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J.T.P de Castro et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 25 (2013) 79-86; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.25.12 81 parts: g(a/w) =  (a) , where  (a) describes the stress gradient ahead of the notch tip, which tends to the SCF as the crack length a  0 , whereas  encompasses all the remaining terms, such as the free surface correction: 0 ( ) ( ) K a a a           , where     2 0 0 0 1 a K S           (3) Figure 2 : Kitagawa-Takahashi plot describing the fatigue propagation of short and long cracks under pulsating loads ( R = 0) in HT80 steel with  K 0 = 11.2 MPa  m and  S 0 = 575 MPa. Operationally, the short crack can be better treated by letting the SIF range retain its original form, while modifying the FCG threshold expression to become a function of the crack length a , namely  K 0 (a) , resulting (under pulsating loads) in:   0 0 0 ( ) K a K a a a      (4) The ETS equation can be seen as one possible asymptotic match between the short and long crack behaviors. Following Bazant’s idea [14], a more general equation can be used introducing an adjustable parameter  to fit experimental data:   1 /2 0 0 0 ( ) 1 K a K a a            (5) Equations (1) to (4) result from (5) if   2 . The bi-linear limit,  (a  a 0 )   S 0 for short cracks and  K 0 (a  a 0 )   K 0 for the long ones, is obtained if g(a/w)   (a)  1 and    . Most short crack FCP data is fitted by  K 0 (a) curves with 1.5    8 , but   6 better reproduces classical q -plots based on data measured by testing semi-circular notched fatigue TS [3-5]. Using (5) as the FCP threshold, then any crack departing from a notch under pulsating loads should propagate if:     1 2 0 0 0 ( ) 1 K a a K a K a a                       (6) where   1.12 is the free surface correction . As fatigue depends on two driving forces,  and  max , (6) can be extended to consider  max (indirectly modeled by the R -ratio) influence in short crack behavior. First, the short crack characteristic size should be defined using the fatigue limit  S R and the FCP threshold for long cracks  K R   K th (a >> a R , R) , both measured or properly estimated at the desired R -ratio:     2 R R 1 1.12 R a K S          (7) Likewise, the corresponding short crack FCP threshold should be re-written as:   1 /2 ( ) 1 R R R K a K a a            (8) According to Tada [15], the SIF of a crack with size a that departs from a circular hole of radius  given within 1% by: 2 3 6 1.1215 ( ), 0.2 0.3 1 ( ) 2 2.354 1.206 0.221 (1 ) (1 ) 1 1 1 I K a x x a x x x x x x x x x                                                         (9)