Comparison of Theoretical Estimates and Experimental Measurements of Fatigue Crack Growth Under Severe Thermal Shock Conditions—Part II: Theoretical Assessment and Comparison With Experiment

This paper reports the theoretical assessment of cracking which may occur when a severe cycle comprising alternate upshocks and downshocks is applied to an axisymmetric feature with an internal, partial penetration weld and crevice. The experimental observations of cracking are reported separately. A good agreement was noted even though extensive cycle plasticity occurred at the location of cracking. It is concluded that the LEFM solution has correlated with the experiment mainly because of the axisymmetric geometry which allows a large hydrostatic stress to exist at the internal weld crevice end. Thus the stress at the crevice can approach the singular solution required for LEFM correlations without contributing to yielding.