A major part of fracture mechanics is concerned with studying the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. This typically requires constant monitoring of crack growth during fatigue cycles which necessitates automation of the whole process. If the rate of crack growth can be determined the experimenter can vary externally controlled parameters such as load level, load cycle frequency and s...

There have been few studies to date describing fatigue-crack propagation thresholds under mixed-mode loading conditions in the presence of cracks, that are small as compared to the characteristic microstructural dimensions. To address this need, the variation in mixed-mode, high-cycle fatigue-crack growth thresholds with crack size is reported for a Ti-6Al-4V turbine blade alloy with a fine-gra...

In the present study, plasticity induced crack closure (PICC) concept and three dimensional (3D) finite element methods (FEM) are used to study the effect of compressive residual stress field on the fatigue crack growth from a hole. To investigate the effect of compressive residual stress on crack opening levels and crack shape evolution, Carlson’s experiments were simulated. Crack shape evolut...

Deformation twinning at the tip of a straight crack or notch is analyzed using a phase-field method that seeks equilibrium twin morphologies via direct minimization of a free energy functional. For isotropic solids, the tendency to twin under mode I or mode II loading is found to depend weakly on Poisson’s ratio and elastic nonlinearity and strongly on surface energy and twinning shear (i.e. ei...

An understanding of how fatigue cracks grow in bone is of importance as fatigue is thought to be the main cause of clinical stress fractures. This study presents new results on the fatigue-crack growth behavior of small surface cracks (approximately 75-1000 microm in size) in human cortical bone, and compares their growth rates with data from other published studies on the behavior of both surf...

We present a continuum theory which describes the fast growth of a crack by surface diffusion. This mechanism overcomes the usual cusp singularity by a self-consistent selection of the crack tip radius. It predicts the saturation of the steady state crack velocity appreciably below the Rayleigh speed and tip blunting. Furthermore, it includes the possibility of a tip splitting instability for h...

Thick GaN layers have been grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on different GaN templates grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Crack formation could be reduced by using a hydrogen/nitrogen carrier gas mixture. By carefully optimizing the growth conditions in the final stage of the process, excellent surface morphologies could be obtained at still acceptably high growth rates. Up t...

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate dentinal crack rate following parapulpal pin insertion in anterior primary teeth. Methods: Thirteen sound freshly extracted primary canine teeth were horizontally sectioned 1 mm above the cementoenamel junction (CEJ). All samples were thoroughly inspected to ensure that the teeth had no cracks. The teeth were then mounted in acrylic blocks...

Oxide ceramics are sensitive to slow crack growth because adsorption of water can take place at the crack tip, leading to a strong decrease of the surface energy in humid (or air) conditions. This is a major drawback concerning demanding, long-term applications such as orthopaedic implants. Here we show that a specific nanostructuration of ceramic oxides can lead to a crack resistance never rea...