ABSTRACT

The present work aimed to investigate the corner crack growth in prismatic bar made of
aluminium 2014-T6 under fatigue loading with variable mean stress. For this purpose, the
boundary element method is adopted. Various loading sequences and loading types involving
tension, torsion and combined tension-torsion are studied. For each loading condition, the stress
intensity factor is calculated using J-integral while the crack growth is described using
NASGRO equation. It is observed that the mean stress has a significant effect on the lifetime
of the bar. Indeed, it appears that loading block of high-low yields to a shorter fatigue life than
low-high loading block regardless of the loading type. Moreover, overload tends to retard crack
growth and lead to a longer fatigue life. Finally, it is found that the loading sequence affects
fatigue life more significantly in pure tension loading is than that in pure torsional loading.