Issue 35

S. Blasón et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 35 (2016) 187-195; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.35.22 190 C RACK GROWTH CURVES he specimens used in the tests for the derivation of the crack growth rate curve of the material were cut out from the crankshaft axle as shown in Fig. 3. Figure 3: Extraction location and geometry of the specimens used in the crack growth tests. Tests were carried out in accordance to the requirements of the ASTM-E1820 standard [8] and the compliance method was applied for determining the crack growth. Fig. 4 represents the crack growth rate da/dN as a function of the stress intensity factor range ΔK . The test was performed under constant ΔF and stress rate R= -1. Figure 4: Crack growth rate curve from experimental data. M ODEL FOR CRACK GROWTH RATE CURVE he fracture mechanics based approach, based on the application of crack growth rate curves, can be applied as an alternative to the approach based on stresses, i.e., that being related to the S-N field, due to its more general applicability to lifetime prediction of mechanical and structural components. With the aim of interrelating both models in the study of propagation of macrocracks or even of physical microcracks, Castillo et al. proposed to determine the crack growth rate curve based on a model [7], which considers the non-dimensional normalization of the stress intensity range factor according to the expression: * * * * * log log log log th up th K K K K K          (1) 10 2 10 -4  K [MPa  m 1/2 ] da/dN [mm/ciclo] T T