The work is devoted to the experimental study of heat dissipation process caused by fatigue crack propagation. To investigate a spatial and time temperature evolution at the crack tip set of experiments was carried out using specimens with pre-grown centered fatigue crack. An original mathematical algorithm for experimental data treatment was developed to obtain a power of heat source caused by plastic deformation at crack tip. The algorithm includes spatial-time filtration and relative motion compensation procedures. Based on the results of mathematical data treatment, we proposed a way to estimate the values of J-integral and stress intensity factor for cracks with pronounced the plastic zone

An experimental methodology was developed for estimating a very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) life of the aluminum alloy AMG-6 subjected to preliminary deformation. The analysis of fatigue damage staging is based on the measurement of elastic modulus decrement according to “in situ” data of nonlinear dynamics of free-end specimen vibrations at the VHCF test. The correlation of fatigue damage staging and fracture surface morphology was studied to establish the scaling properties and kinetic equations for damage localization, “fish-eye” nucleation, and transition to the Paris crack kinetics. These equations, based on empirical parameters related to the structure of the material, allows us to estimate the number of cycles for the nucleation and advance of fatigue crack.

The role of the collective behavior of defect ensembles at the crack tip and the laws of fatigue crack propagation in R4 high-strength steel have been studied under conditions of symmetric tension-compression gigacycle loading at 20 kHz. At every stage of the fatigue crack growth, replicas from the sample side surface were taken and studied by the method of three-dimensional relief profilometry (using NewView interferometer profilometer) so as to study the scaling-invariant laws of defect-related structure evolution.

Multiscale mechanisms of failure of metals (Armco iron, titanium, aluminum) are studied for high cycle and very high cycle fatigue. By correlating with the results of structural studies, a theoretical approach is developed to describe fatigue crack kinetics in damaged material under high cycle and very high cycle fatigue loading conditions. Stages of crack nucleation and propagation are analyzed using the profilometry data from the fracture surface. The scale invariance of fracture surface roughness is established, which allows an explanation of the self-similar nature of fatigue crack kinetics under high cycle and very high cycle fatigue. Variation of elastic-plastic properties of Armco iron under very high cycle fatigue is studied using an acoustic resonance method. It is found that the material density decreases during fatigue damage accumulation, with the minimum of the material density in the bulk of the specimen.

Plasma treatment of soft polymers is a promising technique to improve biomedical properties of the materials. The response to the deformation of such materials is not yet clear. Soft elastic polyurethane treated with plasma immersion ion implantation is subjected to fatigue uniaxial loading. The influence of the strain amplitude and the plasma treatment regime on damage character is discussed. Surface defects are studied in unloaded and stretched states of the material. As a result of fatigue loading, transverse cracks (with closed overlapping edges as well as with open edges deeply propagating into the polymer) and longitudinal folds which are break and bend inward, appear on the surface. Hard edges of cracks cut the soft polymer which is squeezed from the bulk to the surface. The observed damages are related to the high stiffness of the modified surface and its transition to the polymer substrate.