Journal of ASTM International, Vol. 9, No.

1
Paper ID JAI103940
Available online at www.astm.org

R. Sunder1

Unraveling the Science of Variable Amplitude Fatigue*

ABSTRACT: Conventional methods to estimate variable-amplitude fatigue life revolve either around cumu-
lative damage analysis using the local stress-strain approach, or, around one of the crack growth load inter-
action models. Despite advances in modeling the mechanics of fatigue, none of these methods can
faithfully reproduce the near-threshold variable amplitude fatigue response that determines the durability of
machines and structures primarily because they fail to model the science behind the residual stress effect.
Residual stress effects have a strong bearing on metal fatigue and owe their influence to the moderation of
crack-tip surface chemistry and surface physics. This demands the treatment of threshold stress intensity
as a variable, sensitive to load history. The correct estimation of crack closure is also crucial to determining
the variable amplitude fatigue response and demands assessment of the cyclic plastic zone stress-strain
response.
KEYWORDS: fatigue crack growth, variable-amplitude loading, crack closure, residual stress

Introduction
Many complex phenomena of engineering significance including heat transfer, stress/strain distribution in
materials and built-up structures, their dynamic response, and even fluid flow have been understood to a
point where analytical and numerical modeling, practically from first principles, can simulate the actual
process with amazing consistency. In stark contrast, the science of metal fatigue has remained largely em-
pirical even after 150 years of intense study. Incredible improvements have been effected in the safety and
useful life of such heavily stressed transportation vehicles such as aircraft and automobiles. These were
made possible to a large extent by advances in analytical techniques related to stress-strain distribution in
materials and structures under both static and dynamic conditions, and in the area of materials engineering.
The quality of computer-aided design through solid modeling and finite element analysis permits even less
experienced engineers to ensure a uniform distribution of stresses and avoid localized stress concentration,
so that adequate safety factors can be provided without substantially increasing weight. Finally, fracture
mechanics combined with improvements in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) allows “on-condition main-
tenance,” whereby structures and machines can be periodically inspected and repaired or retired only if
necessary—“if NDE does not reveal a defect, the structure must be good till the next inspection,”
A brief review of progress in understanding metal fatigue is made below in an attempt to explain its
enigmatic nature. This is followed by a description of two major operative mechanisms that control
variable-amplitude fatigue, crack closure, and residual stress. The implications of the synergy of the two
independent phenomena are discussed. The paper concludes with a description of new avenues for
research that follow from the discovery of the science behind the residual stress effect and improved crack
closure measurement.

Metal Fatigue—A Chronological Brief

Crucial Early Observation—Railway engineers in the early 19th century were shocked to discover
that wagon axles made from high quality ductile steel could inexplicably break like glass, even though
operating stress levels were far less than the tested static strength of these superior quality steels. Thus, the

Manuscript received May 2, 2011; accepted for publication November 1, 2011; published online December 2011.
1
BiSS Research, 41A 1A Cross, AECS 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560094, India, e-mail: [email protected]
*
Presented at the 11th ASTM/ESIS Symposium on Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics, Anaheim, CA, USA, May 17-20, 2011.
Submitted for publication in ASTM STP.

Copyright V
C 2012 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959.
2 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

same material would show a “fibrous” (ductile) fracture when it fails statically and a “crystalline” (brittle)
one when it fails under very long term repeated loading of low magnitude [1]. This gave birth to the specu-
lation (‘theory’ at the time), that cyclic loading can induce metallurgical transformations even at ambient
temperature, forcing local brittle failure along crystallographic planes. Steam from the locomotive flowing
past axles was cited as one possibility [2]. The present study proposes, in part, to show that while such
conclusions may seem delusive, the factual significance of the “crystalline” appearance of high cycle fa-
tigue fractures appears to have been overlooked for too long.

Significance of Cyclic Loading—Wohler’s experiments in the mid-nineteenth century opened up metal

fatigue to engineering applications [3]. He established the concept of the S-N curve that relates fatigue life
to the amplitude of cyclic loading. By performing tests at higher stress amplitudes, Wohler showed that fa-
tigue fractures could retain the “fibrous” appearance associated with static fracture.2 He also established
the idea of a fatigue limit and its relationship with mean stress. In so doing, Wohler put in place the idea
of fatigue being sensitive to both the amplitude and mean level of cyclic loading and also the machinery of
empirical correlation that continues to serve as the foundation of fatigue analyses. The significance of
Wohler’s work must be judged against the background of prevailing speculative interpretations of the time
along with the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. Scientific advance of the discipline came much later
through its association with cyclic slip, as summarised in Fig. 1. This perception served as virtual blinders,
clouding for more than a century, a pertinent but inconvenient question: if fatigue is indeed driven by
cyclic slip, why is fatigue life and particularly, fatigue limit, so sensitive to mean stress?3 The link between
cyclic plastic strain, reversed slip, and dislocation dynamics appeared to hold much more promise given
the nebulous nature of the mean stress effect. Additionally, with the subsequent discovery of crack closure
(to which we will return), the mean stress effect also appears to have been treated as effectively ‘closed.’

Cumulative Damage and Service Load Environment—Service loading typically involves a mix of
cycles of varying magnitude and asymmetry, with the largest load occurring extremely rarely in actual
usage, if at all.4 Merely ensuring that stresses due to the largest expected load do not exceed the fatigue
limit is an impractically safe design proposition except, perhaps, in civil structures. The Miner Rule5 intro-
duced in the early 20th century attempts to resolve this problem by suggesting that the remaining life in a
given variable-amplitude load history undergoes a continuous cycle-by-cycle fractional decrement
expressed as the inverse of total fatigue life after each load cycle [13]. Thus, for any given arbitrary load
sequence, failure is associated with the sum of cumulative fractional damage from successive load cycles
attaining unity. The idea of cumulative damage is purely notional, carries no scientific rationale, and is not
associated with any entity that could be monitored in real time. Nevertheless, it held out the promise of
practical application in designing for desired finite life, such as the warranty period for non-safety critical
engineered products. Any such optimism was soon dashed by Gassner’s experiments under multi-step pro-
grammed block loading [14]. He established that the actual damage sum at failure can fluctuate wildly,
depending on the mix of programmed loads, i.e., that fatigue damage is not linearly cumulative. In the tu-
multuous years preceding WWII, Gassner proceeded to develop empirical procedures involving testing
under a simulated service environment, in order to obtain fatigue life curves valid for a given material,
component, joint, or even structural assembly, subject to the statistical equivalent of a given service load
history. Thus, while Gassner’s effort did finally come up with an engineering solution, it did so without

2
In commenting on Wohler’s collection of laboratory fatigue fractures displayed at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, Anon. propheti-
cally observed “M. Wohler’s modest exhibition may have been overlooked by ninety nine out of a hundred professional visitors to
the Exhibition, yet we believe ourselves justified in saying that his scientific and patient experiments will be referred to long after
the majority of those things which have drawn a shower of medals and ribbons upon themselves at present will be dismissed and
forgotten” [4]. Indeed, in terms of value, Wohler’s lifetime effort appears formidable even given today’s experimental resources.
Just consolidating the results of his fatigue experiments under a vast variety of conditions involving axial, shear, and torsional
loading would constitute a meaningful research effort.
3
Particularly considering that cyclic slip is mean stress insensitive! From the published literature, only Manson’s expression of
hope that “a meaningful rationale for the mean-stress effect would be a noteworthy achievement over the coming 25 years” [5]
appears to suggest awareness of the enigma surrounding an important but unresolved phenomenon.
4
Examples are the occasional potholes for automobiles and turbulent weather for aircraft. Careless driving over deep potholes and
a flight straight into a storm may serve as extreme design considerations.
5
Though it is known this way, actually, the rule was proposed some 20 years earlier by Palmgren in Europe.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 3

FIG. 1—A brief on metal fatigue. (a) Typical fatigue test results obtained in Wohler’s time [7] shown as
tables of max applied stress (fully reversed in tension and compression by rotation-bending) versus cycles
to failure. (b) Test results of Wohler and Baushinger for different steels showing that the fatigue limit is
mean stress sensitive [8]. Many decades later, these came to be better known as the Goodman diagram
[9]. (c) A new understanding of fatigue emerged with the association of yield with dislocation movement.
Mott’s analog between slip and the ease of moving a fold in a carpet and [10,11] helps explain the forma-
tion of persistent slip bands (PSBs) (d) [12]. This, in turn, readily explains why fatigue life is controlled
by the plastic strain range (e). (f) Cycles A, B, and C, being identical in magnitude, will cause the same
extent of reversed slip or cyclic plastic strain. They ought to result in the same fatigue life, but do not, as
shown by Wohler and Bauschinger in (b). This has been an enduring enigma surrounding metal fatigue.

casting any light on why metal fatigue is so sensitive to load sequence. Continued emphasis on laboratory
testing under a simulated service environment underscores the significance of load sequence sensitivity. In
the meantime, some four decades after Gassner experiments, the first analytical basis to account for it
emerged in the form of the local stress-strain (LSS) approach.

Local Stress-Strain Approach

Figure 2 summarises the LSS approach that is based on the principle that notch fatigue response will be
the same as smooth specimen fatigue response to the simulated notch root stress-strain response. Due to
4 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

FIG. 2—Fatigue damage caused by the two sequences shown in (a) would appear similar, gauging from
the smooth specimen elastic response in (b). However, if the two sequences are applied on a notch root
seeing the local inelastic response as in (c), the local mean stress in cycles B and E will be dissimilar.
Thus, if Miner’s Rule appeared to apply to (b), it needs to be adapted to (c) by accounting for load
sequence sensitivity of the notch root mean stress. (d) and (e) Local Stress Strain (LSS) approach serves
as the foundation of contemporary industrial fatigue design. It incorporates (d) Neuber conversion based
on the Masing model of material stress-strain memory [17,18], (e) Rainflow cycle counting to determine
closed fatigue cycles, (f) damage estimates using strain-life data and Miner’s Rule. In practice, case (b)
also exhibits load sequence sensitivity, rendering the LSS approach questionable.

the hysteretic6 nature of the notch root inelastic stress-strain response, local tensile yield during an overload
will cause a downward shift in the local stress response to subsequent elastic loading. Assuming that fatigue
is a localized phenomenon, it would follow that accounting for sequence sensitivity of metal fatigue hinges

6
Deviation from linear response due to yield imposes hysteresis upon load reversal. As a consequence, local stress and strain at
any point of time need not be uniquely related to applied load. They will become sensitive to load history and also to the direction
of the load change. Quite simply, hysteresis induces either reduced local stress at the cost of increased local strain, or vice versa
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 5

on the capability to simulate the notch root inelastic response and then translate that response into local
stress-strain cycles, identifiable for the purpose of a cumulative fatigue damage estimate after correcting for
sequence sensitive local mean stress. The LSS approach is built around several important advances in
applied mechanics. Neuber came up with a simple equation that relates remote elastic loading to local inelas-
tic stress-strain at a notch root subject to shear [15]. This was assumed to be extendable to the axial stress-
strain response. A simultaneous solution of Neuber’s equation with the Ramberg-Osgood equation [16]
yields the local inelastic stress-strain response to a given applied load. In the late 1960s, Wetzel [17]
employed the emerging power of digital computers to combine a linearized Masing model representing ma-
terial memory effect in stress-strain response7 with the Neuber equation into a numerical model, capable of
realistically simulating the notch root cyclic inelastic response to an arbitrary applied load sequence. This
made it possible, for the first time, to visualize the effect of load history in inducing changes to notch root re-
sidual stress and thereby account for its effect on fatigue damage [18]. Around the same time, Endo [19]
came up with the Rainflow cycle counting technique to identify closed fatigue cycles from an arbitrary ran-
dom sequence of peaks and valleys, which is typical of the service load environment.8
The early 1970s finally saw the emergence of a numerical apparatus built around the Neuber conver-
sion, the Masing model, Rainflow, and cumulative damage estimates to calculate notch fatigue life. A
timely addition to fatigue technology in the 1960s were computer controlled servo-hydraulic testing
machines. They permitted the determination of cyclic stress-strain characteristics for use in modeling the
material response. They also permitted testing under both total strain and plastic strain control, so as to
obtain strain-life data under highly controlled conditions.
The LSS apparatus was amenable to variations in terms of equations to calculate damage and correct
it for sequence-sensitive mean stress. It was also open to sophistication in terms of accounting for strain
hardening and softening, stress relaxation, and creep-fatigue interaction.9 Continuous advancement in
computing power combined with its integration with finite element analyses now permit the digital simula-
tion of the cyclic stress-strain response at hot spots in a structure for design optimization and durability
assurance. Such software packages form the backbone of contemporary industrial fatigue design. Even so,
fatigue critical components are released into the market only after first testing their durability and struc-
tural integrity in the laboratory under simulated service conditions.
The continued need for component-level testing may not merely be a measure of insurance against the
unexpected, but an acknowledgment of the unknown with regard to variable amplitude fatigue. This possi-
bility is underscored by a serious shortcoming of the LSS approach, as illustrated in Fig. 3. For all its
sophistication, even the most modern machinery of notch fatigue simulation cannot explain sequence sen-
sitivity under a fully elastic notch root response. Designers strive to ensure that local stresses never exceed
yield. This effectively implies that if machines and structures respond in real life the way they do in simu-
lation, there will be no local inelasticity.10 Experience shows however, that while the notch root stress-
strain response in real life may remain elastic and therefore, sequence insensitive, sequence effects, in
fact, become more significant with reducing overall stress level. This serious anomaly appears to have
remained largely unnoticed in the shadow of the elegance of numerical simulation.
Limitations of the LSS approach should not come as a surprise. In scientific terms, advances over
what Wohler had originally conceived some 150 years earlier were restricted to the newfound ability to

