Effects of pore position in depth on stress/strain concentration and fatigue crack initiation

The stress field around a pore was analyzed as a function of the pore position in depth in the surface of a linear elastic solid using finite element modeling. It was found that the pore depth dominated the stress field around the pore on the surface and that the maximum stress was increased sharply when the pore intercepted with the surface at its top. Given the applied nominal stress, the magnitude of the maximum main stress only depended on the relative depth of the pore, while the pore size affected the stress distribution in the surface. An elastic-plastic model was also used to account for the yielding effect in the region where stress was over the yield strength. The results still indicated a significant maximum stress concentration when the pore was just buried underneath the surface, but with a lowered value than that of the linear elastic model. These results were consistent with the experimental observations that fatigue cracks were preferably initiated from pores and particles, which were just intercepted at their top with the sample surface or just buried beneath the surface.