Analysis of fatigue crack propagation in laser sintering metal

Laser sintering metal has recently been used in the manufacture of components for different applications like aerospace or medicine. The approach to engineering design based on the cracks propagation assumption applying the concepts of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) is commonly used for aerospace engineering. However, fatigue crack propagation is linked to irreversible and non-linear mechanisms at the crack tip, therefore LEFM parameters can be successfully replaced by non-linear crack parameters, namely the plastic CTOD. A model linking da/dN with plastic CTOD is proposed here to characterize fatigue crack propagation. A comparison is made with other materials showing that for the same plastic CTOD the laser sintering material has a relatively large crack growth rate.