Fracture Mechanics Approach to Fatigue Crack Propagation: Measurements and Observation

There where conventional fatigue terminates with the generation of the first macrocrack, fatigue crack growth initiates, whose characteristic progression can be treated using fracture mechanics with the Paris-Erdogan equation. Fatigue crack growth rates of various steels, aluminum, nickel and titanium alloys are reviewed together with the basic growth mechanism and the effect of fracture toughness and temperature..