation in the stress state at the crack tip
Pth,min Or from Pth,max to zero. Apart from a change in has been taken into account. The derived effective
the loading range during the load-COD measurements,
all other conditions, including the crack length, crack

1
surface topography and strain gauge location, remain
identical.
In reality the currently observed crack propagation,
when diminishing K,, from the initial threshold condi- AK
tion Kth,min to zero while keeping Kth,max constant, can
be easily explained by the increase in the total AK in
terms of the Paris-Erdogan concept [24], as shown
C
schematically in Fig. 7. Nevertheless, if using the con-
ventional effective driving force concept to explain the Kmir

crack growth, one would find that this value remains

unchanged regardless of the Kti, value actually applied. COD (8) -
Therefore no crack propagation should occur. Clearly
the conventionally evaluated AKeff value cannot ratio- Fig. 8. Schematic illustration of load-COD curve, indicating defini-
nalize the experimental observations. Doubts about the tions of shielding stress intensity range not experienced by crack tip
(AKJ, actual stress intensity transmitted to crack tip corresponding
validity of the conventional effective driving force con- to minimum externally applied load (Kmin,,&, conventional effective
cept have been reported by a number of investigators stress intensity range (AK,&conv)) and newly defined effective stress
[3-16,25-271. The reason may be that in the conven- intensity range (AK&new)).
186 D.L. Cllen et al. 1 Materials Science and Engineering A208 (1996) 181- 187

Table 4 It can be seen that owing to the exclusion of the role

Fatigue threshold values and crack closure data for Al 7475T761 of the lower portion of the loading cycle below KO, in
alloy
the variation in the stress state experienced by the crack
Stress intensity value Parameter at fatigue Parameter after tip, the conventional crack closure evaluation should
(MPa m1j2) threshold reducing K,,,i, also result in no crack growth after lowering K,,i, while
keeping Kth,max constant for Al 7475-T761. Again our
K nlax 2.3 2.3
modified closure evaluation can be employed to ex-
Klh 0.7 0
AK 1.6 2.3
plain the observed crack growth phenomena, since the
K 1.3 1.3 evaluated effective stress intensity range Ai;,,dnew) at
Z, act 0.8 0.6 R = 0 is larger than the effective fatigue threshold
AK,’ 0.1 0.6 AK,,,,dnew) of the material obtained at R = 0.3.
AK&conv) 1.0 1.0 In summary, the experimental results presented in
AK,&ew) 1.5 1.7
this paper for both materials clearly indicate that the
contribution of the lower portion of the loading cycle
driving force AK&new) is associated not only with the below Kop(including also a compressive loading part if
maximum applied stress intensity K,,, but ‘also with the R < 0) to the fatigue crack propagation behaviour
should not be ignored.
minimum applied stress intensity K,,, because K,,? act
is related to K,,. Hence the AK&new) value is greater
than the conventionally evaluated one (see Fig. 8). In
addition, an important inference can be derived from 5. Conclusions
the proposed closure concept, i.e. the entire tensile
portion of the loading cycle can be effective for the Stress ratio change experiments at the fatigue
threshold level were performed for Al 2024-T3 and Al
variation in the stress state experienced by the crack tip
7475-T761. It was observed that at the fatigue threshold
provided that the externally applied minimum stress
a decrease in the minimum applied stress intensity from
intensity is smaller than the Kclosed value. This corre-
Kth,minwhile maintaining Kth,mnxconstant reSUhS in a
sponds to a critical compressive cyclic loading condi-
resumption of growth of the originally non-propagating
tion in which the applied stress ratio is smaller than a fatigue crack. These experimental findings clearly indi-
critical negative value R,,. A further increase in the cate the role of the lower portion of the loading cycle
applied compressive load beyond the critical level, i.e. below Kop in fatigue crack propagation, which was not
R CR,, would not result in an additional variation in accounted for by the conventional crack closure con-
the fatigue crack growth rate. Such an inference from cept. It is thus suggested that the conventional definition
our closure considerations has been experimentally ver- of the effective driving force (AKcrr = Km,,- Ic',,) should
ified and referred to as a “saturation effect” [27,29,30]. be modified to include the contribution of the cyclic
In a practical evaluation of AK&new) from load- loading portion below Kopto fatigue crack propagation.
COD curves the proposed K,,,,,, and AKsh can be
obtained by determining the intersection of the ex-
tended line through the upper linear portion with a Acknowledgements
vertical line drawn through the minimum applied stress
intensity point (i.e. dmin, K,,). These values have been This work is part of the cooperative project between
indicated in Figs. 4 and 6 for Al 2024-T3 and Al the National Science Foundation of Austria (P 8032-
7475-T761 alloys respectively. TEC and P10160-PHY) and the National Natural Sci-
The effective fatigue threshold obtained by the pro- ence Foundation of China (Al3 and Ala). The
posed method for Al 2024-T3 alloy is 1.7 MPa ml/‘, financial support received from the Fonds zur
larger than the conventionally evaluated value (1.1 Fiirdeting der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Vienna
MPa m’i2), as indicated in Fig. 4. When the minimum and the Jubilgumsfonds det ijsterreichischen National-
applied stress intensity K,, is decreased while keeping bank is gratefully acknowledged.
Kth,max constant, an application of the proposed evalua-
tion procedure leads to AK&new) = 1.9 MPa m1i2 (see
Fig. 4). As a consequence, the threshold condition (i.e. References
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