Fatigue crack growth retardation of 304 L stainless steel is studied using a neutron diffraction method. Three orthogonal strain components(crack growth, crack opening, and through-thickness direction) are measured in the vicinity of the crack tip along the crack propagation direction. The residual strain profiles (1) at the mid-thickness and (2) at the 1.5 mm away from the mid-thickness of the compact tension(CT) specimen are compared. Residual lattice strains at the 1.5 mm location are slightly higher than at the mid-thickness. The CT specimen is deformed in situ under applied loads, thereby providing evolution of the internal stress fields around the crack tip. A tensile overload results in an increased magnitude of the compressive residual stress field. In the crack growth retardation, it is found that the stresses are dispersed in the crack-wake region, where the highest compressive residual stresses are measured. Our neutron diffraction mapping results reveal that the dominant mechanism is by interrupting the transfer of stress concentration at the crack tip.

Sheet aluminum alloys have been used in manufacturing of machine structures. In fatigue crack propagation behavior of thin sheet aluminum alloys, it is important that fatigue crack growth rate is affected by crack closure phenomenon. In this work, we analyzed the characteristics of fatigue crack propagation behavior in experiment of constant stress condition for thin sheet Al 2024-T3 alloys, and identified the retardation behavior of crack growth by comparing experimental results of thin and thick plate specimen. We attempt to operate the fatigue life estimating process using the fatigue related material constants from referred fatigue crack propagation analysis. And we analyzed the experimental and prediction results of fatigue life of thin sheet aluminum alloy in order to identify the relation between retardation behavior of fatigue crack growth and crack closure phenomenon.