Author(s)

A. Apicella, G. Cricri & R. Esposito

Abstract

Fatigue crack growth behaviour and life prediction for small crack in aluminium alloy A. Apicella/ G. Cricri,* R. Esposito* " Alenia - Pomigliano d'Arco, Italy & Dzpar^'men,^ dz' f ro^e^azzoTze e CosZrwzz'om Mecm^zcAe, University Federico II, Naples, Italy ABSTRACT In this paper a brief review on a crack closure model, proposed by de Koning, is pointed out. This model is fully oriented to consider long cracks and general load history , i.e. cycles of constant or variable amplitude, in a deterministic way Here by referring to construction of a similar code, an attempt has been made in order to apply the crack closure concept also to the consideration of small cracks for numerical crack growth prediction. Really an effort has been made to properly modify the procedure and to render it suitable for both the cases of small and long cracks with specific attention to aluminium alloy of aeronautic interest To this aim appropriate

Keywords