Fatigue short crack growth: Overload-induced acceleration/retardation behavior

•In-situ SEM test was conducted to monitor the overload (OL)-induced short crack growth behavior.•Mechanisms of OL-induced acceleration/retardation of da/dN was revealed using SEM and DIC.•A modified model was proposed to describe the OL-induced short crack growth behavior. In-situ test was conducted to investigate the effect of overload (OL) on fatigue short crack growth rate (FSCGR). Mechanisms of dual crack growth competitions and overload-induced acceleration/retardation were revealed using digital image correlation (DIC) technology. Eventually, the plastic zone sizes obtained by DIC and Irwin model were compared to propose an OL-induced model to describe FSCGR.