A technique to measure fatigue crack growth threshold

An experimental technique for determining fatigue crack growth threshold is presented. This experimental technique uses an increasing ΔK step loading procedure to determine threshold going from a no-growth to growth status. Stress relief annealing of the Ti-6AI-4V test specimens eliminates load history effects normally associated with the precrack, providing a measurement equivalent to what is achieved by a standard ASTM load shed test. In addition to measuring load history free thresholds, this increasing ΔK technique can be used to investigate different load history effects on threshold by using the threshold step measurement with different precrack histories and without the subsequent annealing process. Verification of the threshold step measurement is demonstrated by comparing measurements with standard ATSM load shed testing results.