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The influence of bending loading on surface fatigue crack growth life

Jiacai Zhu, Lei Xu, Wanlin Guo

PII: S0142-1123(22)00535-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2022.107285
Reference: JIJF 107285

To appear in: International Journal of Fatigue

Received Date: 11 July 2022

Revised Date: 12 September 2022
Accepted Date: 16 September 2022

Please cite this article as: Zhu, J., Xu, L., Guo, W., The influence of bending loading on surface fatigue crack
growth life, International Journal of Fatigue (2022), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2022.107285

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 The influence of bending loading on surface fatigue crack growth life

Jiacai Zhua, Lei Xua,b, Wanlin Guoa,*

a State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Key Laboratory of

Intelligent Nanomaterials and Devices, Institute for Frontier Science of Nanjing University of

Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

b Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Division, Hong Kong Productivity Council, Hong Kong

999077, China

*Corresponding author, E-mail address: wlguo@nuaa.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

Engineering structures often serve under complex fatigue loading and the most common of

which are tension and bending loading, or their combination. Fatigue cracks always initiate as surface

and other three dimensional (3D) cracks and most of the fatigue life of structures spends on 3D crack

growth, but fatigue crack propagation curves of materials are widely obtained using through-the-

thickness specimens. In this work, a 3D fracture mechanics based method is developed to evaluate

surface crack propagation life under combined tension and bending loadings by considering the

plasticity induced fatigue crack closure. The method is validated firstly against available experimental

data of surface fatigue cracked plates under the combined loadings, and then applied to predict fatigue

crack propagation life of surface cracked railway axles under rotating bending. It is shown that the

method can make prediction of life within 0.80 to 1.08 of the test life, and the predicted shape

evolution of surface crack agrees well with experimental observation. With a modification of short

crack closure being made and an equivalent initial crack being assumed, the proposed method can be

extended to fatigue life prediction. It is found that the influence of bending loading on fatigue life

increasing for larger initial cracks, especially in the submillimeter range. This fracture mechanics

based method can serve as a unified way to calculate fatigue crack growth life as well as fatigue life

of practical structures under both tension and bending loadings by use of the material crack growth

curves obtained with straight-through cracked standard specimens.

Keywords: Crack growth, Crack closure, Tension and bending, Strip yield model, Equivalent

thickness, Short crack, Rotating bending, Fatigue life prediction.

Nomenclature
a minor axis of ellipse (crack depth of semi-
elliptical surface crack)
as the length of the small crack
B specimen thickness
Beq equivalent thickness
c major axis of ellipse (crack length of semi-
elliptical surface crack)
Ck, nk coefficient and power for piece wise Paris law
da/dN fatigue crack growth rate
H half height of specimen
K stress intensity factor
Kmax maximum stress intensity factor during a
loading cycle
Kmin minimum stress intensity factor during a
loading cycle
Kopen stress intensity factor for crack opening
M applied bending moment
N number of cycles
l0, l’0 intrinsic crack length
rp0 radius of plastic zone for plane stress
R stress ratio
s half-arc length of the surface crack in the axle.
S applied stress
Sb remote bending stress on outer fiber, 3M/WB2
Smax maximum applied stress
Smin minimum applied stress
Sopen crack-opening stress
St remote uniform tension stress
t shape factor of ellipse, t = a/c
Tz out-of-plane stress constraint factor, Tz =
σ33/(σ11+σ22)
U Effective stress intensity factor coefficient for
large cracks, U = ΔKeff /ΔK
Us Effective stress intensity factor coefficient for
small cracks
W half width of plate
α plastic-zone-based constraint factor
αg global-plastic-zone-based constraint factor
ΔK stress intensity factor range, ΔK = Kmax - Kmin
ΔKeff effective stress intensity factor range, ΔKeff =
Kmax - Kopen
ΔKth stress intensity factor range at the threshold for
a large crack
ΔKtheff the effective component of ΔKth for a small
crack
Δσw0 fatigue limits of smooth specimens
σ11, σ22, σ33 normal stress components in Cartesian
coordinates or polar coordinates
σ0 flow stress (average between yield stress and
ultimate tensile strength)
σys yield stress (0.2 percent offset)
νep elastic-plastic Poisson’s ratio
φ direction angle of ellipse
1. Introduction

The failures of practical engineering structures are often caused by fatigue crack propagation.

Hence the stress-strain field at crack-tip is particularly important. Irwin [1] proposed the conception

of stress intensity factor (SIF) to represent the intensity of crack-tip stress field, which is a milestone

in the history of fracture mechanics. The SIF range was then correlated with fatigue crack growth

rates [2], which set a precedent for investigating fatigue crack growth rates with SIF. The SIF

equations of typical cracked specimens have been developed since then [3, 4]. Elber [5] discovered

an instructive phenomenon of crack closure during crack propagation of metal materials under cyclic

tensile loading. It is suggested that the SIF range after crack opening should be the effective driving

force for fatigue crack growth [6]. On the assumption of small-scale yielding, based on the Dugdale

model [7], Budiansky et al. obtained an analytical solution of fatigue crack closure for a plane stress

sheet under constant amplitude cyclic loading [8]. Newman proposed a numerical fatigue crack

closure model for variable amplitude cyclic loading and introduced a constraint factor α to consider

the effects of stress states [9].

