Prediction of fatigue crack growth based on low cycle fatigue properties

• Models of FCG have been developed considering the plastic strain energy and the linear damage accumulation, respectively.
• Models are soundly capable of predicting FCG relationship independently using fundamental low cycle fatigue properties.
• The relationship between FCG and LCF is developed. Crack growth rate formulas do not contain any adjustable parameters.

Theoretical models of the fatigue crack growth without artificial adjustable parameters were proposed by considering the plastic strain energy and the linear damage accumulation, respectively. The crack was regarded as a sharp notch with a small curvature radius and the process zone was assumed to be the size of cyclic plastic zone. The near crack tip elastic–plastic stress and strain were evaluated in terms of modified Hutchinson, Rice and Rosengren (HRR) formulations. Predicted results from two established models have been soundly compared with open reports for frequently used materials. It is found that experimental results agree well with theoretical solutions.