Fatigue Crack

Definition - What does Fatigue Crack mean?

A Fatigue Crack is a fissure which is formed when a material experiences continuous and repeated force or load at various points on the material. Fatigue generally is the primary reason for formation of cracks as well as initiating cracks on the surface of a material. Fatigue leads to progressive and localized structural damage when any material experiences cyclic loading. Because of cyclic loading, the material cracks an ultimately forms fractures.

Petropedia explains Fatigue Crack

In material science, fatigue is the weakening of a material. It is a cumulative effect causing a material to fail after repeated applications of stress, none of which exceeds the ultimate tensile strength. The repeated stresses, strain, forces and tensile loads acting on the material is one of the reasons for cyclic loading that propagates fatigue. Without any proper action or maintenance of the material, the fatigue results in:

  • Crack initiation
  • Slow, stable crack growth
  • Rapid fracture
Once there is rapid fracture, very little stress variations and forces, even less than the ultimate tensile strength of the material, make the material to fail because the cracks further propagate and
become thicker.
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