Plastic strain amplitude dependent surface path of microstructurally short fatigue cracks in face-centred cubic metals

The dependence of fatigue crack initiation and propagation of microstructurally short cracks on plastic strain amplitude and grain orientation was investigated for cyclically deformed nickel and austenitic stainless (316L) steel. The damage potential of different crack types was studied. It is shown that grain orientation influences crack path and propagation rate of growing microstructurally short cracks in polycrystalline face-centred cubic (f.c.c.) metals. Transcrystalline crack paths follow amplitude-dependently low-indexed crystal plane traces, but not always slip plane traces as sometimes supposed in literature.