Fatigue crack initiation – The role of point defects

Abstract The role of point defects in the formation of surface relief and in the initiation of a fatigue crack in crystalline materials is analyzed. The dislocation interactions in the bands of intensive cyclic slip (persistent slip bands – PSBs) are specified and relations describing the formation and annihilation of interstitial and vacancy type defects in the channels of the ladder-like PSB are derived. The continuous formation, annihilation and primarily the migration of point defects are proposed to be responsible for the mass redistribution within PSB and between PSB and the PSB/matrix boundary. The redistribution of the matter results in local tensile and compressive stresses that are the sources of the principal irreversibility of slip within PSB. Local tensile and compressive stresses are relaxed by dislocation movement within PSB in the direction of the active Burgers vector and lead to the formation of characteristic surface relief in the form of extrusions and intrusions. The intrusions represent crack-like defects and fatigue cracks initiate in the tip of intrusions.