Parameters and key trends affecting fatigue crack growth: A tribute to Professor Arthur J. McEvilyʹs contributions

The early 1950s led to high performance aluminum skinned aircraft for which metal fatigue and fatigue crack growth became extremely important considerations. Virtually, no significant range of data on fatigue crack growth existed prior to McEvilyʹs work [A.J. McEvily Jr., W. Illg, The rate of fatigue crack propagation in two aluminium alloys, NACA (now NASA), TN 4394, 1958], and controlling parameters were left to be further developed. His pioneering work allowed others to resolve some of the critical issues, and yet a few still remain open even today. This discussion will trace historical milestones in the field, as well as some more recent investigations, with the intention of exposing the major trends in determining “effective stress intensity factor ranges”, the main mechanical cause of crack growth.