3D atomistic simulation of fatigue behavior of a ductile crack in bcc iron

We present results of 3D molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of the ductile–brittle behavior at an edge (1¯10) [1 1 0] crack in bcc iron loaded cyclically in mode I at temperature of 300 K. This crack in 3D bcc iron crystal under monotonic uniaxial tension loading in mode I emits dislocations in the inclined 〈1 1 1〉{1 1 2} slip systems and it is stable up to very high loads, in qualitative agreement with experiments and continuum predictions. Our question is how the cyclic loading changes the crack behavior and its stability.