Fatigue crack growth for a surface crack in a round bar under multi-axial loading condition

In this paper, the fatigue life, surface crack extension direction and crack growth rate in an elastic bar with a circular cross section are determined through experiments under cyclic torsion with axial static and cyclic tension/compression loading. The effects of the loading type, loading value and stress ratio on the crack growth behaviour are discussed. The results show that, under pure fatigue torsion loading, the crack extension direction is almost the same whatever the value of torsion loading. Under fatigue torsion with cyclic tension loading, it is found that the crack extension direction is mainly determined by the alternating parts of the stresses and is almost independent of the average parts of the stresses, whereas the fatigue life is obviously dependent on the average stress.