THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SHORT CRACKS AND EQUIVALENT PARAMETER OF FATIGUE DAMAGE

In order to understand which parameters, such as the number of cracks and the total crack length is the useful indicators of fatigue damage, rotatory bending fatigue tests are carried out using smooth specimens of a medium-carbon steel. The behavior of short crock propagation and the evolution of surface cracks during fatigue are examined. The aim of this paper is to study how these damage parameters are correlated with the process of fatigue in order to evaluate the effectiveness of damage detection methods.