Simulation of fatigue cracks growth processes of two parallel cracks in thin plate pulled by the constant amplitude cyclic loading

In the paper, the propagation processes of two parallel cracks in 2-mm-thick plate pulled by the cyclic loading were investigated by numerical simulation and experiment. The codes Abaqus and Franc3D were implemented jointly to predict the crack growth path, the stress distribution around the cracks tip and the fatigue life. The corresponding fatigue experiment was carried out on a servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine. The investigation indicates that the predicted crack paths agree well with the experimental results at the crack propagation early stage, and the predicted crack growth rate is consistent with the findings in experiment, which validate the prediction of the mixed mode crack propagation processes.