Influence of the cyclic plastic zone size on the propagation of the fatigue crack in case of 12NC6 steel

Under cyclic loading, the plasticized zone becomes complicated; it contains in particular a second plasticized zone, resulting from the local compression which occurs at the time of the closing of the crack to each cycle. The two plastic zones, monotonous (rm) and cyclic (rc), are proportional to (Kmax/Re)2 et (ΔK/Re)2, respectively. The objective of this work is to study the evolution of the fatigue crack grown rate (FCGR) and the influence of the plastic zone size (rc), which represents the seat of the residual stresses, on this evolution in the case of 12NC6 steel. Generally, the plastic zone size increases with the crack advance. The FCGR can be correlated with the energy absorptive in these plastic zones.