Influence of Residual Stress Field on the Fatigue Crack Propagation in Prestressing Steel Wires

This paper deals with the effect of several residual stress profiles on the fatigue crack propagation in prestressing steel wires subjected to tension loading or bending moment. To this end, a computer program was developed to evaluate the crack front evolution on the basis of the Walker law. Results demonstrate that the absence of residual stresses makes the crack propagate towards a preferential crack path. When surface residual stresses are tensile and, correspondingly, core residual stresses are compressive, the fatigue crack fronts rapidly converge towards a quasi-straightshape. When surface residual stresses are compressive, with their corresponding tensile stresses in the core area, a preferential crack path also appears.