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The development of crack closure during the plane strain extension of large and small fatigue cracks has been investigated in a 2124 aluminum alloy using both experimental and numerical procedures. Specifically, the growth rate and crack closure behavior of long (-17--38 mm) cracks, through-thickness physically-short (50-400 pm) cracks, and naturally-occurring microstructurally-small (2-400 p m) surface cracks have been examined experimentally from threshold levels to instability (over the range 10-i2-10-6 m/cycle). Results are compared with those predicted numerically using an elastic-plastic finite element analysis of fatigue crack advance and closure under both plane stress and plane strain conditions. It is shown that both the short through-thickness and small surface cracks propagate below the long crack threshold at rates considerably in excess of long cracks, consistent with the reduced levels of closure developed in their limited wake. Numerical analysis, however, is found consistently to underpredict the magnitude of crack closure for both large and small cracks, particularly at near-threshold levels; an observation attributed to the fact that the numerical procedures can only model contributions from cyclic plasticity, whereas in reality significant additional closure arises from the wedging action of fracture surface asperities and corrosion debris. Although such shielding mechanisms are considered to provide a prominent mechanism for differences in the growth rate behavior of large and small cracks, other factors such as the nature of the stress and strain singularity and the extent of local plasticity are shown to play an important role.

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