The plastic deformation at crack-tip and in the wake of the fatigue crack is the main factor for

fatigue crack closure caused by plasticity. As both of the in-plane and out-of-plane constraints have

significant influence on the plastic deformation, it is necessary to evaluate the 3D constraint effects

in order to calculate fatigue crack closure levels accurately. Guo introduced a 3D stress constraint

factor Tz to characterize the effect of the out-of-plane stress constraint and developed the solutions of

J-Tz and K-Tz for 3D crack tip fields [10, 11]. For straight-through cracks, the 3D constraints have

been studied numerically [12] and analyzed theoretically [13]. Guo et al. [14] studied the 3D

constraint effects on fatigue crack growth life of through-the-thickness specimens under spectrum

loading. Based on Guo’s 3D J-Tz solution, Neimitz [15, 16] improved the Dugdale model. Chang and

Guo [17-20] developed an analytic closure model and obtained equations to solve crack-opening

stresses. Therefore, crack opening stresses and a reference curve of da/dN-ΔKeff describing the

intrinsic crack propagation rates can be calculated conveniently, where ΔKeff is the effective range of

SIF. On the other hand, for part-through cracks, Guo et al. [21-23] proposed an equivalent thickness

concept, which established the equivalence of 3D constraints between part-through cracks and

straight-through cracks. As a result, fatigue crack propagation life predictions of 3D cracks can adopt
the experimental material data from straight-through cracked standard specimens accurately. For

more accurate crack growth analysis of structures with stress concentration, Guo [24] carried out a

systematic research of 3D mechanical parameters. Recently, life predictions of surface fatigue

cracked specimens subjected to variable amplitude tension loading were conducted through the 3D

strip yield model [25]. Due to the improvement of observation technology and computing power, the

studies of crack growth rates for short cracks have also been conducted [26-29]. For short cracks

(0.01 mm to 1 mm in length), the crack growth rates have two distinct characteristics in comparison

with those of large cracks. First, the driving force required for short crack propagation is generally

lower than the threshold of large cracks. Second, their growth rates are larger than those of large

cracks under the equal SIF range above the threshold. Tanaka [27] explained the effect of short cracks

from the perspective of crack closure. For applying the fatigue crack propagation method to the life

predictions of engineering components with small cracks, Newman [29] obtained the threshold of

small cracks and modified the crack growth performance curve near the threshold for small cracks.

The current fatigue life calculation methods mainly calculate the fatigue life from microscopic defects

under tension loading, while engineering structures often serve under complex loading. Usually, it is

necessary to consider not only the tension loading but also the bending loading. However, there are

few studies of crack propagation life predictions for combined tension and bending loadings.

Here, a comprehensive investigation of fatigue crack propagation life affected by bending loading

is conducted using the 3D fracture mechanics method. The 3D method is used to evaluate crack

opening stress levels of surface cracked specimens under combined tension and bending loadings.

Crack growth predictions of surface cracked plates under tension and bending loading and surface

cracked axles under rotating bending are firstly conducted and validated against available

experimental results in the literature. Then a modification of small crack closure is introduced and

fatigue life predictions for initial micro-cracks of different sizes under combined tension and bending

loadings are conducted. This proposed method can guide durability and damage tolerance design for

engineering components with large or small initial cracks.

2. Fatigue crack closure models

For constant amplitude cyclic loading, Budiansky et al. [8] proposed a theoretical explanation

for the crack closure phenomenon induced by plasticity in the plane stress state based on Dugdale

model. To study the crack closure in arbitrary stress state, an analytic fatigue crack closure model
was established by introducing a combined constraint factor that directly affects fatigue crack

closure into the strip yield model [18], by which the effects of load ratios, stress state and specimen

thickness on fatigue crack closure were scrutinized. Aimed at facilitating engineering applications,

the crack-opening stress levels Kopen/Kmax of straight-through cracked specimens were obtained [19,

20] as Eq. (1), with a constraint factor α being introduced to consider the influence of stress states.

da dN  C  K eff 
n

K eff  1  K open K max  1  R   K

K open K max  1   1 3 (1)


1  R  1  10.34R 
2 2 2

1  1.67 R  1  0.15   
4.6
 1.61
 2
g

Interested readers are referred to [19, 20] for detailed modeling process and mathematical derivation

of the parameter η.

On the other hand, for random loading, a 3D strip yield model was proposed by Guo to obtain

Sopen for straight-through cracked plates with finite thickness [13]. Analytical analysis showed that

the 3D constraints consist of in-plane and out-of-plane constraints. Considering the influence of 3D

constraints on the stress state in the plastic zone, the 3D strip yield model was developed. The out-

of-plane constraint defined by Tz and the in-plane constraint defined by k were considered. At the

same time, the equations of αg were given as shown in Eq. (2) by fitting FE results. Compared with

the constraint factor α, the global constraint factor αg has an explicit physical definition, that is, the

average of 3D constraints in the thickness direction.

1  t  rp0 B 
g 
1  2v  t  rp0 B 
t    0.2088 0.5  1.5046 (2)
rp0    K max  0  8
2

It is noteworthy that the explicit expressions of αg makes it convenient for real-world engineering

applications.

3. Material property curves of fatigue crack growth rates

The material base curves were proposed to represent the intrinsic properties of fatigue crack

propagation rates of the materials, which should be independent of geometries and loading of the

cracked specimens. However, crack growth performance data da/dN-ΔK generated in the laboratory

are dependent on the geometries and loading of the specimens. As fatigue cracks do not propagate
before the crack opening, the da/dN-ΔKeff curves should be better to present the intrinsic properties

of fatigue crack propagation of the materials. Such material base da/dN-ΔKeff curves have many

advantages. First, for straight-through cracked bodies, as long as the crack closure levels are evaluated

accurately, then the effective SIF range ΔKeff can be derived subsequently and the crack propagation

increments are calculated by the da/dN-ΔKeff curve of the material. This also works for part-through

cracks. Second, for constant amplitude or random loading, crack closure models can be used to

consider the load interactions and obtain ΔKeff, based on which the crack growth increments can be

calculated in conjunction with the material base curves.

