A Study on the Relationship between Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior and Cyclic Crack Tip Opening Displacement

The relationship between fatigue crack growth behavior and cyclic crack tip opening displacement is studied. An elastic-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to examine the growth behavior of fatigue crack, where the contact elements are used in the mesh of the crack tip area. We investigate the relationship between the reversed plastic zone size and the changes of the cyclic crack tip opening displacement along the crack growth. The cyclic crack tip opening displacement is related to fatigue crack opening behavior.