Effect of low-temperature overload on fatigue crack growth retardation and prediction of post overload fatigue life

In the present work an attempt has been made to study the simultaneous effect of overload and low temperature on fatigue crack growth behavior. It is known that overload application retards a propagating fatigue crack. It has been observed in this study that application of the overload at low temperature further enhances the magnitude of retardation. Various factors affecting retardation have been analyzed and crack growth behavior is predicted using a modified exponential model. It is observed that the proposed model estimates the crack growth rate and life accurately. The theoretically estimated retardation parameters have been also found to be in good agreement with their experimental values.