4. Equivalent thickness

There are currently two definitions of the equivalent thickness. When the conception of

equivalent thickness was initially proposed, the first equivalent thickness was defined by the

geometric parameters of the crack and the cracked body [21]. For a point at the crack front, its tangent

generally produces two intersections with the specimen boundary and the shortest distance from this

point to the intersections is defined as half the equivalent thickness. With the development of J-Tz

and K-Tz theory, especially formulization of Tz, the second equivalent thickness was defined by the

crack-tip stress state quantifying by Tz distributions in the normal plane [22, 23]. The Tz distributions

at any point on the front of a part-through crack were consistent with those of a straight-through

cracked plate with an equivalent thickness Beq. This thickness of the plate is defined as the equivalent

thicknesses at the point of the part-through crack front. Therefore, the equivalent thickness Beq

changes along the front of a part-through crack. In this work, for common part-through cracks, we

use the formulas of equivalent thickness obtained in Ref. [22, 23]. For surface cracks in bars, the

equivalent thicknesses are calculated by the first empirical definition, because there is no equivalent

thickness study of this surface cracked specimen based on Tz at present. The first equivalent thickness

definition is able to obtain satisfactory results for such a simple geometry.

5. Fatigue crack propagation under combined tension and bending loadings

5.1 Equivalent crack specimens

To predict the crack propagation of a part-through crack under external fatigue loading based on

the crack propagation curves generated by straight-through cracked specimens, it is necessary and

reasonable to establish the equivalent relationship between surface cracks and straight-through cracks.

Due to the various shapes of surface cracks, it is difficult for a model to directly calculate the crack
closure levels of surface cracked specimens. For straight-through cracks, there are many models for

calculating crack opening stresses under random loading [13, 30]. Recalling the equivalent thickness

theory, it is reasonable to establish the equivalence between surface cracks and straight-through

cracks to evaluate the crack closure levels of surface cracks. To build the equivalent relationship of

field strengths at crack-tip, a surface crack specimen and the equivalent crack specimens have the

same SIF. The equivalence of the 3D constraint is calculated by the equivalent thickness. Considering

the crack propagation of entire surface crack front, the least squares method is used to fit the crack

front as an ellipse when the crack growth exceeds a certain length.

(a) (b)
St M

Sb=3M/(WB2) E
2W

2H B
a
D
2c a
A
c
B W

St M

Fig. 1. The crack configuration and equivalent crack specimens: (a) a semi-elliptical surface cracked specimens;

(b) its equivalent crack specimens.

A surface cracked specimen and its equivalent center cracked tensile (CCT) specimens are

schematically illustrated in Fig. (1). The calculation points are arranged along the crack front. The

equivalent crack specimens’ geometric parameters are determined by the intersections between the

normal line of the calculated point and the specimen boundary. For example, in Fig. 1(b), points A

and E are the intersections of the normal line with the boundary of the specimen. The length of AE is

taken as the half width of the equivalent CCT specimen and the length of AD is taken as the half

crack length. The thicknesses of these equivalent specimens are obtained by equivalent thickness

theory.

5.2 The loading of tension and bending

Fatigue crack propagation life predictions are conducted for surface cracked specimens under

cyclic tension and bending loadings, and compared with test data. The experimental crack growth
data of surface cracked plates with finite-width under tension loading were obtained from Ref. [31],

which contained five sets of surface crack growth life data. The aspect ratios (a/c) of these surface

cracks ranged from 0.2 to 1.0. The load sequences were variable amplitude spectrums which were

specially designed to measure the crack opening stresses by the strip spacing information on the

fracture sections, and here the crack opening stresses Sopen are obtained with the 3D strip yield model.

The load details and the functions of the load sequence were explained in Ref. [25, 31].

a a
Crack depth a

Thickness B

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Loading type: (a) tension diagram; (b) bending diagram; (c) combined tension and bending when Ft = 0.5

and Fb = 0.5.

The combined tension and bending loadings are achieved by linear superposition of pure tension

and pure bending. We assume that the linear superposition coefficient of tension loading is Ft (0.0 ≤

Ft ≤ 1.0), and the linear superposition coefficient of bending loading is Fb (0.0 ≤Fb ≤ 1.0). For each

combined loading, the sum of Ft and Fb is 1.0, to warrant that the local maximum stresses are equal

for all specimens without introducing cracks. Taking a load sequence as an example, the tension

loading is obtained by multiplying the sequence by the tension multiplier Ft, and the bending loading

is obtained by multiplying the sequence by the bending multiplier Fb. Then the tension and bending

loading are applied simultaneously to calculate crack growth. Therefore, for pure tension loading, the

tension multiplier is 1.0 and the bending multiplier is 0.0. Figure 2 shows the diagram of tension

loading, bending loading and the combined loading when Ft=0.5 and Fb=0.5. In this paper, six

combinations are calculated, and Table 1 provides the detailed load parameters. The SIF equation of

surface cracked specimens under combined tension and bending loadings is used, which was obtained

by Newman and Raju [3].

 Table 1. Load parameters of combined tension and bending loadings

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6

Tension multiplier Ft 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0

Bending multiplier Fb 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

5.3 Results of surface cracked specimens under tension and bending loadings

Here, crack propagation life predictions are conducted for five surface cracks of different sizes in

finite-width plates, and there is only one crack in each plate. For each crack, six sets of combined

loadings in Table 1 are applied respectively. For each surface crack under different combined loading

scenarios, the predicted results of the crack length c as well as the crack depth a are plotted versus

cycles respectively, as plotted in Fig. 3. The experimental data under the pure tension scenario are

also illustrated in Fig. 3, to be compared with the predicted results.

(a) (b)
15 10

14
8
13
6
a (mm)
c (mm)

12
test: c 100%Ten test: a 100%Ten
100%Ten Ref.[25] 4 100%Ten Ref.[25]
11 80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
10 40%Ten+60%Ben 2 40%Ten+60%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
9 100%Ben 100%Ben
0
0 1 2 3 0 2 4 6
N (cycles) 104 N (cycles) 104

(c) (d)
10
14
8
12
a (mm)
c (mm)

6
test: c 100%Ten test: a 100%Ten
10 100%Ten Ref.[25] 100%Ten Ref.[25]
80%Ten+20%Ben 4 80%Ten+20%Ben
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
8 40%Ten+60%Ben 40%Ten+60%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
2
100%Ben 100%Ben
6
0 1 2 3 4 0 2 4 6
N (cycles) 104 N (cycles) 104
 (e) (f)
15 10

