Local and non-local approaches to fatigue crack initiation and propogation

Abstract

A functional form of local strength conditions under fatigue loading is introduced and employed to formulation and analysis of fatigue crack initiation and propagation. For the strength conditions associated with the Palmgren-Miner linear damage accumulation rule and the power-type S-N diagram, the problem is reduced to a non-linear integral Volterra equation, which can be transformed to a linear one for the case of a single crack. An analytical solution of some simple problems are presented for the latter case and shortcomings of the local approach are pointed out. A non-local approach free from the shortcomings is presented along with an example of its implementation.