Fatigue Cracking from Stress Concentration in Mild Steel

  • A.R. Jack

    Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

    Abstract

    Pulsating; tension fatigue tests have been carried out on edge notched specimens of a mild steel. An electrical potential drop technique was used to determine the number of cycles taken to initiate cracks and the rate at which the cracks grew across the specimen. The results could be described by the range of stress intensity factor, which for crack initiation was modified to take account of the notch root radius.
    Analysis of elastic stress distributions at cracks and notches and models of plasticity at crack tips are used to discuss the results. Limited evidence in the literature indicates that the fracture mechanics approach may provide a general description of crack initiation and growth in notched specimens, and a simple graphical method of calculating fatigue lives is described.
    The results are used to illustrate the effects of specimen size and geometry on the fatigue life of notched specimens. The relevance of the work to the assessment of the significance of defects in welds is discussed.
    Date of AwardFeb 1971
    Original languageEnglish
    Awarding Institution
    • Aston University
    SupervisorJ.T. Barnby (Supervisor)

    Keywords

    • matallurgy
    • fatigue
    • mild steel
    • metal fatigue
    • steel
    • fatigue cracking

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