8
10
6

a (mm)
c (mm)
test: c 100%Ten test: a 100%Ten
100%Ten Ref.[25] 4 100%Ten Ref.[25]
5 80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
40%Ten+60%Ben 2 40%Ten+60%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
100%Ben 100%Ben
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 10
N (cycles) 104 N (cycles) 104

(g) (h)
15 10

8
10
6

a (mm)
c (mm)

test: c 100%Ten test: a 100%Ten

100%Ten Ref.[25] 4 100%Ten Ref.[25]
5 80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
40%Ten+60%Ben 2 40%Ten+60%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
100%Ben 100%Ben
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 10
N (cycles) 104 N (cycles) 104

(i) (j)
15 10

8
10
6
a (mm)
c (mm)

test: c 100%Ten test: a 100%Ten

100%Ten Ref.[25] 4 100%Ten Ref.[25]
5 80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
40%Ten+60%Ben 2 40%Ten+60%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
100%Ben 100%Ben
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
N (cycles) 104 N (cycles) 104

Fig. 3 Comparisons of experimental data and predicted results: (a) crack length c when a/c = 0.2; (b) crack depth a

when a/c = 0.2; (c) crack length c when a/c = 0.4; (d) crack depth a when a/c = 0.4; (e) crack length c when a/c =

0.6; (f) crack depth a when a/c = 0.6; (g) crack length c when a/c = 0.8; (h) crack depth a when a/c = 0.8; (i) crack

length c when a/c = 1.0; (j) crack depth a when a/c = 1.0.

It can be observed from Fig. 3 that the crack propagation life increases gradually as the bending

load ratio increases. The unit tension loading is more conducive to crack growth than the unit bending

loading. Furthermore, the predicted results under pure tension scenario agree well with the test results,

demonstrating that this method can predict the surface crack growth under pure tension with high

accuracy. Because of the lack of experimental data for combined tension and bending loadings, here
the predictions of crack propagation life under pure tension and bending loading are verified

separately.

5.4 Results of surface crack propagation under bending loading

Six sets of crack growth life calculations are conducted for surface cracked specimens in four-

point bending, and validated with experimental data [32]. The diagram of the surface cracked

specimen is demonstrated in Fig. 1. The plate sample width is 150 mm, and its thickness is 28 mm.

Table 2 gives the initial crack sizes and applied stress levels of the specimens. Under constant

amplitude loading, all the tests were conducted and here the crack opening stresses can be

conveniently obtained by Eq. (1).

Table 2. Specimen testing parameters
Crack depth Crack length Stress range
Test number Stress ratio
a (mm) c (mm) ΔS (MPa)
Test 1 0.9 1.0 283 0.097
Test 2 0.9 1.0 277 0.057
Test 3 1.0 4.5 186 0.018
Test 4 0.5 3.9 185 0.083
Test 5 1.0 8.5 179 0.080
Test 6 1.0 0.7 199 0.015

The material of these specimens is an offshore structural steel. The crack growth rates, of straight-

through crack specimens made of this type of offshore steel, are obtained in the literature [33-35].

The crack growth rate property is relatively stable, because there is little scatter of data of different

thicknesses and stress ratios. The less scattered crack growth rates da/dN-ΔKeff are obtained from

da/dN-ΔK by the crack closure method above. The crack propagation performance baseline is

obtained by piecewise least squares fitting in Fig. 4, which can be considered as an intrinsic property

of the material and is used for fatigue life predictions of straight-through and part-through cracked

specimens. Crack growth rates are calculated and compared with test results. In both directions, the

calculated crack propagation rates are consistent with test results in Fig. 5. The crack propagation rate

data for all tests were presented together without distinction in Ref [32], so we plot the predicted

crack growth rates for all tests together, but with distinguished signs in the figure. Considering that

the test contained some scatter factors, it is reasonable for the experimental data distributed on both

sides of the predicted data.

 (a) (b)
10-2 10-2
R=0.5 B=25.4 mm Ref.[33] R=0.5 B=25.4 mm
R=0.1 B=25.4 mm Ref.[33] R=0.1 B=25.4 mm

10-3
R=0.03 B=25.4 mm Ref.[34] 10-3 R=0.03 B=25.4 mm
R=0.03 B=25.4 mm Ref.[34] R=0.03 B=25.4 mm

da / dN (mm/cycle)
da / dN (mm/cycle)
R=0.1 B=15.6 mm Ref.[35] R=0.1 B=15.6 mm

10-4
R=0.1 B=10.6 mm Ref.[35] 10-4 R=0.1 B=10.6 mm
Baseline

10-5 10-5

10-6 10-6

Material: offshore steels Material: offshore steels

10 -7 10-7
100 101 102 100 101 102
1/2
K ( MPa m 1/2 ) K eff ( MPa m )

Fig. 4. Crack growth rates of offshore steels: (a) da/dN-ΔK in literature; (b) normalized da/dN-ΔKeff.

(a) (b)
10-3 10-3
Test dc/dN Test da/dN
Pre-test 1 Pre-test 1
Pre-test 2 Pre-test 2
Pre-test 3 Pre-test 3
dc / dN (mm/cycle)

Pre-test 4 Pre-test 4
da / dN (mm/cycle)

10-4 10-4
Pre-test 5 Pre-test 5
Pre-test 6 Pre-test 6

10-5 10-5

10-6 10-6
1 2
10 10 101 102
1/2 1/2
K ( MPa m ) K ( MPa m )

Fig. 5. Predicted and tested results for surface crack propagation rates in six specimens of different crack size and

shape, and different loading levels. (a) In the surface direction; (b) in the depth direction. The test data is obtained

from six specimens, and the Pre-test 1-6 are the prediction results for the six specimens.

