An Experimental Study on the Effects of Compressive Stress on the Fatigue Crack Growth of Low-Alloy Steel

Abstract

A series of fatigue crack growth rate tests was conducted in order to study the effects of negative stress ratio upon the fatigue crack growth rate of low-alloy steel in air environment. The tests used four-point bend specimens in order to simulate linear stress distributions typical of many pressure vessel applications. This type of testing adds to the knowledge on negative stress ratio effects for low-alloy steels that in the past have been obtained from uniform tension-compression tests. Additionally, the applied bending stress range was varied from low values of applied stress to high values of applied stress over twice the yield strength. Load control was used for tests for which the stress range was less than twice the yield strength and deflection control was used for the higher stress range tests. The crack geometries involved were both short and long fatigue cracks started at notches and tight fatigue cracks for which crack closure could occur over the full crack face. The results are presented in terms of the stress intensity factor ratio R = K MIN /K MAX . The negative R -ratio test results were correlated to an equation of the form da/dN = C[ΔK/(A−R)]n where A , C , and n are curve-fitting parameters. It was found that the effects of negative R -ratio on the fatigue crack growth rates for even the high stress range tests could be bounded by correlating the foregoing equation to only positive R -ratio test results and extending the resulting equation into the negative R -ratio regime.