7
The stress-strain curve of a material can be divided into a number of linear segments. Metals have this amazing property to
remember exactly “how much” they have deformed along each linear segment and, therefore, how much more they can afford to
deform along the same segment. Thus, having exhausted one, their response will move on along the next segment and so on. By
simulating this response, one can digitally simulate a tension-compression stress-strain response in a manner that will be remark-
ably similar to that of real materials.
8
The salient feature of Rainflow is its physical consistency. Rainflow counted cycles will always correspond to fully closed stress-
strain hysteresis loops required to estimate cumulative fatigue damage. Previous cycle counting techniques did not carry a physi-
cal basis.
9
This opened the opportunity for the research community to come up with fairly diverse ways of computing damage through a va-
riety of corrections employed to suit observed empirical results, while essentially using the same technique to compute inputs in
the form of local stress and strain.
10
Note that cyclic inelasticity demands the exceedance of twice the yield stress, rendering it even more improbable in durable
designs. However, even such designs often ultimately fail in fatigue, suggesting that in real-life cracks can form and grow even in
the event of totally elastic notch root response.
6 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

FIG. 3—(a) Computed fatigue life versus local elastic design stress using the LSS approach for an air-
frame structural Al-alloy under typical fighter aircraft (FALSTAFF [20]) and transport aircraft (TWIST
[21]) load spectra [22]. The shaded area is the estimated potential variation due to load sequence rear-
rangement. Note that curves for both spectra merge into a single line below twice the yield stress
(800 MPa), when cyclic slip turns negligible. (b) Schematic notch root response for symmetric load spec-
trum, and (c) response for asymmetric spectra such as FALSTAFF and TWIST. Even assuming twice the
yield strain at the highest load, only symmetric spectra such as rotating parts seeing fully reversed loading
are likely to experience cyclic inelastic conditions. Others, as in (c) will not see cyclic inelasticity and,
according to the LSS approach, should not exhibit sequence sensitivity. However,in practice they do, and
do so to a significant extent, undermining the credibility of the LSS approach. Sequence effects obviously
have to do with the nature of fatigue crack growth. Crack tip response will always be sequence sensitive
because the crack tip will always see a cyclic inelastic response

accurately determine the local stress strain response at fatigue critical locations. Note that local stress and
strain amplitude is load sequence independent.11 Their estimation does not actually require the elaborate
cycle-by-cycle numerical simulation provided by state-of-the-art software. The only reason for resorting
to cycle-by-cycle simulation is to determine sequence sensitive local mean stress. If, indeed, this sensitiv-
ity disappears under a fully elastic response, there must be other reasons for metal fatigue being load
sequence sensitive. The LSS approach elegantly handles the mechanics of the notch root response, how-
ever. it fails to address the science behind how such mechanics induce fatigue damage and, particularly,

11
Local stress and strain amplitude are uniquely related to applied stress amplitude by the Neuber and Ramberg-Osgood equations,
stress concentration factor, Young’s modulus, the strain hardening exponent, and cyclic strength coefficient. Applied mean stress
and mean strain do not figure in the relationship.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 7

why such damage may be sensitive to mean stress. Viewing fatigue as largely a process of crack growth
opens the possibility of resolving this problem (Fig. 4).
The impressive analytical machinery upon which the LSS approach is based may indeed provide an
accurate picture of the sequence-sensitive notch root cyclic inelastic stress strain and cycle-by-cycle varia-
tion in residual stress under service loading. However, fatigue crack growth consumes the bulk of total

FIG. 4—(a) Fatigue as a crack growth process. Advances in non-destructive inspection technology are
likely to increase demands on the ability to model the growth of smaller cracks at lower growth rates. (b)
Fractograph of natural crack formation and growth under 3-step programmed loading in an Al-alloy out
of an inclusion seen at bottom left. Each band corresponds to 2000 cycles and is indicative of the reprodu-
cibility of the fatigue crack growth process even at small crack size and low growth rates [25]. (a) and (b)
Are suggestive of fatigue as a crack growth process, sensitive to crack tip cyclic response, rather than of
cumulative damage at the notch root. (c) and (d) Range and damage exceedance (RDE) curves computed
for Al-alloy L73/2014-T6 under FALSTAFF and TWIST load spectra [26]. 1—Rainflow counted cycle
range; 2—damage contribution calculated using the LSS approach at 800 MPa (see Fig. 3(a)), and contri-
bution to fatigue crack extension for a small crack [3] and long crack [4]. Note that in FALSTAFF, just
10% of the cycles (the largest) contribute in excess of 90% of the damage. This explains why the MiniFAL-
STAFF and FALSTAFF spectra yield similar results. On the contrary, in the case of the TWIST spectrum,
the LSS and fracture mechanics approach provide contradictory results, with the former wrongly indicat-
ing that just some 2% of the cycles contribute all the damage, while in actual experience, the smaller
cycles control damage. As shown by curves 3 and 4, when small cycles determine crack growth, load inter-
action effects gain in importance. This underscores the significance of the near-threshold behaviour and
its potential load sequence sensitivity.
8 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

fatigue life and unlike a notch root, the crack tip will, by definition, always see an inelastic cyclic
response. Thus, once a crack appears, sequence effects will not only continue to prevail under the elastic
notch root response, but may even become dominant, given the nature of near-threshold crack growth sen-
sitivity to overloads. Obviously, one cannot hope to harmonize variable amplitude fatigue test results
obtained using the LSS and fracture mechanics approaches as shown in Figs. 4(c) and 4(d).
Modern fatigue critical structures including most airframes are periodically inspected for cracks. If
no cracks are observed, the structure is released for further service until the next scheduled inspection.
This implies indefinite usage, provided cracks, if detected, are immediately repaired, or the part is
replaced. The cost of repair will eventually determine “retirement for cause” [23]. The cost of inspec-
tion, along with its periodicity, will determine the overall economics of operation. In this scheme, the
enforced periodicity of inspection is determined by the quality and reliability of non-destructive inspec-
tion (NDI), which needs to be matched by the ability to correctly estimate the residual life of the
structure with such a crack. Obviously, neither the actual initial defect size (assuming it is smaller than
NDI-detectable size) nor the ability to correctly model very early growth carry value in a condition mon-
itoring scheme.
From the overall standpoint of durability assessment, understanding fatigue crack growth response
below NDI-detectable crack size becomes valuable in the event there is a demand for an extended period
of service before first inspection. It assumes even more importance when the component is not subject to
inspection. Additionally, it certainly offers the promise of just doing away altogether with the obsolete
concept of cumulative fatigue damage. The potential for doing so is supported by the highly reproducible
growth bands in Fig. 4(b) even at incredibly small crack sizes.
As a rule, the quality of life estimate is inversely proportional to life [24]. Assuming the bulk of that
life is exhausted by crack growth, the study of near threshold variable-amplitude crack growth becomes
extremely important. Indeed, the potential for the advancement and application of fracture mechanics in
structural design over the last four decades has largely overshadowed opportunities presented by the LSS
approach.

Fracture Mechanics Approach

With the birth of linear elastic fracture mechanics, the stress intensity factor K became available, that
serves several important purposes. Here, K is, in effect, a similarity criterion, to which both residual
strength and fatigue crack kinetics can be related (see Fig. 5). Paris showed that the fatigue crack growth
rate da/dN correlates with the cyclic stress intensity range DK [27]. This was a turning point in the
advancement of fatigue research. In contrast to a notional parameter called cumulative damage, a quantifi-
able parameter in the form of crack size was now available to characterize damage. Further, K permits the
unification of experimental data for a given material, irrespective of cracked body geometry, crack size,
shape, and applied load level. In effect, K is to a cracked body what stress is to a smooth uniform section
specimen. Using K, experimental crack growth data obtained on simple laboratory coupons could be read-
ily extrapolated to structural components of engineering interest.

Crack Growth Load Interaction Models

The 1960s saw much progress in unraveling the mystery behind the load sequence effect researched forty
years earlier by Gassner that had debunked the Palmgren-Miner Rule. The advent of precision servo-
hydraulics based test systems allowed systematic experiments on variable amplitude fatigue crack growth.
These permitted the study of crack growth rate transients after overloads and underloads superposed on
baseline constant amplitude loading. Experiments came up with the astonishing finding that applying a
tensile overload, in fact, ends up retarding further crack growth even if the crack would have substantially
incremented during the overload. It was also found that compressive overloads (inappropriately called
“underloads”) could, in effect, erase the retarding effect of a previous overload. These observations
revealed that under variable amplitude loading, the order in which different loads are applied influences
the rate of crack advance in a manner that could not be readily explained by considerations of solid
mechanics (see Fig. 5(c) and 5(d)). Clearly, the material at the crack tip appeared to “remember” what pre-
viously transpired in a manner that affected its subsequent fatigue resistance. The search was on for load
interaction mechanisms that may be responsible for sequence effects.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 9

FIG. 5—Stress intensity factor K as a similarity criterion for fatigue crack growth. (a) Stress intensity for
crack subject to uniform remote stress [1] increases with crack size which is the inverse of the case of rivet
(point) load [2]. Correspondingly, the growth rate, da/dN will also vary differently with crack size. Yet, as
shown in (b), da/dN for the two cases will fall into a single scatter band when plotted against the stress in-
tensity range [28]. Experience shows, however, that the relationship (b) combined with K are not sufficient
similarity criteria for engineering applications. Consider the schematic of the loads in (c) on a transport
aircraft at A—take-off and climb, B—cruise, and C—descent and landing (load level on a transport liner
gradually drops due to mass reduction from fuel consumption). Crack growth curves will vary as shown in
(d), depending on the mere rearrangement of loads [29]. Cycles covering a few thousand flights and re-
arranged to form a Hi-Lo programmed sequence will yield a crack growth life about four times greater
than if applied as is. This is attributed to load interaction mechanisms including crack closure, residual
stress, and crack front incompatibility.

Wheeler [30] and Willenborg [31] came up with empirical models on the consideration that the tensile
monotonic plastic zone ahead of the crack tip will act as a wedge squeezed by the elastic matrix to create
a zone of compressive residual stresses at the crack tip (see Fig. 6). If an overload is applied, this plastic
zone will increase in size as a square function of the overload ratio, leading to a substantial increase in the
near-tip compressive stress. To account for this effect, Wheeler introduced a transient retardation factor as
a power function of the ratio of remaining crack extension in the overload plastic zone to the size of this
zone with constants empirically selected to approximate experimental observations. Willenborg inter-
preted the same effect in terms of a reduced “effective” stress ratio due to increased compressive residual
stress, also with a transient function to fit real observations. This model relies on Walker’s equation cor-
recting the growth rate for the stress ratio [32].
If, in the 1970s, the LSS approach was already incorporated into commercially available industrial
software for fatigue design, the Wheeler and Willenborg models were also brought into the market for the
safe-life and fail-safe design of aircraft structures and later, into the nuclear, piping, energy, railroad, auto-
motive, and other industries. Forty yearslater, software built around these models continues to dominate
industrial fatigue design. Even so, safety critical designs are invariably tested in the laboratory under simu-
lated service conditions.
10 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

FIG. 6—General scheme of load interaction models in current use. The action of a tensile overload (a) is
described in (b)-(d). A is the monotonic plastic zone from baseline loading and B, the cyclic plastic zone.
C is the overload plastic zone and D, the cyclic plastic zone due to overload, that vanishes upon the next
tensile cycle. E is the crack wake zone squeezed into bearing by the surrounding stretched material from
the plastic zone. (b) Indicates the crack tip picture upon the application of tensile overload. (c) Shows the
picture when the crack is almost through the overload plastic zone, and (d) indicates crack tip growing
through overload stretched wake. (e) Crack tip response to load sequence 1-5, shown in the inset. Laser
interferometry [36] estimates over 0.15 mm gauge length after deducting the elastic response. The loop
shape unambiguously underscores the portion of load cycle when the crack was open. Also note that clo-
sure is cycle sequence insensitive (2,4 and 1,5 indicate similar closure level). This is proof that closure is
insensitive to the cyclic plastic zone response (to crack-tip residual stress). According to both the Wheeler
and Willenborg models, compressive stresses in the overload plastic zone will retard crack growth until
the baseline monotonic plastic zone begins to exit the overload plastic zone, as in (c). Using Elber’s clo-
sure model, retarded growth will persist for some distance beyond the overload plastic zone (d). Neither
the Wheeler/Willenborg nor the closure models can explain the possible differences in crack extension
between cycles 2,4 and 1,5. In fact, the first two actually model closure, even if they may profess to model
the residual stress effect!
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 11