Figure 6 depicts the comparisons of the calculated and test results of the crack length and depth

against cycles for cracks with various initial sizes, as listed in Table 2. The calculated crack growth

life curves of five sets agree with the test data except that the results of Test 5 are slightly conservative

to experimental results. The experimental results show some scatter because there may be some

random factors in the experimental data such as the scatter of material properties, the accuracy of

applied loading, the experimental environment and observation errors. While the predicted a-N and

2c-N results show a consistent crack growth trend, this method has good stability.
 (a) (b)
25 150
a = 0.9 mm, c = 1.0 mm a = 0.9 mm, c = 1.0 mm
20 S = 283 MPa S = 283 MPa
R = 0.097 R = 0.097

Length 2c (mm)
Depth a (mm)
100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Life (cycles) 105 Life (cycles) 105

(c) (d)
25 150
a = 0.9 mm, c = 1.0 mm a = 0.9 mm, c = 1.0 mm
20 S = 277 MPa S = 277 MPa
R = 0.057 R = 0.057

Length 2c (mm)
Length a (mm)

100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Life (cycles) 10 5 Life (cycles) 10 5

(e) (f)
25 150
a = 1.0 mm, c = 4.5 mm a = 1.0 mm, c = 4.5 mm
20 S = 186 MPa S = 186 MPa
R = 0.018 R = 0.018
Length 2c (mm)
Length a (mm)

100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Life (cycles) 10 6 Life (cycles) 10 6

(g) (h)
25 150
a = 0.5 mm, c = 3.9 mm a = 0.5 mm, c = 3.9 mm
20 S = 185 MPa S = 185 MPa
R = 0.083 R = 0.083
Length 2c (mm)
Length a (mm)

100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Life (cycles) 106 Life (cycles) 106
 (i) (j)
25 150
a = 1.0 mm, c = 8.5 mm a = 1.0 mm, c = 8.5 mm
20 S = 179 MPa S = 179 MPa
R = 0.08 R = 0.08

Length 2c (mm)
Length a (mm)
100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Life (cycles) 106 Life (cycles) 106

(k) (l)
25 150
a = 1.0 mm, c = 0.7 mm a = 1.0 mm, c = 0.7 mm
20 S = 199 MPa S = 199 MPa
R = 0.015 R = 0.015

Length 2c (mm)
Length a (mm)

100
15

10
50
5
Test a Test 2c
Pre a Pre 2c
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Life (cycles) 10 6 Life (cycles) 106

Fig. 6. Comparisons of test data and predicted results: (a) depth a of Test 1; (b) length 2c of Test 1; (c) depth a of

Test 2; (d) length 2c of Test 2; (e) depth a of Test 3; (f) length 2c of Test 3; (g) depth a of Test 4; (h) length 2c of

Test 4; (i) depth a of Test 5; (j) length 2c of Test 5; (k) depth a of Test 6; (l) length 2c of Test 6. “Pre” is for the

predicted results.

Test 1
1
Pre 1
Test 2
0.8 Pre 2
Test 3
0.6 Pre 3
a/c

Test 4

0.4 Pre 4
Test 5
Pre 5
0.2 Test 6
Pre 6
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
a/t

Fig. 7. Crack shape evolution under pure bending loading. “Pre 1-6” are the predicted results for tests 1-6.

Results of predicted and experimental aspect ratios a/c with the relative depth a/t are plotted in

Fig. 7. The predicted results of a/c in the intermediate stage are slightly larger than the experimental

data. As the cracks grow, the predicted results are closer to the test data and tend to the same crack
shape ratio. This can be attributed to the following two reasons. On one hand, the predicted crack

propagation rates in the depth direction are slightly higher than test data while the predicted rates in

the surface direction are slightly lower than experimental results in Fig. 6. If the crack closure is

further considered more fully, better predicted results should be obtained. On the other hand, in fact,

most of the crack growth life results agree well from the comparisons of the test and predicted crack

sizes against load cycles in Fig. 7, while the figure of a/c against a/t makes this difference obvious.

The predicted and experimental life cycles are provided in Table 3. The ratios of the calculated

results to the test results are shown in parentheses ranging from 0.80 to 1.07, and the average is 0.977.

A simple statistical analysis is performed for these ratios, and the standard deviation is 0.092.

Therefore, this method also has good prediction accuracy for crack propagation life of surface cracked

plates under pure bending loading.

Table 3. Experimental and predicted crack growth life results
Test Crack depth Crack length Stress range Stress Experimental Predicted
number a (mm) c (mm) ΔS (MPa) ratio life life
Test 1 0.9 1.0 283 0.097 606359 647350 (1.07)
Test 2 0.9 1.0 277 0.057 668817 674080 (1.01)
Test 3 1.0 4.5 186 0.018 1838451 1757660 (0.96)
Test 4 0.5 3.9 185 0.083 1725892 1748590 (1.01)
Test 5 1.0 8.5 179 0.080 1977149 1586600 (0.80)
Test 6 1.0 0.7 199 0.015 2023605 2050030 (1.01)

6. Surface fatigue crack growth under rotating bending

6.1 Equivalent cracked specimens

The principle for determining the equivalent CCT specimens of a surface cracked axle is the same

as that of a surface cracked plate. The crack grows perpendicular to the crack front, so the equivalent

specimens are divided along this direction. The equivalent specimens of surface cracked axles are

diagramed in Fig. 8. The SIF of surface cracked axles under rotating bending was obtained by 3D

finite-element analysis and provided in Ref. [36]. However, these values of SIF were not fitted into

equations, but given in the form of tables. Here we read these data into the calculation program, and

obtain the SIF between two points by linear interpolation.

 (a) (b)
St M

2H
a
2s
a

St M

Fig. 8. Crack configurations and the equivalent crack specimens: (a) a semi-elliptical surface cracked axle; (b) its

equivalent crack specimens.

6.2 Fatigue crack growth rate baseline of E4AT

(a) (b)
R = 0.8 R = 0.8
10-4 10-4
R = 0.5 R = 0.5
R = 0.1 R = 0.1
R = -0.5 R = -0.5
10-5 10-5
da / dN (mm/cycle)
da / dN (mm/cycle)

R = -1.0 R = -1.0
R = -2.0 R = -2.0

10-6 10-6

10-7 10-7

10-8 10-8
10 0
10 1
10 2 100 101 102
1/2
K ( MPa m 1/2 ) K eff ( MPa m )

Fig. 9. Crack growth rates of the steel E4AT. (a) Original experimental da/dN-ΔK from [37]; (b) normalized

da/dN-ΔKeff.

