Crack propagation behavior of Sn–3.5Ag solder in low cycle fatigue

This work studies the low cycle fatigue crack propagation for three types of notched specimens of Sn–3.5Ag lead free solder. Low cycle fatigue tests were carried out using circumferential notched specimens. The fatigue life for crack initiation and propagation were experimentally obtained. The applicability of stress intensity factor range, J-integral range and strain intensity factor range for correlating the crack propagation rates was discussed. It was observed that the three fracture mechanics parameters did not correlate the crack propagation rates in a whole propagation stage with a small scatter but the stress intensity factor and J-integral ranges correlated the saturated crack propagation rates with a small scatter.