Fatigue Crack Closure

Just when it seemed that the Wheeler and Willenborg models appeared to hold promise in application, if
not in scientific conviction, Elber’s [33] discovery of crack closure (Fig. 6(e)) finally developed a mecha-
nism that actually makes scientific sense and can be analytically modeled using fracture mechanics con-
cepts. Newman [34], de Koning [35], and others came up with numerical models of how the plastically
stretched wake behind the crack tip effectively closes even under tensile load. This was a milestone in the
analytical simulation of the mean stress effect in metal fatigue. What is more, the new approach was able
to simulate, with reasonable conviction, the consequences of tensile and compressive overloads.12 Clinch-
ing evidence appeared by way of the ability of the closure model to explain accelerated crack growth after
a step-wise increase in load and the finer aspect of delayed retardation after an overload. There was no
way for the Wheeler and Willenborg models to explain such behaviour. Closure considerations make it
obvious and simple. When a tensile overload is applied, it takes some crack growth for the overload
induced wake with extra stretch to take effect. Therefore, retardation is not immediate. In fact the crack
may even momentarily accelerate because the the overload itself opens up the crack, causing a reduction
in closure stress. However, when a compressive overload is applied the consequent reduction in closure
stress is immediate. Crack closure based models were thus able to simulate, through mechanics based
computations, many seemingly complex load sequence effects that had hitherto appeared inexplicable. In
crack closure, a scientific explanation at long last seemed available for the effect of both mean stress
(stress ratio) and residual stress. All other load interaction mechanisms appeared either insignificant, were
perhaps manifested through closure, or, an outright figment of imagination. Or so it seemed.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the publication of over a thousand papers related to crack closure. The band-
wagon soon became an overcrowded train, with individual coaches representing the variety of sources of
crack closure. As it were, Elber’s discovery was “merely” of plasticity induced closure. To this were added
oxide-induced closure, roughness-induced closure, and asperity-induced closure. It was then suggested
that closure is but one shielding mechanism for a fatigue crack, with the further division of shielding into
extrinsic and intrinsic. Therefore, closure was now bracketed with crack tip shielding mechanisms such as
uncracked fibres in the crack wake, or, higher stiffness fibres ahead of it. As a consequence, if everything
seemed simple and straightforward as illustrated by Elber’s early work, a much more complex and confus-
ing picture seemed to emerge from subsequent research.
The cause of closure has not been helped by an unfortunate aspect of its measurement. Unlike parame-
ters that can be directly measured, such as dimensions or weight, or at least by an easy to define and
strictly reproducible process such as modulus of elasticity, yield stress, or ultimate stress, crack closure
measurement carries a heavy measure of interpretation. An annexure to ASTM E647 with a recommended
practice for closure measurement is a good example of a technique that delivers measurements of little
practical value. Remote measurement of crack opening displacement representing contact response inte-
grated way beyond intervals actually affecting closure carries only a remote chance of correlation with an
actual value.13 The issue is further complicated by difficulties in mechanism isolation to eliminate ambigu-
ity in the interpretation of the results. For example, would it be fair to attribute retarded crack growth to
roughness induced closure, when the very occurrence of roughness may have also reduced the intensity of
the crack tip stress field by a ragged crack front and possible multiple plane separation?
The technique in Fig. 6(e) involving near-tip laser indentation interferometry14 [36] and fractography
using the ‘Closure Block’15 [37] are exceptions that deliver reproducible and scientifically defendable

12
The Wheeler and Willenborg models could not account for the effect of compressive overloads.
13
Closure induces a certain wedge opening stress intensity to compensate for the applied stress falling below closure stress. The
contribution to the stress intensity of a point force in the crack wake will be inversely proportional to its distance from the crack-
tip. Assuming compressive yield stress upon wake contact, the depth of relevance to closure is of the order of a monotonic plastic
zone size. Displacement measurements made remote from this zone of influence cannot be expected to sense the crack tip
response with the desired sensitivity. Indeed, there are no published data showing credible closure measurements under variable
amplitude loading.
14
With a working gage length of the same order as the plastic zone size, this technique is sensitive to the inelastic stress-strain
response within the cyclic plastic zone as seen in Fig. 6(e).
15
The technique proceeds on the premise that given constant Kmax, there is no other explanation for equal striation spacing under
varying Kmin other than equal DKeff.
12 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

results. Unfortunately, these are not amenable to easy implementation in routine engineering laboratory
measurements.

Load Sequence Sensitivity of Individual Crack Extension Mechanisms

We now proceed to analyse different stages of fatigue crack growth associated mechanisms and how they
may be affected by the variable-amplitude environment. Measurable fatigue crack growth rates range
from less than atomic spacing, right up to 1 mm/cycle, a potential variation of at least eight orders of mag-
nitude (Fig. 4(a)). There are not many phenomena of engineering relevance, with such a wide swing in
kinetics. Crack extension itself occurs in an environment of several competing mechanisms, with individ-
ual mechanisms dominating selected intervals of growth rate. Add to this the different ways in which am-
bient conditions can affect individual mechanisms. It would, therefore, come as a surprise if any single
crack extension mechanism can describe the process. Even more surprising would be a single load interac-
tion model coming up with consistent estimates of variable-amplitude crack growth rates. For clarity, we
broadly divide crack kinetics into three distinct ranges of the crack growth rate and proceed to examine
how the dominant crack extension mechanism in each range responds to variable-amplitude loading.
Before doing so, we define a basic assumption that is required to distinguish fracture mechanics based
analysis from cumulative damage concepts.

History Effect on Crack Extension—Consider crack extension in identical cycles A, B, and C shown in
Fig. 7(a) with different loading histories. Case (a) involves constant amplitude loading. Cases (b) and (c)
involve prior cycling at increased loading amplitude, causing greater near-tip cyclic slip. Based on cumula-
tive fatigue damage considerations, one should expect crack extension C to exceed B and for both to exceed
A due to greater “prior damage,” However, there appears to be absolutely no empirical evidence to suggest
such a possibility!16 Fracture mechanics based models of variable-amplitude fatigue, in fact, simply ignore
it. They assume that the crack extension in the next cycle is driven only by the magnitude of that cycle. The
prevailing understanding of crack growth load interaction effects is also based exclusively on variables that
control crack kinetics in the next load cycle. It ignores any prior “slip-reversal damage” to the crack tip. In
the absence of compelling arguments to the contrary, we shall ignore any prior damage and its effect in con-
sidering dominant crack extension mechanisms and how they respond to variable amplitude loading. In
doing so, we make an important assumption that the fatigue crack can extend under each load cycle.17

Dominant Crack Extension Mechanisms—At the commencement of the rising half of a new load
cycle, the dominant crack extension mechanism is still an unknown. Crack extension will commence by a
yet to be defined mechanism once the load excursion exceeds a certain threshold value. It will soon trans-
form to striation mode as the stress intensity falls into the Paris regime and then proceeds to extend
through local quasi-static fracture in the event K approaches critical values (see Fig. 7(b)). Each of these
three stages occupies a finite but overlapping interval of crack growth rates, with the first transition occur-
ring around 104 mm/cycle and the second one depending largely on the stress ratio, around 102 mm/
cycle. With the increasing stress ratio, this last transition will progressively move into lower growth rates
because of the onset of quasi-static fracture leading to a shortened Paris interval. Note that the different
stages in crack growth are associated with the change in growth rate over several orders of magnitude.
Higher order growth rates will necessarily be associated with a mix of mechanisms18 (see Fig. 7(c)),
though the last mechanism to switch-in would emerge as the dominant one by virtue of its disproportion-
ately large contribution to crack extension.
The above rationale suggests that in variable amplitude fatigue, a variety of crack extension mecha-
nisms will continuously leave an imprint on the fracture surface and their mix will depend on the load

16
Not necessarily because such a possibility does not exist, but rather, because of the limitations in experimental techniques to
address the question in quantifiable terms.
17
Crack growth rates less than atomic spacing are readily explained by the possibility of local crack extension occurring at differ-
ent points on the crack front at different times [38].
18
After all, the crack tip at the commencement of rising load half-cycle, “does not yet know” the extent to which it will be loaded.
It will switch sequentially to the “mechanism of least resistance to crack extension” corresponding to the instantaneous load
increment.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 13

FIG. 7—(a) According to the cumulative damage concept, identical load cycles A, B, and C may extend
the crack differently because of the different load history preceding each of them. In contrast, all crack
growth models ignore the possibility of damage to material ahead of the crack tip. This understanding is
central to analytical modeling of load history effects. (b) The three growth rate regimes and their associ-
ated fractures for an Al-alloy. Crack extension in a cycle under variable amplitude loading may fall into
any of these three regimes, depending on its magnitude. (c) During the rising half cycle shown in the inset,
the crack will first extend by brittle micro-fracture (BMF) over a finite number of atomic layers embrittled
by instantaneous surface diffusion (ii), and then switch to shear extension (iii), suggesting striation forma-
tion by the mode change (iv) [39]. Any further increase in load beyond 2 may induce a disproportionately
higher quasi-static crack extension. This explains why striations marking individual cycles are seen only
over a very narrow range of growth rate.
14 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

spectrum. A corresponding mix of load interaction mechanisms may also continuously prevail. We now
proceed to consider in greater detail, individual crack extension mechanisms and how each one may be
sequence sensitive. In doing so, less significant load interaction mechanisms such as crack-tip blunting/
resharpening, history-induced phase transformations, and other such effects whose influence cannot be
deemed decisive or quantifiable are ignored.

High-End Growth Rates

The crack tip will see critical conditions associated with catastrophic fracture when K approaches Kc asso-
ciated with static fracture. Such local failure is attributed to quasi-static rupture of the material directly
ahead of the crack tip. If the material is inherently brittle, it will simply cleave locally. If it is ductile, as is
the case with most aerospace structural materials, at least two simultaneous mechanisms are likely. Stable
crack growth by shear can be either Mode II or Mode III. This typically occurs at the specimen edge,
where plane stress conditions promote shear ligament formation and gradually spread inward, because lig-
ament formation demands crack extension.19 A little deeper, and particularly given a straight crack front,
plane strain conditions associated with constraint can prevail, leading to the buildup of hydrostatic ten-
sion20 that can result in static rupture by microvoid coalescence (essentially, an analog of cavitation in
liquids), seen on the fracture surface as clusters of microscopic cavities, irrefutable evidence that local fail-
ure was instantaneous. Note that because conditions of constraint develop at some distance from the crack
tip, crack jump or tunneling by microvoid coalescence will invariably be accompanied by a shear of the in-
terim ligament at the very tip of the crack that remained under plane stress. A third mechanism is typical
of Al-alloys and the proliferation in them of secondary particulates that are natural barriers to slip. As a
consequence, if sizeable slip is involved that covers a distance exceeding their average spacing, a strain
localization will result, leading to a shear fracture along interconnecting planes between particulates. This
leads to the appearance on the fracture surface of a disproportionately high density of particulate voids,
that should not be confused with microvoid coalescence associated with static fracture as was the case in.
An example of a mix of the two appears in Fig. 7(b) (also, see Fig. 10(b)). Being a highly localized phe-
nomenon, such ruptures may occur momentarily and only at one or a few points ahead of the crack front.
This, in macroscopic terms, will show up as increasingly accelerated fatigue cracking as Kmax under cyclic
loading approaches Kc.21 One may expect that as the ratio Kmax/Kc approaches unity, the crack growth
rate will approach infinity (static fracture). Forman et al. introduced such a correction into the crack
growth rate equation which otherwise only carried two material constants to be determined by statistical
analysis of laboratory data. The correction kicks in only at higher values of DK, or at a very high stress ra-
tio, where Kmax gets closer to Kc even at lower DK.
Critical conditions associated with local quasi-static crack extension require high stress and strain lev-
els. Since these will be tied to the top end of the local stress-strain hysteresis loop, they may be immune to
hysteretic effects and therefore insensitive to load history. Also at these levels, crack closure has practi-
cally no role to play because the process is driven by the maximum driving force, rather than its range.
There is, however, some possibility of effects attributable to strain hardening or softening that may affect
local fracture resistance and will be stress history sensitive. Importantly, the crack-tip stress-strain
response will be extremely sensitive to local constraint. This will vary across the thickness and will also
be determined by instantaneous crack front orientation as well as shape, that is, in effect, determined by
the cumulative preceding crack extension. Of all the load history related parameters, this one appears

19
As a rule of thumb, the crack needs to extend over an interval of at least half the specimen thickness in order for the front to
completely rotate to shear mode. Quite simply, front rotation also demands extension.
20
Liquids follow Pascal’s Law. Applying pressure at any point will result in all ends of the constraining container seeing that pres-
sure. This is what drives fluid power technology. Solids are different from liquids in their resistance to sliding (shear or slip),
which is infinitely higher than viscosity in liquids. Therefore, when a smooth solid specimen is pulled, it will readily transversely
contract, as seen on a rubber band. However, if for some reason such a contraction is inhibited by external or internal conditions
(constraint), a hydrostatic response will result, whereby tension will be experienced in all directions. An example of hydrostatic
tension in the response of secondary particulates is forthcoming. A stress gradient serves as a natural constraint and can result in a
near-hydrostatic local response.
21
In the presence of a substantial quasi-static crack extension, one can hear audible pop-ins. Much lower levels of such an exten-
sion can be picked up by acoustic emission, which often serves as a tool for on-line structural diagnostics. This is used in industry
to “hear” defects growing in a structure and to locate them by triangulation, much like GPS positioning systems.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 15

worthy of analytical consideration at a high growth rate. To do so, one may treat Kc as a crack front related
parameter varying between a low of K1c associated with plane strain and a high of Kc, associated with
plane stress and therein introduce a history sensitive component into the Forman equation to account for
sequence sensitivity of high end growth rates.
In summary, the effect on high end growth rates of the loading history may be accounted for by cor-
recting K and Kc for crack front shape and orientation. Parameters such as crack closure and residual stress
will have little bearing on high-end growth rates.

