The evolution of the stress–strain fields near a fatigue crack tip and plasticity-induced crack closure revisited

The evolution of the stress–strain fields near a stationary crack tip under cyclic loading at selected R‐ratios has been studied in a detailed elastic–plastic finite element analysis. The material behaviour was described by a full constitutive model of cyclic plasticity with both kinematic and isotropic hardening variables. Whilst the stress/strain range remains mostly constant during the cyclic loading and scales with the external load range, progressive accumulation of tensile strain occurs, particularly at high R‐ratios. These results may be of significance for the characterization of crack growth, particularly near the fatigue threshold. Elastic–plastic finite element simulations of advancing fatigue cracks were carried out under plane‐stress, plane‐strain and generalized plane‐strain conditions in a compact tension specimen. Physical contact of the crack flanks was observed in plane stress but not in the plane‐strain and generalized plane‐strain conditions. The lack of crack closure in plane strain was found to be independent of the material studied. Significant crack closure was observed under plane‐stress conditions, where a displacement method was used to obtain the actual stress intensity variation during a loading cycle in the presence of crack closure. The results reveal no direct correlation between the attenuation in the stress intensity factor range estimated by the conventional compliance method and that determined by the displacement method. This finding seems to cast some doubts on the validity of the current practice in crack‐closure measurement, and indeed on the role of plasticity‐induced crack closure in the reduction of the applied stress intensity factor range.