Abstract
The grain size effect on grain boyndary cracking in Pb-Sn eutectic during isothermal fatigue was investigated. Fatigue experiments were confined to two conditions : (1) 0.4% total strain range(approximetely 0.2% plastic strain range), 1.67$\times$10$^{-3}$/s frequency; and (2) 1.5% total strain rante(approximately 1.2% plastic strain range), 8.33$\times$10$^{-4}$/s frequency. Fatigue specimens were cross-sectioned to monitor the depth of crack growth continuosly and then, the maximum crack depths in units of the number of boundaries were plotted as functions of number of cycles for these two different strain ranges. The results revealed that the rate of crack growth(per cycle at fixed rate of crosshead motion) can be expressed as dc/dN=($\Delta$$\varepsilon$$_p$)$^n$c where n is typically 2, c is the crack length, $\Delta$$\varepsilon$$_p$ is the plastic strain range, and A is a "constant" that depends on whether the crack is deeper or shallower than its first triple point of the grain boundary, A decrdases by about a factor of three after the crack hits the first triple point, indecating that the fatigue crack is trapped at the triple point of the grain boundaries.