Intermediate (Paris Regime) Range Growth Rates

The Paris Regime is characterized by a log linear relationship between DK and da/dN over a range of
growth rates covering the interval 104–102 mm/cycle with nonlinearity at the high end coming in due to
the quasi-static component and with the lower end overlapping with near-threshold fatigue response. The
interval is dominated by cyclic slip driven crack-tip extension, according to a variety of schemes proposed
in the literature [41]. A reasonably straight crack front is conducive to transgranular slip along preferred
planes and one can readily accept the possibility within individual grains of highly reproducible extent of
stretch and compression in successive load cycles that leave behind striation bands with near digital
precision.22
There are different ways in which a crack can extend over a load cycle in a predominantly slip domi-
nated mode. The first is by deformation (as opposed to fracture), whereby the shear stretch produced in the
rising half cycle cannot be fully reversed upon unloading, resulting in a fold, as indicated by the well-
known Laird model [43]. From this, follows the unexpected conclusion that the crack extends during
unloading. The second possibility is that the crack extends by shear fracture [44], whose extent is deter-
mined by rising load excursion exceeding a certain threshold level over which microscopic stable crack
extension occurs, but not unstable (even if localized) fracture. Reversed deformation during unloading
will essentially prepare a sharp crack for extension in the next cycle.23 The third possibility is a combina-
tion of the two, leading to a somewhat greater crack extension considering that the crack will continue to
grow during unloading as well. All three possibilities are supported by observations of extremely well
defined striations that mark the fatigue fracture surface, though the textbook understanding is of fatigue
crack extension by deformation (slip), not shear fracture.
Assuming that the crack-tip response is controlled exclusively by the cyclic stress-strain curve and the
extent of change in stress intensity, crack extension in this range should be insensitive to the applied stress
ratio and to near-tip mean stress (i.e., residual stress). Mean stress insensitivity is the very essence of a pro-
cess driven by slip alone. It follows that any sensitivity of intermediate range crack growth rates to the
stress ratio and to the load history may be attributed largely, if not solely, to crack closure. An inevitable
conclusion then would be that if the Wheeler and Willenborg models indeed correctly simulate intermedi-
ate range variable amplitude behaviour, they may be merely appearing to do so by the happy coincidence
of fudged closure response. Indeed, if fatigue crack growth is predominantly slip driven, the only plausible
explanation for the stress ratio and load history effects is fatigue crack closure controlling the effective
range of the stress intensity.
All three possible ways of crack extension by slip previously listed carry certain implications that go
beyond insensitivity to residual stress, stress ratio, and stress history. They imply cycle-by-cycle striation
formation. They also imply relative immunity of the Paris Regime to the environmental effect (assuming
slip is environment independent) and to cycling frequency (assuming rate-insensitivity of slip over the
practical range of frequency). Sensitivity to environment and frequency increases at lower growth rates
associated with thresholds and at much higher rates associated with sustained load cracking, creep, etc.
There are two curious features of intermediate range crack growth whose significance appears
to have remained largely unnoticed over the five decades of study by high resolution electron

22
Reference [42] describes an experiment that involved “punching” onto the fracture surface of fatigue striations representing bi-
nary code of text strings in much the same way as information is stored on digital media. This would not be possible without pre-
cisely reproducible cycle-by-cycle fatigue crack extension at the microscopic scale and serves as a compelling argument in favour
of fractography as a dependable tool not only in failure analysis, but also for the quantitative validation of crack growth models.
23
A blunt crack tip offers multiple parallel slip planes that will contribute to cumulative stretch by dissipating total strain. A sharp
crack restricts the number of shear planes and thereby encourages shear fracture by focusing shear strain into fewer slip planes.
16 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

fractography. One is the surprisingly narrow band of growth rates (usually within one or two orders
of magnitude of variation) over which discernible striations are observed.24 The other is the surprising
absence of striations in vacuum.

Near Threshold Fatigue Crack Response

Indeed, why are striations not discernible in vacuum? And why are we usually unable to see striations in
atmospheric fractures at growth rates below 104 mm/cycle, even if electron microscopes can resolve fea-
tures one hundred times smaller? The controversial brittle micro-fracture (BMF) model of near-threshold
crack growth25 appears to provide the answer [45] (Fig. 8). The fatigue crack tip represents an extreme
stress concentrator. Associated with such stress concentration is an extreme stress gradient that in turn
induces conditions of severe near-tip constraint because the surrounding lightly stressed material does not
permit local necking. This, in turn, induces conditions of hydrostatic loading: application of tensile load
normal to the crack plane causes increasing tensile stresses in the transverse direction as well. Stress in the
third direction along the major crack axis will be somewhat relaxed, at least at the tip, because the free
crack tip surface is free to move inward into the material. However, the “diaphragm” stresses stretching
the crack tip surface in two directions will increase the inter-atomic distance along the loading axis while
not allowing transverse spacing to reduce. Such conditions are conducive to the activation of surface
physics (diffusion of active species into surface layers) and surface chemistry (chemical reaction with
active species), leading to accelerated transgranular26 fatigue crack extension [46].
In a careful study on the near-threshold fatigue fracture mode of an Al-alloy, Gangloff et al. observe that
crack extension occurred along crystallographic slip planes [47]. This by itself need not imply that crack
extension occurred by slip unless it can also be shown that the fracture plane was oriented appropriately with
respect to the loading direction27 as is the case with ductile response and striation formation in the Paris
Regime. Once a surface layer has been embrittled, it may not matter whether Mode I (tensile rupture) or II
(slip) is involved. If Mode II was indeed involved, it would lead to the formation of shear lips and progres-
sive rotation of the fatigue fracture plane by 45 . However, atmospheric fatigue fracture surfaces in the near-
threshold regime do not tend to develop shear lips. They remain flat and normal to the loading plane.
Compelling evidence in support of the previous rationale comes by way of fatigue fractures obtained
in salt water, air, and vacuum [48,49] under identical loading conditions. The authors attributed the
delayed transition to shear mode in salt water and air out of early Mode I cracking to the adverse effect of
environment on resistance to Mode I. A crack tip stress state is determined by shear-lip formation, which,
in turn, is driven by dominant macroscopic mode of crack extension, rather than by applied DK28 or even
the growth rate. Thus, in high vacuum, shear lips will form earlier than in salt water or even air, even if
vacuum growth rates will be much lower, given similar loading conditions. Pippan et al. have observed
that the fatigue crack stays sharp in air and turns blunt in vacuum29 [50] but failed to draw conclusions on
how this may reflect on the crack extension mode. Embrittled surface layers will also exhibit reduced elon-
gation. As a consequence, the crack may extend by BMF before the potential onset of slip on neighboring
planes that promote blunting, or, on the same plane, but deeper into the substrate.
In room temperature atmospheric fatigue, BMF appears to be primarily promoted by surface diffusion
of hydrogen released by the reaction of moisture with the crack tip surface resulting in oxide and hydrox-
ide formation. Oxidation appears to be an unlikely factor in BMF, a conclusion prompted by the retarded
near-threshold fatigue crack growth in dry oxygen observed by Bowles [51]. In tests on an Al-alloy,

24
The resolution of electron fractography is adequate to resolve a crack extension less than 106 mm/cycle, but one seldom sees
striations at growth rate less than 104 mm/cycle.
25
Against the general perception of metal fatigue being associated with cyclic slip (deformation), the BMF model suggests that
near-threshold fatigue crack extension occurs by fracture.
26
This is not to be confused with the mechanism of stress corrosion cracking associated with the intergranular short circuit diffu-
sion of active species that essentially leads to crack extension by grain separation.
27
Just as delamination in composites can occur either by Mode I or Mode II.
28
The ratio of plastic zone size to thickness is often treated as a reflection of the stress state. Implicit in this assumption is a
flat and straight crack front. In reality, a curved (tongue shaped) crack front or one that is tilted will both promote plane stress due
to ligament response.
29
Interestingly, having obtained lucid evidence about the cause (sensitivity of crack-tip deformation to environment), the authors
seem to have failed to draw the logical conclusion about its effect (sensitivity of the crack extension mode to the environment)!
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 17

FIG. 8—The science behind the residual stress effect in metal fatigue crack growth. (a) When an argon
bubble is inserted under ruthenium monolayers, the stretched top instantaneously attracts active species,
while the compressed region at the root of the blister repels them [46]. (b) According to the BMF theory,
the same holds true at the fatigue crack tip [45]: the active species is moisture at room temperature that is
repelled from the crack tip at minimum load, 1. During the rising half-cycle, moisture molecules are
attracted by the rising stresses at the crack tip. They react with metal to form metal oxide and hydroxide
to release hydrogen that diffuses into the substrate to embrittle and fracture the affected surface layers
under rising stress. (c) The surface physics and chemistry described in (b) will be affected by the crack tip
stress history as shown by the schematic repeat action of load sequence 1-7. (d) If closure is reduced or
absent (Lo-Sop), cycles 2-3 and 5-6 will see hysteretic crack-tip stress-strain response. Higher stress
causes more BMF at 2-3 than at 5-6. (e) However, if the crack is partially closed during 2-3 and 5-6, both
cycles will see similar reduced local stress and therefore, equally retarded crack extension. (b)–(e) Under-
scores the significance of the cyclic plastic zone response in controlling atmospheric sub-critical fatigue
crack growth. Closure and Wheeler/Willenborg models are incapable of explaining cycle-by-cycle hyste-
retic load interaction effects in fatigue crack growth.

Bowles also observed that when the environment is switched from laboratory air to dry oxygen, striations
gradually disappear, leaving a surface akin to that obtained in vacuum.30 This observation also points to
the potential role of BMF in striation formation. The BMF controls the near-threshold fatigue response

30
Their ‘gradual’ rather than immediate disappearance also raises the intriguing question of hydrogen consumption. Does hydro-
gen get consumed by embrittlement, or does it escape upon BMF to affect the next layer? Partial consumption can explain the mo-
mentary persistence of BMF into vacuum. It may also explain sustained accelerated internal cracking as in gigacycle fatigue.
18 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

that extends up to a growth rate of between 105 and 104 mm/cycle, suggesting that surface physics and
chemistry do affect tens, but perhaps not hundreds or thousands of atomic layers at the crack tip. Perhaps
crack extension by the BMF (mode I) over such a distance in the course of the rising load half cycle, when
followed by subsequent crack extension either by shear in Mode II, or, by folding of shear stretched crack
tip surface, or, by a combination of the two leaves that distinct wavy pattern one associates with well-
defined striations. Striation formation may thus require two distinctly different crack extension mecha-
nisms to operate sequentially (as shown by the schematic in Fig. 7(c)). If only one of them operates as in
the case below the Paris Regime (only BMF and no slip) or in high vacuum (only slip and no BMF), no
discernible contrasting topographical feature may result to mark the progress of the crack front.
Just as room temperature near threshold fatigue is closely linked with cycle-by-cycle crack extension
by the BMF of crack-tip surface layers embrittled by surface physics and chemistry, a similar process may
control elevated temperature transgranular fatigue crack growth. The latter is accelerated by the enhanced
oxidation of crack tip layers that can considerably exceed the depth of moisture related surface diffusion
by hydrogen. In both cases, crack extension is transgranular and involves cycle-by-cycle crack tip surface
activity that accelerates crack extension by comparison to vacuum fatigue response. For this reason, in
both cases, the threshold stress intensity will be much less than in high vacuum. It thus emerges, that, if
near-threshold behaviour is sensitive to diffusion kinetics, threshold stress intensity ought to be controlled
by the cyclic plastic zone response!

