Abstract
Fatigue crack initiation around a hole subjected to biaxial fatigue loads with a phase difference was investigated. Axial and torsional biaxial fatigue loads with different phase differences and biaxiality of 1/√3 were applied to thin-walled tubular specimens. Five phase differences of 0, 45, 90, 145 and 180 degrees were selected. Directions of the fatigue crack initiation around the hole were found to approach to the circumferential direction of the specimen with increment of the phase difference for fatigue tests with phase differences less than 90$^{\circ}$. Whereas directions for tests with phase differences greater than 90$^{\circ}$ got away from the circumferential direction and those were symmetric to the directions for tests with phase difference less than 90. . Furthermore, it was shown that the fatigue initiation life decreased with increment of phase difference for fatigue tests with phase differences less than 90$^{\circ}$, but it increased for tests with phase difference greater than 90$^{\circ}$. The crack initiation direction can be successfully explained by using the direction of the maximum tangential stress range obtained around the hole and at far-field.