BASIC CONCEPTS FOR DESIGN AGAINST STRUCTURAL FAILURE BY FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION

Structural fatigue has only recently become recognized as a phenomenon of major inportance. Fatigue is not confined to individual mechinery components, but only within the past two decades has fatigue of entire structures become a factor of importance. This new concept results from advances in high-strength alloy development combined with advances in fabrication technology. These emerging factors have combined to produce massive monolithic structures which are expected to sustain repeated applications of high stresses in service. Traditional concepts of metal fatigue, which are based solely on crack initiation as a failure criterion, are inadequate to deal with modern structural fatigue problems. Cracks readily initiate in large high-strength structures under fatigue loading, and the crucial aspect of the problem is crack propagation. Fatigue design of such structures must rely on safe-life periods between inspections and prevention of catastrophic failure through fracture-safe design considerations. (Author)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Special summary report
• Corporate Authors:

  Naval Research Laboratory

  Stennis Space Center, MS  United States  39529-5004
• Authors:
  • Crooker, T W
• Publication Date: 1972-1-13

Media Info

• Pagination: 38 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cracking; Failure; Fatigue (Mechanics); Fatigue cracking; Structural mechanics
• Uncontrolled Terms: Crack propagation
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00033669
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: NRL-7347
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 15 1974 12:00AM