Threshold Stress Intensity

While near-threshold fatigue crack growth behaviour has long been connected with crack-tip surface
physics and with surface chemistry [52, 53], there seems to have been a general failure to appreciate the
connection between the kinetics of surface activity and near tip hydrostatic stress, and the sensitivity of
the latter to the stress history and to stress ratio. This may be attributed to the prevailing stereotype of
the crack tip essentially seeing an elastic, ideally plastic cyclic response, implying a local stress ratio
of R ¼ 1 (zero mean stress), irrespective of the applied stress ratio and stress history. Such an assump-
tion may have assisted crack-tip elasto-plastic stress-strain analyses and may also have been appropriate
for the Paris Regime with its sizeable cycle plastic zones. However, it appears to have clouded the
significance of the hysteretic stress-strain response within the cyclic plastic zone in moderating near-
threshold diffusion activity at room temperature and chemical reactivity at elevated temperatures. On
the contrary, the significance of residual stress is well known and appreciated in stress corrosion crack-
ing, as is practiced in assessing heat affected zones in welding and crack growth in an aggressive envi-
ronment. There is, however, an extremely important distinction between stress corrosion cracking and
atmospheric near-threshold fatigue crack growth. Near threshold fatigue crack growth is affected by
near-tip stress zones that are hydrostatic and microscopic in comparison to those considered in stress
corrosion cracking.
When crack-tip cyclic slip recedes below a certain threshold, crack growth will practically cease in
vacuum. This vacuum threshold stress intensity range is about three times greater than effective DKth in
air. Crack growth in air at DK less than vacuum DKth cannot obviously be explained on considerations of
slip. The difference between the two when raised to the power of four and above, covers a growth rate var-
iation in air, exceeding two orders of magnitude. The interim interval thus covers a vital segment of the
sub-Paris regime atmospheric fatigue response that may well account for the bulk of total fatigue life.31
Fatigue kinetics over this interval will obviously be determined by the ability of hydrostatic stresses within
the cyclic plastic zone to moderate crack-tip surface chemistry and surface physics. These stresses are the
sum of the crack-tip mean stress associated with the current stress ratio, history sensitive, residual stress
and their hysteretic variation while the crack remains open.32
The consequences of such a “crack-tip cyclic diffusion pump” may be varied. An arrested crack tip
will progressively lose its resistance under the persistent onslaught of diffusing active species. Hydrogen

31
In observing fatigue fractures, one may be inclined to associate the bulk of the fatigue process with the largest observable area
of the fatigue fracture. However, the bulk of fatigue life may, in fact, have been consumed in early crack growth. While assessing
fatigue fractures, it may be important not to ignore that, albeit small, region covering the crack initiation area.
32
An important consequence of this possibility is that a partially closed crack will not see cycle-sequence sensitivity, a feature to
be addressed further in the text.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 19

trapped in the rising load half-cycle will not be released upon unloading. Oxidation at an elevated temper-
ature accelerated during the rising load half-cycle will not be reversed upon unloading. This implies that
the crack front will be inclined to straighten itself even if the crack does not uniformly extend in succes-
sive cycles. Over each cycle that the tip does not give way, surface layers are likely to see a little more
embrittlement. At the same time, interstitial diffusion is a self-retarding process because diffused layers
represent barriers to newer and deeper diffusion. This is why the effect in question is unlikely to signifi-
cantly influence growth rates in excess of 104 mm/cycle. Another measure of the effect can emerge from
a comparison of Paris Regime growth rates in air and high vacuum. Their difference is substantially less
than under near-threshold conditions. Thus, while a fatigue crack in air can grow at 105 mm/cycle, it may
just remain arrested under high vacuum given the same loading conditions.

Significance of Cyclic Plastic Zone Response in Variable Amplitude Fatigue

Near-tip residual stress is highly sensitive to load history and can vary substantially on a cycle-by-cycle
basis. Figure 8(c)–8(e) schematically illustrates the cycle-by-cycle near-tip stress history for a fully open
and for a partially closed fatigue crack. Consider the repeated action of cycles 1-7. Identical embedded
cycles 2-3 and 5-6 will see the consequences of the hysteretic crack tip response within the cyclic plastic
zone. In both cases, near tip stress will be well below that under constant amplitude loading because of
the compressive stress introduced by tensile overload 4. As a consequence, cycles 2-3 and 5-6 will see re-
tarded crack extension. However, the retardation in 5-6 will be greater because lower local stress reduces
the diffusion activity with the crack growth tending towards vacuum response. Importantly, the differ-
ence between 2-3 and 5-6 being hysteretic can be seen on a cycle-by-cycle basis. This is possible only if
the crack is fully open during the embedded cycles as in Fig. 8(d) and with closure stress well below the
minimum stress in the two cycles. The hysteretic variation will cease in the event of partial closure as
shown in Fig. 8(e). Both cycles will be equally retarded in this case, being rendered cycle-sequence
insensitive due to partial closure. Cycle-sequence sensitivity is a term alien to conventional modeling
based on the Wheeler, Willenborg, or Elber models.33 The significance of the cyclic plastic zone and the
possibility of cycle-sequence sensitivity becomes obvious only when viewed from the perspective of the
BMF model.
Figure 9 describes the extension of this new understanding to re-interpret the simple case of tensile
and compressive overloads and how their action may be modeled. Consider the case of identical cycles
AB, DE, and GH in Fig. 9(a) and 9(b). We assume the stress ratio to be sufficiently high in order to pre-
clude the possibility of crack closure. Near-tip cyclic stress strain response for these cycles appears as
Fig. 9(c). We see that the baseline cycle AB would be associated with a certain near-tip stress rA. If the
stress ratio of this cycle had been higher such that A and C were equal, the local stress would have risen to
rC. In the event of tensile overload as in Fig. 9(a), the following cycle ED sees a deep drop in the near-tip
stress to rE. However, if a compressive overload followed the tensile overload as in Fig. 9(b), the follow-
ing cycle GH will see an increased local mean stress due to the preceding yield in compression at F. The
new mean stress will still be lower than in AB. Assuming a unique relationship between the near-tip mean
stress and threshold stress intensity, the three identical load cycles in question will follow different near-
threshold da/dN curves as, indicated in Fig. 9(d). Empirical determination of these modified da/dN curves
of relevance to variable amplitude fatigue requires specially designed experiments involving the controlled
variation of near-tip mean stress. Note that, given the impact of compressive overloads leading to
increased tensile near-tip stresses, there is no reason why the left extreme of these curves cannot tend
towards zero. Note also, that the right extreme for the da/dN curve is a high vacuum response that effec-
tively limits the extent to which compressive residual stress can retard the fatigue process.
Figure 9(e) and 9(f) assist in understanding transients associated with near-tip residual stress response
after an overload. Here, A and C are the monotonic baseline and overload plastic zones, respectively; D
and B are the associated cyclic plastic zones, respectively. Figure 9(f) shows the near-tip response at the
boundary of zone D. Since this point will see a fully elastic response, one may assume that as the crack tip
approaches this point, any hysteretic effects seen in Fig. 9(c) will disappear. This means that beyond this
point, from a residual stress perspective, crack growth will be identical for the two cases in Fig. 9(a) and

33
Curiously, interpretation of notch root fatigue response universally proceeds on this very understanding, and has remained
unquestioned, even in the absence of any scientific rationale for the notch root mean stress effect!
20 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

9(b). The memory about the compressive overload stands is erased from this point. It also appears possible
that, after some crack extension and well before the boundary of C, near-tip stresses will be restored to the
levels associated with the baseline conditions and one should, therefore, not see the extent of the retarda-
tion zone assumed by the Wheeler and Willenborg models.

FIG. 9—The new perspective of how tensile and compressive overloads distort the fatigue process. (a)
Tensile overload; and (b) compressive overload following a tensile overload. (c) Crack tip stress-strain
response showing the effect of overloads on local mean stress (crack-tip residual stress). Tensile overload
pushes local stress into compression (ED), but if a compressive overload follows, local stress will rise
(GH), though not to the baseline value (AB). (d) Near threshold crack growth rates can swing dramati-
cally depending on crack tip stress. (e) Overload cyclic plastic zone is small by comparison to the tensile
overload plastic zone. Therefore, any sequence sensitive hysteretic effect will disappear on its boundary,
as seen in (f). This implies that beyond this point, it will not matter whether a compressive overload fol-
lowed the tensile one. However, due to the combined action of closure and residual stress, most of the
load-interaction effect, bordering on crack retardation and possible momentary arrest, would have been
exhausted within the cyclic plastic zone. Conventional modeling techniques cannot reproduce these effects
because they ignore the cyclic plastic zone response and its effect on threshold.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 21

In summary, quite independent of crack closure, the residual stress effect is manifested through the
response of near-tip elements within the cyclic plastic zone to stress history. Their response determines in-
stantaneous DKth, suggesting that the near-threshold da/dN versus DK curve is not a material constant and
needs definition on a cycle-by-cycle basis as a function of near-tip mean or maximum stress. As a conse-
quence, the hysteretic near-tip stress variation induces cycle-sequence sensitivity in near-threshold crack
extension, provided the crack is fully open during the given cycle. In the event of partial crack closure,
cycle-sequence sensitivity is not possible because the minimum crack-tip stress in the cycle is practically
tied to the lowest possible crack-tip stress (see Fig. 8(e)).
Upon application of a tensile overload, the impact of the associated residual compressive stress is im-
mediate. This combines with the delayed development of closure awaiting wake build up. As a conse-
quence, retardation will be immediate in the event of the near-threshold response and delayed in the event
of the Paris Regime response or in high vacuum.34 Closure related retardation due to overload will vanish
only after the crack tip has extended well outside the overload plastic zone of the crack tip (see Fig. 6(d)).
In contrast, the hysteretic nature of residual stress effects will disappear at the boundary of the overload
cyclic plastic zone and the retarding effect of residual stress will altogether disappear well before the crack
tip exits the overload plastic zone as the near tip stresses approach baseline values. This point has no con-
nection with the point where crack closure reaches its maximum. Thus, the combined action of crack tip
residual stress and closure will be limited in the crack extension interval. However, over this small inter-
val, retardation is likely to border on crack arrest. The closure model accounts for only part of what hap-
pens except in the partial case of Paris Regime growth rates. Additionally, the Willenborg and Wheeler
models altogether ignore the cyclic plastic zone response and treat the transient process as a continuously
changing one over the entire monotonic plastic zone.
The ramifications of the deviation from reality of all existing approaches to crack growth estimates
under variable amplitude loading can be judged from two important practical considerations of computa-
tion. First, the baseline cyclic plastic zone where hysteretic effects dominate will be well under 10% of the
overload monotonic plastic zone size.35 Second, computed residual fatigue life, being an integral of the
growth rate function, will accumulate errors in computed transient growth rates. This suggests the ques-
tionability of obtaining reasonable crack growth estimates using available models. The suggestion may
appear preposterous when viewed against the operating framework of techniques currently in use to handle
variable amplitude fatigue. An examination of the empirical evidence and definition of the emerging per-
spective is, therefore, pertinent.

The Experimental Evidence

A series of experiments were performed to verify each of the conclusions that follow from interpreting
variable-amplitude fatigue using the BMF model combined with closure. To avoid speculation, each
experiment was specially designed to deliver irrefutable fractographic evidence [54–63]. These highlight
quantifiable effects for which there appears to be no alternate interpretation.36 The experiments imply the
important criterion of falsifiability.
It was a chance discovery that initiated this research in the late 1990s. Early experiments on Al-alloy
specimens using closure-free high stress ratio cycling were performed in search of a correlation between
the applied stress and short crack response [54] (the so-called short crack effect). The experiments were
performed under programmed loading with three steps of identical amplitude but varying mean stress.
Figure 4(b) shows a typical fatigue fracture from these experiments. Clearly visible are sets of three bands
of crack extension associated with each set of three steps of loading. Note that each band is caused by a
few thousand load cycles and is not to be confused with striations from individual cycles seen in the Paris
Regime.

34
Published fractographic data showing delayed retardation are restricted to the Paris Regime—they show striations.
35
Plastic zone size ratio is given as the square of the ratio of overload stress intensity to half the baseline effective stress intensity
range because cyclic plastic zone size is determined by twice the yield stress required for reverse yield.
36
A few early experiments involved the analysis of striation patterns. The rest involved estimates of spacing between marker
bands employed to unambiguously characterize microscopic crack extension over thousands of near-threshold load cycles that
cannot, in their individual capacity, produce discernible growth marks. This technique permits quantitative estimates of crack
extension without a limitation on the minimum growth rate. The pictures reproduced in this paper reach down to 108 mm/cycle.
22 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

A noticeable difference in the crack growth rate is observed between individual steps at small crack
size in Fig. 4(b). This difference gradually tapers out to uniform crack growth rate as the crack grows
much larger. The embedded cycles were placed on the rising half of the major cycle.37 The authors corre-
lated measured crack growth rates with the maximum local notch root stress in individual steps and came
up with an empirical equation to account for the short crack effect as a function of local maximum stress
[54]. At the time, this approach was considered consistent with the prevailing notions of the so-called
“short crack effect,” where parameters such as local stress were considered essential to explain what the
stress intensity range could not. We did not consider the possibility that the steps with lower mean stress
may experience the beneficial effect of preceding stressing at a higher level. We believed that having
ensured the crack was fully open by keeping stress ratios high, no load interaction effects were possible.
Sometime after the publication of this work, a chance38 discovery was made of equally spaced concentric
circular bands within voids on the fatigue fracture surface left behind by secondary particulates [55].
Several conclusions crucial to unraveling the nature of metal fatigue emerged from the detailed study
of fatigue voids. While it has long been known that fatigue cracks form at the notch root, the new evidence
confirms the possibility that early fatigue kinetics are the consequence of several competing mechanisms
operating at different locations. At a high applied stress level promoting intense reverse slip, the notch
root surface is likely to develop several crack origins almost simultaneously [61]. Plane stress conditions
at the surface combined with assistance from the environment39 appear to dominate. With a decreasing
stress level, the number of such sites will diminish, with a general tendency towards eventual sub-surface
initiation.40 One may speculate that constraint in the interior will promote local defect growth by micro-
scopic failure through modes other than planar slip, which prefers plane stress conditions.
In Al-alloys, innumerable secondary particulates lying beneath the notch root appear to bear evidence
to the consequences of cyclic hydrostatic stresses operating in the constrained region beneath the notch.
These induce the gradual separation by interfacial fatigue cracking of the secondary particulate from the
matrix. Cyclic hydrostatic loading action is apparent from the simultaneous onset and identical growth
rate of typically six (even more in the case of the irregular shape of the particulate) penny shaped interface
cracks covering all six sides of the particulate (see Fig. 10). The smallest crack size seen is of the order of
0.125 lm, which may represent the smallest reproducible and traceable fatigue crack observed in research
practice. The bands also indicate an incredibly low growth rate down to 108 mm/cycle. The generally
uniform spacing of the concentric bands is of practical significance, suggesting that the interfacial crack
growth rate appeared to be insensitive to change in the mean stress in individual steps of the programmed
load sequence employed. This was in contrast to the major short crack at the same proximity to the notch
root! Surely, the effect that caused growth rates to be different between steps in the major short crack as
seen in Fig. 4(b) ought to have also have influenced the interfacial crack growth! However, they appa-
rently did not, after all.
There was, however, an important difference between the conditions under which the two cracks
grew. Unlike the major crack originating from the surface and continuously exposed to the environment,
interfacial cracks around secondary particulates grow in ideal vacuum. This is confirmed by simultaneous
cracking around the particulate that could not have progressed without cyclic hydrostatic tensile stresses,
and these in turn will disappear once the particulate is exposed and constraint disappears. There was obvi-
ously something linked not with the macro-mechanics of the notch response, but rather, with the micro-
mechanism of crack extension that seemed to determine fatigue resistance. A possibility has now emerged
that vacuum inhibits the root cause for the mean (residual) stress effect in metal fatigue. It was also possi-
ble that in air, it was not the applied mean stress itself, but the sequence of its change (load history) that
was responsible. Perhaps, indeed, vacuum does disable residual (mean) stress related effects?
Reference [56] describes an experiment dedicated to conclusively isolate the role of environment in
near-threshold fatigue by falsification. The experiment involved testing to failure under the same three-
step programmed loading, but alternating between air and vacuum every given number of blocks. The

