Abstract
The loading at a crack tip varies during fatigue crack propagation. As a result, overloading causes retardation of crack propagation, and underloading causes the acceleration of crack propagation. In addition, reducing the load range by changing either the minimum load or maximum load can cause a reduction or retardation of crack propagation to occur. Examining a fatigue cracked specimen made of polycrystalline copper with back scattered electron images (BEI) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed that (1) the dislocation structures close to the crack tips gradually evolved from a cell structure into a new loop patch structure during the crack retardation period which follows after reducing the maximum load; (2) restoring the crack propagation rate is a result of re-establishing the cell structure from new loop patches or PSBs; and (3) the evolution of the dislocation structure at the crack tip due to the maximum loading reduction is affected by residual active slip systems.
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