Abstract
Abstract— A new technique for studying the growth and morphology of microstructurally short fatigue cracks is described. The technique allows short crack growth, crack depth, and crack front configuration to be measured using Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM). Good agreement is shown between CSLM measurements of the initial stage of crack growth (along an inclined shear plane), crack depth and aspect ratio, together with the measurements obtained using a surface layer removal technique. It is also found that non‐propagating short fatigue cracks have approximately the same aspect ratios in different specimen orientations and that the aspect ratio is independent of stress amplitude.
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