37
Had they been placed on the falling half, the retardation effect would have been much more dramatic given the hysteretic
response. At the time, the authors were not aware of the phenomenon involved.
38
In routine electron microscopy particulate voids are usually ignored as dark, featureless cavities.
39
In Al-alloys, interfacial environmental attack causes early pitting through the separation of secondary particulates on the notch
surface. Each pit is a potential initial defect.
40
Gigacycle fatigue is almost always associated with internal crack formation.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 23

FIG. 10—Fatigue voids and microvoids [55]. (a) Proof that individual voids seen on Al-alloy fatigue frac-
tures were formed by fatigue-separation of secondary particulates from the matrix and not due to high
Kmax quasi-static failure as claimed in [40]. Evidence of interfacial cracking under three-step pro-
grammed loading (inset). Clear, equally spaced bands marked by marker loads between steps indicate
that the change in the mean stress level did not have any effect on the crack extension due to the 2000
cycles in each step. The schematic shows cyclic hydrostatic forces responsible for the cracking. (b) Rare
picture of the secondary particulate that remained bonded to the fatigue fracture. The area immediately
around the particulate is evidently formed by fatigue. The surrounding area is marked by clusters of
microvoids that coalesced to cause quasi-static crack extension. Microvoids are formed by very high
hydrostatic stresses leading to microcavitation, with the walls between cavities failing in ductile fashion
due to localized plane stress conditions. Note the vast difference in size between particulate voids and
microvoids, indicating that one cannot be confused with the other (as was the case in [40]). (c) Multiple
interfacial cracks separating an irregularly shaped particulate sitting on the boundary of three grains sug-
gesting the action of tensile cyclic hydrostatic stress

vacuum steps were twice the cycle count to account for retarded growth. The switch from vacuum to air
took a mere few minutes. However, the switch from air to high vacuum (108 Torr) required more than
48 h, with the entire experiment lasting several weeks. The experiments provided conclusive evidence in
support of the BMF model (see Fig. 11(a) and 11(b)). In air (Fig. 11(a), left), the notch root small crack
growth rate in the three steps varied exactly as in the earlier experiment (Fig. 4(b)). However in high vac-
uum, the three steps caused identical crack extension as seen at top right of Fig. 11(a) and magnified as in
Fig. 11(b). The instant air was released into the chamber, and the growth rates in the three steps once again
became different. This confirmed the absence of the crack-tip residual stress effect in high vacuum. It also
provides an alternate explanation for the so-called short crack effect.
If, indeed, residual stress operates by the moderation of cycle-by-cycle environmental action, it should
reproduce on all metals and in the presence of any active species that can diffuse and thereby adversely
24 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

affect fatigue resistance. To confirm this possibility, experiments were repeated on a Ni-base superalloy at
an elevated temperature, once again on the same machine, in air and in vacuum. In this case, the results
were even more dramatic, apparently because of the sensitivity of the crack tip oxidation to the near-tip re-
sidual stress [58].
If, indeed, the near-tip stresses within the cyclic plastic zone control diffusion kinetics and through it,
near-threshold crack extension, they should exhibit hysteretic sequence sensitivity. This hypothesis was
successfully verified by tests performed under two different programmed sequences, one directed at growth
rates closer to the Paris Regime and another, closer to threshold [57]. Figure 11(c) shows a typical fracto-
graph obtained from the second experiment performed using the sequence shown in the inset. The three
steps are of identical small amplitude set way above expected closure levels, in order to induce hysteretic
near-tip stress variation between steps 1 and 3, as shown schematically in Fig. 8(d). As expected, the growth
rate in step 3 is dramatically retarded by comparison to step 1. If the same experiment were to be performed
in high vacuum, the crack extension would be identical in all three steps and close to that in step 3.

FIG. 11—(a) and (b) Proof of residual stress operative mechanism by falsification. (a) Crack growth
under three step programmed loading in air and high vacuum (top right) [56]. Noticeable retardation in
crack extension in the second and third step is reproduced across multiple blocks. However, upon switch-
ing to high vacuum (top right and magnified picture (b), the crack extension in all three steps is identical.
The switch in growth rate response was instantaneous in both the air-vacuum and vacuum-air transitions
suggesting the virtual absence of any transient effects and also the impossibility of crack closure playing a
role. The Wheeler, Willenborg, and closure models cannot explain these observations. (c) Proof of the
effect of the hysteretic crack-tip stress-strain response on atmospheric near-threshold crack growth rate.
Note the substantial retardation in step 3 because of compressive crack-tip stresses due to load cycles
lying on the falling half of the major cycle, as explained in Figs. 8(c) and 9(d). This effect tapers out into
the Paris Regime, a phenomenon that the Wheeler/Willenborg and closure models cannot simulate
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 25

Finally, another experiment was designed; this time, to demonstrate the synergy of crack closure and
the residual stress effect [58]. The results are briefly summarized in Fig. 12. The load sequence was spe-
cially designed to selectively induce full crack closure, partial crack closure, and a fully open crack. A
key-hole notched C(T) specimen was chosen to induce natural crack formation under conditions of notch
root compressive residual stress due to monotonic yield at maximum stress. Notch root crack closure is
known to be sensitive to local residual stress [59]. Steps of identical small amplitude were embedded at
three different mean stress levels on the rising and falling half of the major cycle. The fractographs pro-
vide a graphic illustration of how the notch root residual stress affects crack closure and how crack closure

FIG. 12—Experiment on Al-alloy to demonstrate the synergy of the transient notch root crack closure and
residual stress [58]. (a) Multi-step programmed load sequence designed to induce hysteretic residual
stress variation in steps 2 and 4. Note that the duration of step 3 is half of the others. Selected max load
induced notch root tensile yield leaving compressive residual stress at the notch root. (b) Macro showing
the notch root at left and the locations of fractographs c and d. (c) Identical growth from steps 2 and 4
indicates partial crack closure (at about 50% stress) and also explains why steps 1 and 5 did not extend
the crack. (d). Almost identical growth in 2 and 4 and equal growth in 1 and 5 suggests that the closure
level was around 40%. (e) A large difference in the crack extension between 2 and 4 suggests a noticeable
hysteretic variation in crack tip mean stress. The closure level must have dropped to the long crack level
of 30% (crack size 1.5 mm). However, steps 1 and 5 are partially closed, causing equal crack extension.
No model or software in commercial use today is capable of simulating the crack extension patterns
shown.
26 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

combines with crack-tip residual stress effects to control variable amplitude fatigue crack growth. Initial
notch root yield in tension induced residual compressive stress that reduced local stress ratio and thereby
increased closure levels in the initial stage of fatigue when the crack was barely 0.05 mm deep. As a con-
sequence, steps 1and 5 were fully closed and steps 2 and 4 partially closed. Furthermore, in Fig. 12(c), we
see equal bands from 2,4 and no crack extension during 1 and 5. Figure 12(d) shows a fractograph at a
location about 0.2 mm from the notch root, where closure level has by now dropped somewhat. As a con-
sequence, steps 1 and 5 are partially open and steps 2 and 4 are fully open. This is indicated by discernible
and equal crack extension in steps 1 and 5 and marginal retardation in step 4 by comparison to 2 due to the
hysteretic difference in near-tip stress. Figure 12(e) shows a fractograph from a location about 1.5 mm
from the notch root where closure has dropped to a long crack level of about 30%. This causes equal crack
extension in steps 1 and 5 and considerable retardation in step 4 by comparison to step 2. Also note that
the crack extension in step 2 is retarded by comparison to step 3 (which is of half the duration). If this test
were to be conducted in high vacuum, crack extension in steps 2 and 4 would have been identical and
exactly twice that in step 3 (merely because of twice the cycle count). Crack growth in steps 1 and 5 would
have remained less, due to partial crack closure.

Implications of Empirical Evidence

Some 150 years after the effect was first noticed, the underlying science behind variable-amplitude fatigue
is finally unraveling. The connection between crack-tip hydrostatic stress and near-threshold growth rates
resulting in DKth ceasing to be a material constant completely changes one’s perspective of laboratory test
data and their relevance to engineering applications. In view of its sensitivity to hysteretic crack-tip stress-
strain response, DKth emerges, in effect, as the sole reason for fatigue being cycle-sequence sensitive. For
this reason, DKeff can no longer be treated as a similarity criterion for near-threshold fatigue crack growth.
Crack closure can no longer be assumed to account by itself for stress ratio effects and for load interaction
phenomena. Retardation is possible without closure. A fully open crack can accelerate under conditions of
increased tensile residual stresses at the crack tip. As it turns out, all these are possible “merely” because
of the moisture in the air.
Interestingly, Marci and Lang came close to intuitively judging the significance of crack-tip hysteretic
stress-strain [64]. They proposed the idea of a minimum K called KPR (for propagation) that needs to be
exceeded by DKth, for the onset of fatigue crack extension. A simple yet time-consuming experimental
technique was developed to determine KPR, by cycling at DKth (treated as a material constant) with gradu-
ally stepped up Kmin until the detectable onset of crack extension. In simple variable-amplitude experi-
ments on Al-alloys that were later extended to other alloys, it was found that KPR was sensitive to load
history and as a rule, exceeded Kop. It was also found that depending on load history, KPR changed in ways
that could not be explained by closure. On the basis of these two considerations and on the basis of KPR
capability for improved estimates of spectrum load crack growth, the authors concluded that in KPR, a vari-
able had been found that is an effective replacement for Kop. They specifically noted its ability to not only
account for closure, but also for a certain notional residual stress effect at the crack tip. Notional, because
its potential for cycle-by-cycle hysteretic variation and the significance of the cyclic plastic zone were both
ignored. Unfortunately, Marci and Lang failed to realize that KPR may have been actually accounting for
the instantaneous change in DKth, which they had wrongly assumed to be a material constant. The differ-
ence KPR – Kop, may, in fact, represent instantaneous DKth changing as a function of load history. One
may speculate that the authors would have found this value to remain virtually constant in high vacuum
and equal to the difference in DKth between vacuum and air! Like many others before them, Lang and
Marci appear to have succumbed to the perception of DKth as a material constant.
This new understanding finally allows for reassessment of the residual stress effect by separating its
mechanics from operating mechanisms. Residual stress in the cyclic plastic zone ahead of the crack tip is
controlled primarily by load history and the associated cycle-by-cycle stress intensity sequence. By virtue
of its immediate proximity, crack tip surface resistance to fracture is directly affected in atmospheric near-
threshold fatigue. On the contrary, the notch root residual stress, and other such (remote) macroscopic
stress distributions control local stress ratio and through it, crack closure [59, 65]. Previous work on the
subject may have offered powerful tools to address the mechanics of fatigue and fracture mechanics, yet
they did not have the benefit of clarity in scientific understanding, without which realistic analytical mod-
eling or even targeted experimental research appears rudderless.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 27

Emerging Avenues for Future Work

Historically, research on the residual stress effect was restricted to technologies for its introduction, for its
removal, and for its measurement. Its operating mechanism in moderating fatigue damage seems to have
elicited little intellectual curiosity. The discovery of the science behind how near-tip residual stress affects
near threshold fatigue crack growth and its distinction from how the notch root residual stress affects crack
closure together open avenues for future research towards improved modeling in engineering applications.
Listed in the following sections are a few such avenues.

