{"id":3180,"date":"2026-06-24T16:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/wiki\/crack-growth\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T16:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:13:03","slug":"crack-growth","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/glossary\/crack-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Crack growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"glossar-eintrag\">\n<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong> Crack growth refers to the progressive propagation of an existing crack under mechanical or corrosive loading. It is described in fracture-mechanics terms using parameters such as the stress intensity factor &Delta;K or the J-integral. Under cyclic loading, the growth often follows the Paris law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Practical relevance:<\/strong> Crack growth largely determines the remaining service life of cracked components. Influencing factors are stress amplitude, mean stress, material toughness, temperature and medium. Quantitative assessment is carried out using da\/dN-&Delta;K curves. Applications are found in <a class=\"tc-inlink\" href=\"\/en\/materials-engineering\/materials-for-pressure-equipment\/\">pressure equipment<\/a> construction, structural steelwork and aviation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Decision-making perspectives:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Technical decision-makers:<\/strong> Definition of permissible crack sizes and inspection intervals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Purchasing\/project management:<\/strong> Assessment of repair or replacement strategies based on remaining-service-life analyses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Science:<\/strong> Investigation of fatigue crack propagation and environmental influences.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Insurance\/law:<\/strong> Demonstration of whether a crack would have been controllable with proper monitoring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Typical testing or verification methods:<\/strong> Fatigue <a class=\"tc-inlink\" href=\"\/en\/corrosion-consulting-and-testing\/crack-initiation-crack-growth-corrosive-influences\/\">crack growth<\/a> test, fracture-mechanics assessment to DIN EN ISO 12108, non-destructive crack testing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAQ:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What does the Paris law describe?<\/li>\n<li>It describes the relationship between the crack growth rate (da\/dN) and the stress intensity factor range (&Delta;K) under cyclic loading.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[],"class_list":["post-3180","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/3180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technical-center.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=3180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}