Fatigue damage in polycrystals – Part 2: Intrinsic scatter of fatigue life

Part 2 deals with the evolution of plastic flow resistance with crack growth from its minimum value (fatigue limit) towards its saturated bulk value (cyclic yield stress). The far-field stress level, the geometry of the crack and the grain size distribution of the material are those parameters that control the area of crack tip plasticity and hence the rate towards saturation. The implication of the far-field stress is held responsible for the violation of the similitude concept and the failure of the stress intensity factor to describe conditions of short cracking. However, an engineering tool based on the stress intensity factor and being able to predict the fatigue life of short cracks can be constructed, considering that the distribution of crack growth rates is intrinsically defined by the material itself. The above allows the development of a set of equations able to construct the fatigue life scatter of the material.