The fatigue crack growth and crack closure behaviors of an explosively-bonded and a roll-bonded brass-steel clad plate were examined. An emphasis was put on the comparison of the behaviors between the two kinds of clad plates manufactured through the different bonding processes.
It was found that poor correlations were observed between the crack growth rate and the stress intensity range both for the explosively-bonded and the roll-bonded clad plates. The crack growth and closure behaviors were affected by the residual stresses which had been introduced in the production processes both for the two clad plates, although the reduced influence was observed in the roll-bonded clad plate. A good correlation was found between the crack growth rate and the effective stress intensity range, ΔKeff, which was calculated on the basis of the crack closure behavior. However, the adjustment was not fully successful for the crack growth behavior very near the material interface. Further studies are needed for more detail of the fatigue crack growth behavior of clad materials.
