Environmentally assisted low-cycle fatigue crack initiation and growth

Models of low-cycle fatigue crack initiation and growth in an active environment are developed based on the synthesis of fracture mechanics and mechanics of damage accumulation. Environmentally affected damage, such as corrosion, ageing and embrittlement, and purely mechanical damage as well their interaction are taken into account during all the stages of crack growth beginning from the near-threshold initiation stage until the final failure. Special attention is given to the problem of the active agent transport to the moving crack tip under cyclic loading. The competition between various damage mechanisms during the crack propagation is demonstrated.