An Analysis Of Fatigue Crack Growth Of A Notched Aircraft Component Under Compression-Dominated Spectrum Loading

In engineering structures, fatigue cracks often emanate from geometrical discontinuities such as holes and notches. Experimentally it has been observed that there exists a notch-affected zone, in which the crack growth exhibits a transitional behaviour. Depending on the loading level and the geometry of the notch, the crack growth rate may initially decrease with crack length to reach a minimum. It will then either grow at an accelerated rate, or stop growing. This report details ongoing work in modelling crack growth in the presence of notch plasticity. The local stress-strain distribution ahead of a notch root is determined based on an empirical distribution of the equivalent stress, and the evolution of the notch root stress and strain is calculated using Neuber's rule and an Armstrong-Chaboche type nonlinear kinematic hardening model. The stress intensity factor is then calculated using a Green's function approach. A crack growth analysis program has been developed, implementing the above procedures