Issue 30

V. Di Cocco et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 30 (2014) 454-461; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.30.55 458 Focusing the R=0.1 results, five different stages can be observed (Fig. 4b). Considering the increase of the crack tip plastic zone radious with the increase of the applied  K, a possible crack propagation micromechanism is proposed (to be confirmed by further experimental and numerical analyses): - stages 1 and 2: the specimen is almost completely austenitic, with the exception of the crack tip plastic zone, but, considering the applied  K values, its radious be considered as negligible; corresponding to K min values, considering the typical SMA stress-strain behaviour (Fig. 5), almost all the crack tip plastic zone reverts from martensite to austenite (point A). - stage 3: transition - stages 4 and 5: the higher applied  K values imply an increase of the radious of the crack tip plastic zone (martensitic!). Corresponding to K min values, the radious of the crack tip plastic zone that does not reverts its microstructure is larger than the one observed in stage 1 and 2 (Fig. 5, point B). In this zone, the stress induced martensite (obtained corresponding to K max ) remains unchanged. 4.0E‐09 4.0E‐08 4.0E‐07 3 30 da/dN [m/cyle] ΔK [MPa√m] R=0.1 R=0.5 4.0E‐09 4.0E‐08 4.0E‐07 3 30 da/dN [m/cyle] ΔK [MPa√m] R=0.1 R=0.5 Stage1 Stage 2 Stage3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 a) b) Figure 4 : Fatigue crack propagation results: a) da/dN behavior, b) stages. For R=0.5, only three “traditional” stages are observed. This is probably due to the higher K min values and to the larger extent of the crack tip plastic zone, also corresponding to lower  K values, if compared to R = 0.1: martensite obtained corresponding to K max at the crack tip remains unchanged also corresponding to K min . Martensite Austenite & Martensite  Austenite ε σ  B  A  Figure 5 : Scheme of σ-ε curve of SMA materials with structure transitions.