Cyclic damage of some high strength alloys showing subsurface crack generation in high-cycle fatigue

Ti-6Al-4V alloy, austenitic steels and hard steels show subsurface crack generation in the high cycle fatigue regime, especially at low temperature. The cyclic stress-strain behavior of those materials has been studied in this paper. A small plastic strain during cycling was detected. It is concluded that subsurface crack generation involves a strain incompatibility developed between the continuous isotropic elastic strain field and the localized planar slip.