Fatigue crack growth in random residual stresses

This paper deals with the effect of random residual stresses on fatigue crack growth. First, we propose a probabilistic model for residual stresses and then we show how the basic statistical information on the residual stress distribution can be included into the evaluation of the residual stress intensity factor Kr(a) and then into the crack growth equations as well as in the life-time assessment. The general analysis is illustrated explicitly for some selected specific examples.