The material of the rotating bending specimens calculated in this paper is Steel E4AT, which is

extensively used to manufacture railway axles. The da/dN-ΔK data from the literature [37] are

depicted in Fig. 9(a). Using the da/dN-ΔKeff curves plotted in Fig. 9(b), the crack growth life of

specimens under constant amplitude loads of various stress ratios and random spectrum can be

calculated reasonably. In this paper, the green line is adopted as the baseline for calculating fatigue

crack growth.
6.3 Results of rotating bending specimens

Since the importance of crack propagation under rotating bending for fatigue analysis of railway

axles, constant amplitude rotating bending tests and overload tests were conducted by Leitner [38].

In constant amplitude tests, the maximum nominal bending stresses were 100 MPa and 150 MPa,

respectively. According to the load characteristics of the rotating bending specimens, the stress ratio

R is equal to -1. In overload tests, the base rotating bending stress is 100 MPa, and the overload ratios

are 2.0 and 2.5, respectively. For constant amplitude rotating bending tests and overload tests, crack

opening stresses Sopen are obtained with the 3D strip yield model. The test specimens were made of

EA4T steel whose crack growth rate curve has been described above, and the specimen diameter was

55 mm.

(a) (b)
1.1

0.9
a/s

0.8

Prediction
0.7 Overload ratio 2.0
The base load of Estimated
0.6 bending stress 100 MPa Test

0.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
s (mm)

Fig. 10. Evolution of crack shape ratio a/s with crack half arc length s in rotating bending axles made of steel

E4AT. (a) Comparisons between experimental and predicted results; (b) fracture surface with ten overload cycles

added at about s=5 mm at overload ratio 2.0.

The surface crack shape is not only a feature of the crack size, but also a key factor in determining

SIF. The surface crack shape ratio a/s during the crack growth is an important factor in evaluating the

prediction results. The specimen’s fracture surface of overload ratio of ROL = 2.0 was depicted in Ref.

[38]. To illustrate the crack shape evolution, the experimental crack sizes are obtained by measuring

the fracture surface in Fig. 10(b), where the solid lines are the deterministic crack growth shapes

obtained from the obvious features, and the dashed lines are the estimated crack shapes through the

fuzzy features. The initial shape ratios of the surface cracks were a/s = 0.8, and the results of test and

predicted shape ratios a/s against the half arc length s are plotted in Fig. 10(a). The calculated shape

evolution agrees with that of experimental results.

 (a) (b)
Overload tests
Overload ratio 2.0 and 2.5
15 15 The base load of
bending stress 100 MPa
2s (mm)

2s (mm)
10 10

test: 2s-150 MPa test: 2s-2.0

5 pre: 2s-150 MPa 5 pre: 2s-2.0
test: 2s-100 MPa test: 2s-2.5
pre: 2s-100 MPa pre: 2s-2.5
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
N (cycles) 10 6 N (cycles) 106

Fig. 11. Life curves of 2s-N for surface cracked axles made of steel E4AT. (a) Constant amplitude tests; (b)

overload tests. “Pre” is for the predicted results.

The life comparisons of the calculated crack arc length 2s against cycles N are conducted as Fig.

11, and Table 4 gives the specific life cycles. For two constant amplitude tests, the predicted crack

propagation life cycles are slightly short to the experimental results. For the two sets of overload tests,

the test data showed a certain scatter. Before applying different overloads, the base load bending

stress was the same as 100 MPa, but the test results diverged because the test environment and the

properties of the specimens had some scatters. Then the prediction results, for the retardation effect

of two different overload factors as ROL = 2.0 and ROL = 2.5, are obtained in Table 4. The ratios of

the calculated results to the test results are between 0.83 and 1.08. Their average is 0.93 and standard

deviation is 0.108. The predicted result of retardation effect is a little larger than the test result when

ROL = 2.0, and the predicted result is a little smaller than the test result when ROL = 2.5. Considering

the scatter of experimental results, the predicted results are still satisfactory.

Table 4. Comparisons of test results with prediction results

Test life Prediction life Test delay cycles Predicted delay cycles
Constant amplitude loading
3.59E6 3.33E6 (0.93)
100 MPa
Constant amplitude loading
9.67E5 8.00E5 (0.83)
150 MPa
Overload test and ROL = 2.0 3.23E6 3.52E6 (1.08) 1.7E5 1.9E5 (1.12)

Overload test and ROL = 2.5 4.20E6 3.70E6 (0.88) 4.7E5 3.7E5 (0.79)
 The method not only predicts the evolution of the crack shape well, but also accurately predicts

the 2s-N curves of the rotating bending crack propagation with or without overloads, which has

obtained almost the best prediction results of this experimental results so far.

7. Effect of bending loading on fatigue life prediction

To investigate the sensitivity of initial crack sizes to bending loading, seven initial crack sizes

are adopted in this paper as presented in Table 5. The sizes of micro-cracks after crack nucleation are

generally equivalent to the grain size, so that the minimum crack size adopted is 0.01 mm. The

maximum crack size is 1.0 mm. The surface crack configuration and the loading on the specimen are

diagramed above in Fig. 1. The material of the plate specimens is 7075-T6 aluminum alloy, whose

crack growth rates were given in Ref. [25], and that material baseline is used here. The plate width is

100 mm, and its thickness is 9.6 mm. The initial cracks are semicircular surface cracks with a = c.