Crack closure—Of the different experimental techniques available, only fractography [37] and crack
tip laser interferometry [36] appear to deliver authentic measurements of crack closure. Of these, the first
requires special load sequences and cumbersome microscopy and is restricted to materials that are
“fractography friendly.” Furthermore, since crack extension is also sensitive to crack-tip residual stress,
one must ensure in designing the load sequence, that the crack-tip stress remains unchanged at the applied
maximum stress. Failure to ensure this condition can lead to distortions as seen in [58]. The second tech-
nique is expensive and demands special equipment and in the end, only provides surface measurements.
All other techniques deliver far field measurements that cannot possibly serve as a reliable measure of a
near-field phenomenon. Until laboratory techniques become available that can plot local strain within or
very close to the cyclic plastic zone versus the applied load, it is unlikely that one can make useful meas-
urements of crack closure in routine testing practice. The development of such techniques appears to hold
much promise in future applications.
Elaborate finite-element solutions have been developed to compute stress intensity for a given crack
path, given applied loading, and a given “resident” residual stress field in a material including processing
induced fields, fields due to interference fit fasteners, along with response induced fields such as at notches
subject to local yield. State-of-the-art numerical simulation as demonstrated by Seshadri et al. [66,67]
appears to provide realistic cycle-by-cycle estimates of the stress-strain response at any point in a cracked
structure, under any given load sequence. This includes the cyclic inelastic response around the crack tip
in the presence of crack closure, which appears to confirm that closure is a mechanics driven phenomenon
involving crack wake development into the monotonic plastic zone, applied cyclic loading, and possible
residual stress fields in the material. The crack-tip load-displacement data reported in Refs. [66, 67] appear
to accurately reproduce the laser interferometry measurements shown in Fig. 6(e). They clearly show the
hysteretic response and the associated loop formation in displacement versus load. Closure load can be
unambiguously associated with loop closure. Yet, the authors have preferred to interpret closure in terms
of change in compliance response as per ASTM E647, leading to exaggerated closure estimates.
One may conclude that contradictory measurements and estimates of crack closure stress may, in part, be
attributed to the selection of compliance offset points in measurements, that is synonymous with wake contact
point in analyses. In such a definition, the focus is deflected from the primary objective, which is to define
which fraction of the applied load cycle is responsible for creating the observed cyclic plastic zone size.

Threshold Stress Intensity—The association of threshold fatigue with the BMF, crack tip diffusion,
and reaction kinetics implies that the highest possible DKth will be in high vacuum and may be treated as a
material constant. This parameter characterizes the maximum beneficial value that compressive residual
stresses can have on fatigue in air. The ultimate goal would be to come up with an analytical model relat-
ing DKth to crack-tip diffusion kinetics as a function of history-sensitive instantaneous hydrostatic stress
ahead of the crack tip.
An intermediate objective may be to characterize DKth under a variety of controlled near-tip stress
conditions, while at the same time ensuring the absence of closure. If closure is present, an error in its
measurement will carry over to the DKth estimate. Such errors are unacceptable in threshold studies
because they may be of the same order as DKth. By keeping the stress ratio sufficiently high, closure free
DKth measurements are possible.41 An exploratory study of Hi-R DKth under the action of periodic over-
loads provided a linear relationship between the overload plastic zone ratio and closure-free DKth [61].
The study on two Al-alloys confirmed that variable-amplitude DKth does indeed approach vacuum levels.

41
Actual mid-thickness closure levels seldom exceed 25-30% of the max load under constant amplitude loading, when measure-
ments are made using techniques such as fractography or laser indentation interferometry.
28 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

It is proposed to repeat the experiments with compressive overloads in order to determine the lower bound
of DKth at a given test frequency. Experiments are also proposed to examine the effect of the hysteretic
near-tip response on thresholds. Finally, hold times at periodic tensile and compressive overloads are also
likely to affect the atmospheric threshold fatigue response because they induce stress relaxation.

Cyclic Stress-Strain Response—The modeling effort requires answers to new questions. Is there a
“characteristic distance” behind the crack tip whose stress-strain response controls diffusion kinetics?
What stress-strain curve would apply at this point, considering constraint to be a controlling factor? Recent
research [68] reconfirms diffusion and reactivity of active species such as moisture as the source of accel-
erated near-threshold fatigue response. An inter-disciplinary effort to connect the crack-tip cyclic mechan-
ical response to diffusion and chemical reaction kinetics may be the next step towards modeling near-
threshold fatigue resistance in variable-amplitude fatigue. Determining the connection between DKth,
near-tip constraint, and cyclic strain hardening coefficient, combined with the subsequent incorporation of
sensitivity to hold time serve as attractive long-term goals to tie in material cyclic stress-strain response
with fatigue. It is likely that materials with low strain hardening properties and reduced constraint will ex-
hibit a reduced sensitivity of DKth,eff to the stress ratio. This is because increasing the stress ratio may not
induce much increase in the near-tip stress. However, all materials will exhibit a hysteretic stress-strain
response and will therefore exhibit stress history effects. Obviously, experiments restricted to constant am-
plitude loading are unlikely to carry much practical value, apart from underscoring the significance of the
phenomenon as in [68].
The emergence of MEMS and biomedical applications of metallic components and the application of
nano-structured materials holds much scope for the application of future work because of the potential
dominance of surface phenomena in these cases.42 Finally, the unification of near-threshold variable-am-
plitude fatigue at room and elevated temperatures through the near-tip response holds promise in gas and
steam turbine applications. It is likely to assist in improved modeling of the effect of overloads at high
temperature, hold-time, and creep-fatigue interaction effects. For example, it now appears obvious that
crack extension during hold at a given load at an elevated temperature will be driven by diffusion kinetics
moderated by crack-tip residual stress. This opens up the possibility of modeling the interaction of over-
loads with the hold-time.
The bulk of fatigue damage due to many spectra including transport aircraft load spectra is from the small-
est load cycles that arguably advance fatigue through near-threshold mechanisms yet are subject to the history
effects from periodic overloads. It is plausible that the B737 Aloha Airlines incident and, more recently, with a
Southwest Airlines fuselage panel may have been associated with stress intensity ranges deemed to be “sub-
threshold” from laboratory test data on coupons tested at a higher frequency. In the course of about fifteen
years of service, such aircraft would experience over 80,000 flights or 107 small load cycles.
Overall, modeling of the residual stress effect holds the promise of advancements in the quality of fa-
tigue life estimates with a greater reliance on simulation and a reduced emphasis on expensive empirical
inputs. Lack of it will continue to force dependence either on corrections of cumulative damage to match
experimental data, or on corrections of the crack driving force to compensate for the inability to account
for the change in material resistance. In the meantime, disciplines other than fatigue and fracture mechan-
ics will continue to determine the safety and durability of engineered products, while in the long term,
metal fatigue may be simply rendered less relevant by advances in the application of engineered compo-
sites that would be immune to the type of mechanisms that induce metal fatigue.

Summary
1. The practical relevance of cyclic-slip to metallic component durability is overrated. Slip-driven
fatigue dominates low-cycle fatigue and crack growth at rates exceeding 104 mm/cycle. In dura-
ble fatigue designs most of the fatigue life is expended at crack growth rates below the Paris Re-
gime. Atmospheric metal fatigue under these conditions is controlled by the near-threshold
response, where the consequences of cyclic crack-tip surface activity overshadow the possible
consequences of cyclic slip.

42
For a given volume, the total exposed surface area increases with the decreasing size and scale of constituents.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 29

2. Crack-tip surface activity progresses during each rising load half-cycle with rising near-tip stress
acting as a diffusion pump to promote embrittlement or chemical weakening of surface atomic
layers and associated accelerated crack extension. At ambient temperature, reaction with moisture
releases hydrogen for diffusion. At elevated temperature, oxidation is involved. The depth and
extent of such an attack is moderated by local hydrostatic stress, that in turn, is determined by the
stress ratio and cycle-sequence sensitive near-tip residual stress. The effect is restricted to crack-
tip surface atomic layers and therefore becomes insignificant as the growth rate progresses into
the Paris Regime. It is totally absent in high vacuum.
3. For the purpose of understanding its effect on metal fatigue, residual stress may be divided into
remote (or macroscopic, or crack-free) stress distribution and the local (microscopic) field associ-
ated with the crack tip response.
4. The macroscopic field, including residual stresses left by mechanical processing, and those
induced by local inelastic static or cyclic response such as at notches, control the local stress ratio
and associated fatigue crack closure in conjunction with applied cyclic load conditions and crack
wake development into the monotonic plastic zone. These can be computed using state-of-the-art
analytical tools that determine the material and structural stress-strain response along with the
stress intensity function for a given crack size, shape, and path.
5. Crack closure can be unambiguously determined only from the shape and closure of the loop
formed either by the inelastic near-tip strain, or, by non-linear hysteretic near-tip wake displace-
ment when plotted against the applied load. The conventional approach of monitoring wake con-
tact therefore appears misdirected and may be the root cause of incorrect closure estimates
reported in the literature, be it computed values, or those obtained experimentally using standard
practices such as ASTM E-647.
6. The microscopic crack-tip stress field is the result of the action of the next loading cycle, super-
posed on the residual crack-tip stress-strain field at the end of the previous unloading half cycle.
This field will reflect the effect of the macroscopic residual stress distribution in the material
(through stress intensity), along with that of the monotonic plastic zone.
7. In atmospheric fatigue, by shifting the near-tip stress up or down, the microscopic field moderates
diffusion kinetics to determine instantaneous threshold stress intensity, strictly speaking, for a
given ambient partial pressure of active species (humidity), temperature, and cycling frequency.
Vacuum threshold stress intensity serves as its upper limit. There is no known lower limit.
8. The microscopic field will exhibit a significant cyclic inelastic hysteretic response while the crack
is fully open. The associated change in the threshold stress intensity is the root cause for cycle-by-
cycle (hysteretic) load sequence sensitivity in variable-amplitude metal fatigue. This component
of sequence sensitivity will be absent in high vacuum and diminish in air into the Paris Regime
because its effect is restricted to crack-tip surface atomic layers.
9. Conventional modeling of notch fatigue under variable amplitude loading using the local stress-
strain (LSS) approach does not carry any scientific rationale. If it does correctly describe trends in
fatigue response, it is by the coincidental qualitative similarity of the cyclic notch root and crack-
tip response. This similarity vanishes under a fully elastic notch root response, exposing the inva-
lidity of the LSS approach.
10. Commercially available models of variable amplitude fatigue crack growth, including the Wheeler
and Willenborg models, focus on the monotonic plastic zone and therefore, essentially address
crack closure. These models treat threshold stress intensity as a material constant even under vari-
able amplitude loading. Therefore, correct estimations by such models of the atmospheric variable
amplitude fatigue growth rate below 104 mm/cycle can only be by accident.
11. For a given applied load cycle, crack front orientation, and tortuosity moderate crack-tip stress-
strain response, crack closure determines its effective magnitude and the near tip stress response
superposed on residual stress determines instantaneous resistance (threshold stress intensity). The
first is sensitive to the crack extension history. The second is sensitive to the crack extension and
loading history. The third is sensitive to the load cycle-sequence and loading history. Variable-
amplitude fatigue response needs to be modeled as the synergy of all three.
12. Further improvements to analytical modeling of variable-amplitude fatigue demand consideration
of threshold stress intensity as a cycle-sequence sensitive variable. They would also benefit from
30 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

reliable laboratory measurements and analytical estimates of crack closure and from improved
characterization of the crack-tip response to variations in crack front geometry (shielding effects).
Such studies should include the effect of constraint.

Acknowledgments
Some of the experiments and all of the reported fractography were performed at the Air Force Research
Laboratories (AFRL), WPAFB, OH, USA. Other experiments were performed at BiSS Research, Banga-
lore. The author deeply appreciates the support and encouragement provided by colleagues in both labora-
tories and also the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI).

