Studying the rate of heat dissipation at the vertex of a fatigue crack

The thermodynamics of the process of fatigue-crack propagation in plastic materials is analyzed by the example of chromium-nickel steel of 8Kh18N10 grade. An original device has been developed that is capable of measuring the rate of dissipation of the plastic deformation energy at the crack vertex during its propagation. Experimental results showed that, at a constant stress amplitude, the rate of fatigue-crack propagation is a linear function of the product of the energy-dissipation rate and crack length.