Towards a parametric relationship of crack front twisting on fatigue crack growth behavior

Abstract

We investigate the phenomenon of crack front twisting in uniaxial fatigue experiments, which leads to mixed-mode stress states despite nominally mode-I loading. While this behavior has been observed experimentally, a predictive and theoretically grounded framework is lacking. Our work combines high-resolution experimental measurements with parametric FEM simulations and Williams series fitting to characterize the crack tip fields. Using symbolic regression techniques, we aim to discover interpretable, physically grounded relationships between local field descriptors and the observed crack front angles.