References

[1] Thorneycroft, T., “On the Form of Shafts and Axles,” Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, London, Oct 1850, pp. 35–41 pp. 4–15.
[2] Braithwaite, F., “On the Fatigue and Subsequent Fracture of Metals,” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng, London,
May 1854.
[3] Wohler, A., Uber die Festigkeitsversuche mit Eisen und Stahl, Berlin, Ernst und Korn, 1870.
[4] Anon, “Wöhler’s Experiments on the strength of Metals,” Engineering, Vol. 4, 1867, pp. 160–161.
[5] Manson, S. S., Future “Directions for Low Cycle Fatigue,” Low Cycle Fatigue, ASTM Spec. Tech.
Publ. 942, H. D. Solomon, G. R. Halford, and B. N. Leis, Eds., American Society for Testing Materi-
als, Philadelphia, 1988, pp. 15–39.
[6] Miner, M. A., “Cumulative Damage in Fatigue,” Trans. ASME J. Appl. Mech., Vol. 12, 1945, pp.
A159–A164.
[7] Anon., “Wöhler’s Experiments on the “Fatigue”of Metals,” Engineering, June 1871, pp. 199–441.
[8] Bauschinger, J., “On the Change of the Elastic Limit and Strength of Iron and Steel by Tension and
Compression, by Heating and Cooling and by Often Repeated Loading,” Technical Report, Munich
Technical Univ., Munich, Germany, 1886 (in German).
[9] Goodman, J., Mechanics Applied to Engineering, Longmans-Green, London, 1899.
[10] Raju, K. N., Workshop on Fatigue, Fracture and Failure Analysis, Notes, Vol. 1, National Aeronauti-
cal Laboratory, Bangalore, March 1979.
[11] Hull, D., Bacon, D. J., Introduction to Dislocations, Fourth Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann,
Oxford, 2001.
[12] Grosskreutz, J. C., “A Critical Review of Micromechanisms in Fatigue,” Fatigue – An Interdiscipli-
nary Approach, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, 1964, pp. 27–62.
[13] Schijve, J., Fatigue of Materials and Structures, Springer, New York, 2003, p. 317.
[14] Gassner, E., “Strength Experiments Under Cyclic Loading in Aircraft Structures,” Luftwissen Vol. 6,
1939, pp. 61–64 (in German).
[15] Neuber, H., 1937, Kerbspanmungslehre [Theory of notch stresses], J. W. Edwards, Ed., Springer,
Berlin, Ann Arbor, MI, 1946.
[16] Ramberg, W. and Osgood, W. R., “Description of Stress-Strain Curves by Three Parameters,” Tech-
nical Report No. 902, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Washington, D.C., 1943.
[17] Wetzel, R. M., 1971, “A Method for Fatigue Damage Analysis,” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engi-
neering, Univ. of Waterloo, ON, Canada.
[18] SAE Fatigue Design Handbook, 3rd ed., AE-22, Society for Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, PA,
1997).
[19] Matsuishi, M. and Endo, T., “Fatigue of Metals Subjected to Varying Stress,” Trans. Jpn. Soc. Mech.
Eng., March, 1968.
[20] van Dijk, G. M. and de Jonge, J. B., “Introduction to a Fighter Aircraft Loading Standard for Fatigue
Evaluation ‘FALSTAFF’,” Report No. NLR MP 75017U, National Aerospace Laboratory, Amster-
dam, The Netherlands, 1975.
[21] de Jonge, J. B., Schutz, D., Lowak, H., and Schijve, J., “A Standardized Load Sequence for Flight
Simulation Tests on Transport Aircraft Wing Structures,” Report No. NLR TR 73029U, National
Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1973.
 SUNDER ON UNRAVELING THE SCIENCE OF VARIABLE AMPLITUDE FATIGUE 31

[22] Sunder, R., “Rainflow Applications in Accelerated Cumulative Fatigue Analysis,” The Rainflow
Method in Fatigue, Y. Murakami, Ed., Butterworth -Heinemann, Oxford, 1992, pp. 67–76.
[23] Neggard, G. R., “The History of the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program,” Report No. 680.1B, Aero-
space Structural Information and Analysis Center (ASIAC), Flight Dynamics Directorate, WPAFB,
Ohio 1980.
[24] Schijve, J., “Cumulative Damage Problems in Aircraft Structures and Materials,” Aeronaut. J., Vol.
74, 1970, pp. 517–532.
[25] Sunder, R., Porter, J., and Ashbaugh, N. E., “The Effect of Stress Ratio on Fatigue Crack Growth
Rate in the Absence of Crack Closure,” Int. J. Fatigue, Vol. 19, 1997, pp. S211–S221.
[26] Sunder, R., “Contribution of Individual Load Cycles to Fatigue Crack Growth under Aircraft Spectrum
Loading,” M. R. Mitchell and R. W. Landgraf, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., Vol. 1122, 1992, pp. 176–190.
[27] Paris, P. C., Gomez, M. P., and Anderson, W. E., “A Rational Analytical Theory of Fatigue,” Trend
Eng., Vol. 13, 1961, pp. 9–14.
[28] Figge, I. E., and Newman, J. C., “Fatigue Crack Propagation in Structures with Simulated Rivet
Forces,” ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., Vol. 415, 1967, pp. 71–93.
[29] Schijve, J., “Effect of Load Sequences on Crack Propagation Under Random and Program Loading,”
Eng. Fracture Mech., Vol. 5, 1973, pp. 269–280.
[30] Wheeler, O. E., “Spectrum Loading and Crack Growth,” ASME J Basic Eng., Vol. 94, 1972, pp.
181–186.
[31] Willenborg, J., Engle, R. H., and Wood, H. A., “A Crack Growth Retardation Model Based on Effec-
tive Stress Concepts,” Report No. AFFDL-TM-71-1 FBR, WPAFB, OH, 1971.
[32] Walker, E. K., “Effects of Environment and Complex Load History on Fatigue Life,” ASTM Spec.
Tech. Publ., Vol. 462, 1970, pp. 1–14.
[33] Elber, W., “The Significance of Fatigue Crack Closure,” ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., Vol. 486, 1971,
pp. 230–242.
[34] Newman, J. C., A Crack-Closure Model for Predicting Fatigue Crack Growth Under Aircraft
Spectrum Loading. Methods and Models for Predicting Fatigue Crack Growth Under Random Load-
ing, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., J. B. Chang and C. M. Hudson, Eds., Vol. 748, 1981, pp. 53–84.
[35] de Koning, A. U., “A Simple Crack Closure Model for Prediction of Fatigue Crack Growth Rates
Under Variable-Amplitude Loading,” Fracture Mechanics, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., R. Roberts, Ed.,
Vol. 743, 1981, pp. 63–85.
[36] Ashbaugh, N. E., Dattaguru, B., Khobaib, M., Nicholas, T., Prakash, R. V., Ramamurthy, T. S., and
Seshadri, B. R., “Experimental and Analytical Estimates of Fatigue Crack Closure in an Aluminum–-
Copper Alloy. Part I. Laser Interferometry and electron Fractography,” Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater.
Struct., Vol. 20(7), 1997, pp. 951–961.
[37] Sunder, R., and Dash, P. K., “Measurement of Fatigue Crack Closure Through Electron Micro-
scopy,” Int. J. Fatigue, Vol. 4, April 1982, pp. 97–105.
[38] Schijve, J., “Four Lectures on Fatigue Crack Growth,” Eng. Fracture Mech., Vol. 11, 1979, pp. 176–221.
[39] Sunder, R., “A Unified Model of Fatigue Kinetics Based on Crack Driving Force and Material
Resistance,” Int. J. Fatigue, Vol. 29, 2007, pp. 1681–1696.
[40] Riddell, W. T. and Piascik, R. S., “Stress Ratio Effects on Crack Opening Loads and Crack Growth
Rates in Aluminum Alloy 2024,” Fatigue Fracture Mechanics, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., Vol. 1332,
T. L. Panontin and S. D. Sheppard, Eds., Vol. 29, American Society for Testing and Materials,
West Conshohocken, PA, 1999, pp. 407–25.
[41] Forsyth, P. J. E., “Fatigue Damage and Crack Growth in Aluminium Alloys,” Acta Metall., Vol. 11,
1963, pp. 703–719.
[42] Sunder, R., “Binary Coded Event Registration on Fatigue Fracture Surfaces,” J. Soc. Env. Engrs.,
SEECO, London, 1983, p. 197.
[43] Laird, C., Mechanisms and Theories of Fatigue, Fatigue and Microstructure, ASM, Metals Park,
OH,1978, pp. 149–204.
[44] Zhang,. J. Z., “A Shear Band Decohesion Model for Small Fatigue Crack Growth in an Ultra-Fine
Grain Aluminum Alloy,” EFM, Vol. 65, 2001, pp. 665–681.
[45] Sunder, R., “Fatigue as a Process of Brittle Micro-Fracture,” FFEMS, Vol. 28(3), 2005, pp. 289–300.
[46] Gsell, M., Jakob, P., and Menzel, D., “Effect of Substrate Strain on Adsorption,” Science Vol. 280,
1998, pp. 717–720.
32 JOURNAL OF ASTM INTERNATIONAL

[47] Ro, Y., Agnew, S. R., and Gangloff, R. P., “Environmental Fatigue-Crack Surface Crystallography
for Al-Zn-Cu-Mg-Mn/Zr,” Metall. Mater. Trans. A, Vol. 39A, 2008, pp. 1449–1465.
[48] Schijve, J. and Arkema, W. J., “Crack Closure And the Environmental Effect on Fracture Mode Tran-
sition in Fatigue Crack Growth,” Report No. VTH-217, Delft Univ., Delft, The Netherlands, 1976.
[49] Vogelesang, L. B. and Schijve, J., “Environmental Effects on Fatigue Failure Mode Transition
Observed in Aluminium Alloys” Report No. LR-289, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, The Nether-
lands, 1979.
[50] Gach, E. and Pippan, R., “Cyclic Crack Tip Deformation – the Influence of Environment,” Proceed-
ings of the Tenth International Conference on Fracture, International Congress of Fracture, Hawaii,
Dec 2001 [Paper ICF 100420OR].
[51] Bowles, C. Q., 1978, “The Role of Environment, Frequency and Wave Shape During Fatigue Crack
Growth of Aluminum Alloys,” Ph.D. thesis, Report No. LR-270, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft,
The Netherlands.
[52] Petit, J., Henaff, G., and Sarrazin-Baudoux, C., “Mechanisms and Modeling of Near-Threshold
Fatigue Crack Propagation, Fatigue Crack Growth Thresholds, Endurance Limits and Design,”
ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., J. C. Newman, Jr. and R. S. Piascik, Eds., Vol. 1372, American Society for
Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, 2000.
[53] Bradshaw, F. J. and Wheeler, C., “The Effect of Gaseous Environment and Fatigue Frequency on the
Growth of Fatigue Cracks in Some Aluminium Alloys,” Int. J Fract. Mech., Vol. 6, 1969, pp. 255–268.
[54] Sunder, R., Porter, W. J., and Ashbaugh, N. E., “Stress-Level Dependent Stress Ratio Effect on
Fatigue Crack Growth, Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics: Twenty-Ninth Volume,” ASTM Spec. Tech.
Publ., Vol. 1332, T. L. Panontin and S. D. Sheppard, Eds., American Society for Testing and
Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, 1999.
[55] Sunder, R., Porter, W. J., and Ashbaugh, N. E., “Fatigue Voids and Their Significance,” Fatigue
Fract. Eng. Mater. Struct., Vol. 25, 2002, pp. 1015–1024.
[56] Sunder, R., Porter, W. J., and Ashbaugh, N. E., “The Role of Air in Fatigue Load Interaction,”
Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater. Struct., Vol. 26, 2003, pp. 1–16.
[57] Sunder, R., “On the Hysteretic Nature of Variable-Amplitude Fatigue Crack Growth,” Int. J. Fatigue,
Vol. 27, 2005, pp. 1494–1498.
[58] Sunder, R., “Fractographic Reassessment of the Significance of Fatigue Crack Closure, Fatigue and
Fracture Mechanics,” ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., Vol. 1461, S. R. Daniewicz, J. C. Newman, and K. H.
Schwalbe, Eds., American Society for Testing Materials, Philadelphia, Vol. 34, 2005, pp. 22–39.
[59] Anandan, K. and Sunder, R., “Closure of Part-Through Cracks at the Notch Root,” Int. J. Fatigue,
Vol. 9, 1987, pp. 217–222.
[60] Ashbaugh, N. E., Porter, W. J., Rosenberger, A. H., and Sunder, R., “Environment-Related Load
History Effects in Elevated Temperature Fatigue of a Nickel-Base Super-Alloy,” Proceedings
Fatigue, Stockholm, Sweden, June 2-7, 2002, EMAS (2002).
[61] Sunder, R., “Effect of Periodic Overloads on Threshold Fatigue Crack Growth in Al-Alloys,” Fatigue
Fracture Mechanics, ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., S. R. Daniewicz, J. C. Newman, K. H. Schwalbe,
Eds., Vol. 1461, American Society for Testing Materials, Vol. 34, 2005, pp. 557–572.
[62] Sunder, R., Prakash, R. V., and Mitchenko, E. I., “Growth of Artifically and Naturally Initiating Notch
Root Cracks under FALSTAFF Spectrum Loading,” Report No. 797, AGARD, Paper 10, 1994.
[63] Sunder, R., Prakash, R. V., and Mitchenko, E. I., “Fractographic Study of Notch Fatigue Crack Clo-
sure and Growth Rates,” ASTM Spec. Tech. Publ., J. E. Masters and L. N. Gilbertson, Eds., Vol.
1203, 1993, pp. 113–131.
[64] Lang, M., “A Model for Fatigue Crack Growth, Part I: Phenomenology,” Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater.
Struct., Vol. 23, No. 7, 2000, pp. 587–601.
[65] Lados, D. A., Apelian, D., and Donald, J. K., “Fracture Mechanics Analysis for Residual Stress and
Crack Closure Corrections,” Int. J. Fatigue, Vol. 29, 2007, pp. 687–694.
[66] Seshadri, B. R. and Newman, Jr., J. C., “Elastic-Plastic Finite Element Contact Stress Analyses of
Tapered Fasteners,” 4th Joint DoD/FAA/NASA Conference on Aging Aircraft, St. Louis, MO, May 2000.
[67] Seshadri, B. R. and Newman Jr., J. C., “Numerical Investigation of Interference-Fit Tapered
Fasteners,” USAF Aircraft Structural Integrity Program Conference, San Antonio, TX, Dec 2000.
[68] Ro, Y., Agnew. S. R., Bray, G. H., and Gangloff, R. P., “Environment-Exposure–Dependent Fatigue
Crack Growth Kinetics for Al-Cu-Mg/Li,” Mater. Sci. Eng., A Vol. 468–470, 2007, pp. 88–97.