Effect of specimen thickness on the statistical properties of fatigue crack growth resistance in BS4360 steel

In this paper the effect of specimen thickness on fatigue crack growth with the spatial distribution of material properties is presented. Basically, the material resistance to fatigue crack growth is treated as a spatial stochastic process, which varies randomly on the crack surface. The theoretical autocorrelation functions of fatigue crack growth resistance with specimen thickness are discussed for several correlation lengths. Constant ΔK fatigue crack growth tests were also performed on CT type specimens with three different thicknesses of BS 4360 steel. Applying the proposed stochastic model and statistical analysis procedure, the experimental data were analyzed for different specimen thicknesses for determining the autocorrelation functions and probability distributions of the fatigue crack growth resistance.