Effect of a hard artificial asperity on the crack closure behavior in an annealed SAE 1015 steel

The load–crack opening displacement (COD) curves and deformation characteristics in the vicinity of a hard artificial asperity in an annealed SAE 1015 steel were studied. The artificial asperity was found to have a significant effect on the trend of the load–COD curves. The lower portion of the load–COD curves in the unloading phase exhibited a convex shape without the asperity, but a concave shape with the asperity. The concave shape, signifying the acceleration in the COD decrease, was further verified by varying the size of the asperity, conducting special compression tests and elastic–plastic load–COD tests. The plastic deformation in the vicinity of both asperity and crack tip was studied via microhardness tests, etching techniques, and finite element analysis. Based on the experimental observations, a modified crack closure process model was proposed, where three stages of the unloading curve was defined: (i) the asperity does not contact the upper crack face, (ii) a process where both the asperity and the specimen material deform elastically, and the elastic-wedge model is applicable, and (iii) the plastic deformation of the specimen material adjacent to the asperity occurs, thus resulting in the concavely shaped load–COD curves. An equation was proposed to estimate the COD values, in which the plastic deformation both at the crack tip and at the asperity was considered. The residual COD calculated from the proposed equation was found to be consistent with the experimental results.