The Effect of Sheet Thickness on Near-Threshold Fatigue Crack Propagation and Oxide and Roughness-Induced Crack Closure

Characteristics of fatigue crack propagation have been investigated in a low carbon steel and a high tensile strength steel to evaluate the effect of sheet thickness. Crack propagation data are generated over a wide range of growth rates, from 10⁻⁸ to 10⁻³ mm/cycle, for load ratios of 0.05 and 0.70 at room temperature in laboratory air. Particular emphasis is placed on behavior at near-threshold growth rates. Near-threshold fatigue crack propagation behavior is found to show a marked sensitivity to sheet thickness, and near-threshold growth rates decrease and threshold values increase with increasing sheet thickness. Oxide and roughness-induced crack closure models are proposed as a mechanism for the effect of sheet thickness on near-threshold fatigue crack propagation. It is also shown that the requirement for specimen thickness recommended by ASTM, W/20≤B≤W/4, is not always valid for near-threshold fatigue crack propagation.