It has been observed that the loss of crack tip constraint leads to enhanced resistance to both cleavage and ductile tearing. Recent developments on constraint-based fracture mechanics have enabled the practical assessment of defective components including the constraint effect. In fatigue analyses, it is common practice to use the Paris crack propagation law, which is based on the stress intensity factor alone. Although in recent years several research attempts have been made to investigate the effect of constraint on fatigue, how to quantify the effect of crack tip constraint on the fatigue crack propagation rate is still an open issue. In this paper, the effect of crack tip constraint on the fatigue crack propagation of small cracks at notched plates is investigated. A fatigue crack propagation rate model developed earlier which incorporates both low and high constraint conditions is used. It is shown that the effect of constraint on crack propagation rate is significant when the crack is small (within the stress concentration of the notches). This effect can be accounted for by using the fatigue crack propagation rate model.

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