Fatigue Crack Propagation in Metals and Alloys

1 Introduction
2 Basic Concepts of Metal Fatigue and Fracture in the Engineering Design Process
Historical Background
Metal Fatigue, Crack Propagation, and Life Prediction - A Brief Introduction
Basic Concepts of Technical Fracture Mechanics
3 Experimental Approaches to Fatigue
Mechanical Materials Testing
Crack-Propagation Measurements
Microstructural Analysis - Quantitative Analysis of Grain and Phase Boundaries
Reproducibility of Experimental Studies
Systematic Failure Analysis
4 Physical Metallurgy of the Deformation Behavior of Metals and Alloys
Elastic Deformation
Plastic Deformation by Dislocation Movement
Activation of Slip Planes in Single- and Polycrystalline Materials
Cyclic Deformation of Metallic Materials
5 Initiation of Microcracks
Crack Initiation - Definition and Significance
Microstructural Aspects of Crack Initiation
Crack Initiation by Elastic Anisotropy
Inter- and Transcrystalline Crack Initiation
Microcracks and the Existence of a Fatigue Limit
Crack Initiation in Inhomogeneous Materials - Metallic Foams
6 Microstructural Features of Crack Propagation
The Abnormal Behavior of Microstructurally Short Cracks
Transcrystalline Crack Propagation
Significance of Crack-Closure Effects
Short- and Long Cracks: The Transition from Mode II to Mode I Crack Propagation
Intercrystalline Crack Propagation at Elevated Temperatures - The Mechanism of Dynamic Embrittlement
7 Crack Modeling and Life-Prediction Concepts Accounting for the Material's Microstructure
Overview: Short-Fatigue-Crack Models
The Model of Navarro and de los Rios
Numerical Modeling of Short Crack Propagation by Means of the Boundary-Element Method
Modeling Concepts for the Diffusion-Controlled Intercrystalline Crack Propagation at High Temperatures
8 Implications and Potential of Microstructure-Based Material Concepts

Ulrich Krupp is Senior Engineer at the Institute of Materials Technology of Siegen University, Germany, and responsible for the research files fatigue and high-temperature corrosion of metals and alloys. He completed his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering there, and also obtained his lecturing qualification (habilitation) in 2004. He spent one year at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, in 2002 as a Feodor Lynen fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation. Hitherto, he has published over 110 scientific contributions in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings. In 2005 his work was awarded by the Masing award of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde.

U. Krupp, University of Siegen, now: University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück