The foundations of fracture impedance spectroscopy

The foundations of Fracture Impedance Spectroscopy (FIS) as a theoretical framework for analyzing and predicting fatigue and corrosion fatigue crack growth rate in real structures under complex loading waveforms from laboratory data obtained under simple, “pristine” loading conditions is presented. FIS is based upon an analogy between current flow (crack growth rate) in an electrical circuit in response to an applied, time-dependent voltage (time-dependent stress intensity factor). In this paper, the framework of the theory and its application for two different aerospace alloys are presented.