During the process of crack growth simulation, when the average crack propagation length exceeds

one percent of the crack depth a, the least squares method is used to fit the crack shape to an ellipse.
Table 5 The sizes of initial cracks

Size 1 Size 2 Size 3 Size 4 Size 5 Size 6 Size 7

Length a (mm) 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.08 0.16 0.4 1.0

(μm) c (mm)
Depth 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.08 0.16 0.4 1.0
(μm)

7.1 The value of tension and bending loading

The combined loading is also achieved by linear superposition of pure tension and bending

loading. Then we obtain the equal local maximum stress for specimens without introducing cracks,

but the load gradients are different. To study the influence of the same local maximum stress but

different stress gradients on the crack propagation life, six combined loadings are applied from pure

tension to pure bending as shown in Table 1. The six combined loadings are applied to each specimen

with different initial cracks. Here three local maximum stresses and two stress ratios are calculated.

The three local maximum stresses are 240 MPa, 300 MPa and 360 MPa, with two stress ratios of 0.0

and 0.5.

Tanaka [27] explained the effect of short cracks that the smaller the crack, the more difficult it is

to close. Therefore, compared with large cracks, the effective SIF coefficients (Us) for small cracks
are larger, and the crack propagation rate of a small crack is larger than that of a large crack under

the equal SIF range. In the same way, the small crack has a larger crack propagation driving force,

and it is easier to grow below the threshold of large cracks. The equations of effective SIF coefficients

for short cracks were obtained by Tanaka as Eq. (3). The crack opening stresses are calculated by Eq.

(1) efficiently.

U s   as  l0   as  l0'   U
2

l0   K th  w 0  
2
(3)
l0'   K theff  w 0  
2

At as = 0, Us = 1, while Us approaches U for a large crack. In this paper, the crack closure

correction is used to consider the effect of small cracks. The cracks transform from semi-ellipse

surface cracks to straight-through cracks when the depths of the surface cracks reach the specimen

thicknesses. The calculation is terminated until the maximum SIF exceeds the material fracture

toughness.

7.2 Results of small surface cracks

(a) Crack size (mm) (b) Crack size (mm)

104 0.4 0.08 0.01 105 0.4 0.08 0.01
15 4
100%Ben 100%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
40%Ten+60%Ben 3 40%Ten+60%Ben
N (cycles)

N (cycles)

10 60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
S = 240 MPa, R = 0.0 S = 240 MPa, R = 0.5
2
Difference

Difference

5
1

0
4 5 6 5 6 7
10 10 10 10 10 10
Pure tension life N t (cycles) Pure tension life N t (cycles)
 (c) Crack size (mm) (d) Crack size (mm)
104 0.4 0.08 0.01 105 0.4 0.08 0.01
8 2
100%Ben 100%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
6 40%Ten+60%Ben 1.5 40%Ten+60%Ben
N (cycles)

N (cycles)
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
80%Ten+20%Ben 80%Ten+20%Ben
S = 300 MPa, R = 0.0 S = 300 MPa, R = 0.5
4 1
Difference

Difference
2 0.5

0 0
4 5 6 4 5 6 7
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Pure tension life N (cycles)
t
Pure tension life N (cycles)
t

(e) Crack size (mm) (f) Crack size (mm)

104 0.4 0.08 0.01 104 0.4 0.08 0.01
4 10
100%Ben 100%Ben
20%Ten+80%Ben 20%Ten+80%Ben
8
3 40%Ten+60%Ben 40%Ten+60%Ben
N (cycles)

N (cycles)
60%Ten+40%Ben 60%Ten+40%Ben
80%Ten+20%Ben 6 80%Ten+20%Ben
S = 360 MPa, R = 0.0 S = 360 MPa, R = 0.5
2
Difference

Difference

1
2

0 0
4 5 6 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10
Pure tension life N t (cycles) Pure tension life N t (cycles)

Fig. 12 Predicted life of different initial crack sizes. (a) S = 240 MPa, R = 0.0; (b) S = 240 MPa, R = 0.5; (c) S =

300 MPa, R = 0.0; (d) S = 300 MPa, R = 0.5; (e) S = 360 MPa, R = 0.0; (f) S = 360 MPa, R = 0.5.

Figure 12 plots the results of predicted fatigue crack growth life. The detailed calculation data is

given in tables in the appendix. The abscissa is the fatigue life under pure tension, defined Nt. The

ordinate is the difference ΔN = N - Nt, and N represents a calculated fatigue life of other loading. In

each figure, the dots with the same symbol and the same color from left to right represent the fatigue

life of different crack sizes from large to small in order. It can be seen from the figure that all the

differences are greater than zero, indicating that the fatigue life under pure tension is the shortest for

each crack and the fatigue life gradually increases as the proportion of bending loading increases. For

each large crack at the left end in Fig. 12, the difference is even several times the fatigue life of pure

tension loading due to the short total fatigue life. For each small crack at the right end, the difference

is generally smaller than the total fatigue life of two magnitude orders.
 101
S = 240 R = 0.0
S = 240 R = 0.5
S = 300 R = 0.0

Relative difference δ
S = 300 R = 0.5
100 S = 360 R = 0.0
S = 360 R = 0.5

10-1
δ = ( Nb -Nt ) / Nt

1.0 0.4 0.16 0.08 0.04 0.02 0.01

Crack size (mm)
Fig. 13. The relative fatigue life difference δ.

The difference of fatigue life under pure bending and pure tension loading is the largest, and the

predicted fatigue life of other loading falls in between. The relative difference is defined: δ = (Nb -

Nt)/Nt, where Nb is the calculated fatigue life subjected to bending loading and Nt is the calculated

fatigue life under tension. Figure 13 diagrams the relative difference δ against the crack size. When

a = c = 1.0 mm, the relative difference δ ranges from 2 to 3, while the relative difference δ is less than

5% as a = c = 0.01 mm. Therefore, the influence of bending loading on fatigue life of long cracks is

significant and cannot be ignored. For small cracks, the effect is relatively negligible of bending

loading on fatigue life. It is quite instructive for the fatigue life assessment of actual engineering

structures. In fatigue analysis of engineering components with small cracks, the fatigue life can be

approximatively assessed through the local stress without knowing the stress gradient. The life

analysis method based on three-dimensional crack growth can calculate quantitatively the sensitivity

of bending loading to fatigue life, which is an outstanding advantage over the local stress-strain

method.

