Local crack driving force analysis of a fatigue crack by a microstructural tracking method

To study fatigue cracking behavior, an improved microstructural tracking method is used to calculate the local crack driving forces in a fatigue crack in an aluminum alloy by employing high-resolution in situ synchrotron X-ray micro tomography. Several valuable insights into actual three-dimensional fatigue cracking behavior of overlapping crack segments are obtained. A typical example is the complex deformation behavior in overlapping regions where pairs of crack segments partially overlap. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.