Fatigue Growth of Surface Cracks

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Abstract
Fatigue-crack growth in gas-turbine engines generally involves surface initiated cracks of semielliptical shape (surface crack) or quarter-elliptical shape (corner crack). Such cracks initiate in regions of locally high stresses and stress gradients. A major aspect of the design system prediction of cyclic growth of these cracks is the development of efficient yet accurate fatigue-crack growth analytical models. A major advance in modeling accuracy and efficiency has been achieved through the combined use of boundary-integral equation models of three-dimensional crack problems and a weight function representation of elliptical crack growth. Surface and corner crack-fatigue growth data have been compared to the results predicted by the design system analytical model. In general, excellent agreement has been obtained. Some questions concerning the important features of surface and corner-crack growth as well as the weight function method are addressed.

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