8. Conclusion

In this work, a prediction method of 3D crack propagation is extended to the life predictions of

part-through cracked bodies under combined tension and bending loadings. The core of this method

is to establish equivalence relation between surface cracks and their equivalent crack specimens, so

that the crack propagation data of straight-through cracks under tensile loading can be adopted to

predict the surface crack propagation rates of real structures accurately. The equivalence relation

includes two aspects: the SIF and the 3D constraints at crack-tip. For the first, the stress intensity

factors of the equivalent central cracked tensile specimens are equal to those of the surface cracked

specimens to obtain the equal intensity of the crack-tip fields. For the second, the equivalent thickness
theory is adopted to calculate the three-dimensional constraint factors of part-through cracked

specimens. To verify the method, crack propagation life predictions of surface cracked plates under

tension and bending loadings as well as surface cracked axles under rotating bending are conducted.

Then the effect of bending loading on fatigue life of finite-width plates with small initial cracks

ranging from micrometers to millimeters was comprehensively analyzed. The following conclusions

can be drawn.

1) It was demonstrated that the proposed method can predict propagation life of surface cracked

plates under tension and/or bending loading using the fatigue crack propagation performance of

material obtained by standard tensile specimens with straight-through cracks. Under bending

loading, the ratios of the predicted results to the test results range from 0.80 to 1.07, with an

average of 0.977 and the standard deviation of 0.092. At the same time, we found that the unit

tension loading is more conducive to crack growth than the unit bending loading, when the local

maximum stresses are equal for specimens without introducing cracks.

2) For surface cracked axles under rotating bending, the proposed method can accurately predict the

crack arc length against life (2s-N) curves as well as crack shape evolution, even the delay effect

caused by overloads. The ratios of the calculated results to the test results are between 0.83 and

1.08, with an average of 0.93 and the standard deviation of 0.108.

3) Using the fracture mechanics method, the effects of bending loading on fatigue life can be

evaluated. The fatigue crack propagation life of specimens with small surface cracks is not

sensitive to bending loading with a relative difference of fatigue life less than 5% as a = c = 0.01

mm, while that of specimens with long cracks is sensitive to bending loading, and the fatigue life

of millimeter-scale cracks under different loading types can be different by 2 to 3 times in fatigue

life from that under pure tension.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China

(2019YFA0705400), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20212008), the Research

Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures (MCMS-I-

0421K01, MCMS-I-0422K01), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

(NJ2022002) and the Fund of Prospective Layout of Scientific Research for NUAA (Nanjing

University of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

Appendix

The calculated results of fatigue life of different crack sizes under different loading are provided

in Tables 6 to 11.
Table 6 Crack growth life when S = 240 and R = 0.0
crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 2215290 2227410 2241140 2257420 2278020 2302650
0.02 1218180 1229080 1241540 1256600 1275930 1299310
0.04 623900 633380 644400 658040 675930 697880
0.08 298390 306360 315870 327970 344380 364800
0.16 136340 142850 150940 161550 176480 195420
0.4 47790 52590 58940 67840 80990 98150
1.0 18220 21650 26530 33870 45400 60830

Table 7 Crack growth life when S = 240 and R = 0.5

crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 7996470 8034730 8077030 8126150 8186460 8256880
0.02 4391260 4426010 4464860 4510580 4567410 4634320
0.04 2242330 2272790 2307350 2348790 2401220 2463850
0.08 1064990 1090620 1120290 1156710 1204310 1261940
0.16 478830 499420 524070 555550 597940 650440
0.4 158460 173000 191470 216530 252470 298350
1.0 51620 61030 74020 93300 123230 162640

Table 8 Crack growth life when S = 300 and R = 0.0

crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 977770 983380 989850 997770 1008010 1021140
0.02 539200 544280 550210 557580 567270 579870
0.04 277470 281920 287230 293990 303050 315020
0.08 133900 137700 142360 148460 156850 168160
0.16 62360 65530 69540 75000 82760 93420
0.4 23240 25660 28920 33630 40600 50480
1.0 10170 11990 14610 18650 24920 34050
 Table 9 Crack growth life when S = 300 and R = 0.5
crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 3361120 3377790 3396570 3418700 3446180 3478720
0.02 1845980 1861210 1878550 1899250 1925260 1956350
0.04 943650 957090 972640 991550 1015770 1045060
0.08 449750 461170 474690 491530 513740 540970
0.16 204010 213380 224810 239580 259650 284740
0.4 69780 76640 85490 97630 115020 137380
1.0 25010 29730 36350 46130 60990 80690

Table 10 Crack growth life when S = 360 and R = 0.0

crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 509570 512620 516180 520600 526400 534260
0.02 281670 284440 287710 291860 297380 304960
0.04 145630 148080 151040 154860 160060 167320
0.08 70990 73110 75730 79210 84080 90990
0.16 33800 35590 37880 41030 45570 52150
0.4 13450 14860 16770 19530 23660 29840
1.0 6480 7610 9210 11650 15450 21270

Table 11 Crack growth life when S = 360 and R = 0.5

crack size 80%Ten + 60%Ten + 40%Ten + 20%Ten +
100%Ten 100%Ben
(mm) 20%Ben 40%Ben 60%Ben 80%Ben
0.01 1669310 1677940 1687800 1699710 1714590 1733160
0.02 917740 925660 934810 946010 960170 978020
0.04 470200 477230 485500 495820 509100 526060
0.08 225260 231300 238570 247890 260150 276100
0.16 103400 108420 114680 122960 134180 149070
0.4 36830 40620 45610 52590 62500 76050
1.0 14640 17370 21270 27070 35750 47990
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Highlights

1. A unified way predicts surface crack growth under tension and bending loading.

2. The method was validated by surface cracked plates under a combined loading.

3. Fatigue life was predicted with a modification of short crack closure.

4. Crack growth of surface cracked axles under rotating bending was predicted well.
Declaration of interests

☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as
potential competing interests: