• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 1997

In order to study on fatigue crack retardation and retardation mechanism in variable loading, the effects of crack tip branching in fatigue crack growth retardation were examined. The characteristics of crack tip banching behavior was considered to micro structure. It was examined that the variation of crack tip branching angle. Crack tip branching was observed along the grain boundary of ferrite and pearlite structure. It was found that the abanching angle ranges from 25 to 53 degrees. Using the finite element method, the variable of crack driving force to branching angle was examined. The effective crack driving force ( $K_{\eff}$ ) decreased as the braching angle increases. The rate of decrease was 33% for the kinked type and 29% for the forked one. It was confirmed that the effect of crack tip branching is a very important factor in fatigue crack growth retardation. Therefore, crack branching effect should be considered building the hypoth- etical model to predict crack growth retardation.