CRACK CLOSURE: A CONCEPT OF FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH UNDER EXAMINATION

— In recent literature it is asserted that the concept of crack closure in fatigue fracture mechanics is not capable of explaining fatigue crack growth behaviour. The reasons given are that both asperity induced crack closure and plasticity induced crack closure should be either negligible or non‐existent. We have re‐considered these hypotheses since their correctness would completely change the established picture of fatigue crack growth. In order to get mathematically tractable systems the present studies are confined to long cracks loaded in mode I. The results suggest that in case of asperity induced crack closure the proposed hypothesis is only true in special cases and the demonstration of the non‐existence of plasticity induced crack closure is proved to be wrong.