Mean stress effect in fatigue crack propagation

Crack propagation rates in three different grades of mild steel and two types of age hardening aluminium alloys have been measured for different stress ratios. The results show a pronounced stress ratio effect for all these materials. A model of fatigue crack propagation is formulated in terms of the size of the cyclic plastic instability zone at the crack tip rather than the zone of plastic yielding. The micro-plastic instability zone is measured by a parameter involving the ratio of the maximum stress intensity and the stress level at which macro-plastic instability occurs in the $\text{S}\text{N}$ curve of plain fatigue test pieces. Such a parameter provides a means of normalizing crack propagation results obtained for various stress ratios.