A review of critical plane orientations in multiaxial fatigue failure criteria of metallic materials

The paper presents a review of multiaxial fatigue failure criteria based on the critical plane concept. The criteria have been divided into three groups, according to the fatigue damage parameter used in the criterion, i.e. (i) stress, (ii) strain and (iii) strain energy density criteria. Each criterion was described mainly by the critical plane orientation. Multiaxial fatigue criteria based on the critical plane concept usually apply different loading parameters in the critical plane whose orientation is determined by (a) only shear loading parameters (crack Mode II or III), (b) only normal loading parameters (crack Mode I) or sometimes (c) mixed loading parameters (mixed crack Mode). There are also criteria based on few critical plane orientations and criteria based on critical plane orientations determined by a weighted averaging process of rotating principal stress axes.