A CALCULATION OF THE THRESHOLD STRESS INTENSITY RANGE FOR FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION IN METALS

Abstract— In this paper the strain distribution and the plastic zone size at a fatigue crack tip are discussed. From this analysis and considering the critical condition for plastic-blunting, a simple analytical formula for calculating the threshold stress intensity range for fatigue crack propagation at R= 0 is proposed. It is found that calculated values are in good agreement with existing experimental results.