Abstract
Treating the local fracture toughness of a material as a random value, a general relationship between the applied fracture parameter and the stable crack growth distance is developed. The result is applied to a study of the fatigue crack growth and a general expression connecting fatigue crack growth rate and the applied loading is rendered. Several empirical fatigue crack growth models can be derived on the basis of this unified view, and the valid ranges of these models are established. The conclusions are found to be in agreement with experimental evidence.
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Chiang, C.R. A unified theory of fatigue crack growth: a statistical approach. Int J Fract 53, 337–342 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00034181
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00034181