Abstract
The paper contains results of an experimental programme aimed at an evaluation of fatigue crack growth rate and threshold conditions in a reactor pressure vessel steel. Though the main target of the work was to gain a data basis for possible future needs of defect and risk assessment, an emphasis was put on an evaluation of crack growth mechanisms, too. It was shown that despite some recent works infirming crack closure phenomenon itself or methods of its evaluation, crack closure explained near-threshold fatigue crack behaviour in the specific case of the reactor steel in air conditions and was in a direct consistency with results of fractographical analyses. A fairly recent model of partial crack closure was very suitable for an explanation of an unexpected fatigue crack growth behaviour in water environment, when fatigue crack growth rates were rather irregular and significantly lower that in air.
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