Subcritical growth of high-cycle fatigue cracks in finite thin isotropic plates

The problem of constructing a two-stage model of the motion of a fatigue crack in finite thin isotropic plates under symmetric tension-compression is formulated, and a method for its solution is considered. The two-stage nature is regarded as the presence of the incubation and propagation stages. The model is constructed by jointly considering the resolving equations of the theory of elasticity and the evolutionary equations of the mechanics of continuous damage. The damage function's attaining the critical value is considered as a criterion of initiation of local fracture and movement of a fatigue crack. Plates containing central and lateral cracks are considered. The effect of the level of stresses, the finiteness of the plate, the initial length of the crack, and the behavior of the length of the plastic zone on fracture kinetics is evaluated.