Fatigue crack growth behaviour under intermittent overstressing was investigated in dry air with a low carbon steel under tension-compression and tension-tension loading with different mean stress levels. A very small number of cycles of overstress applied intermittently during a very large number of cycles of understress below threshold caused, in all cases, a significant acceleration in crack growth rate as compared to the case of steady cyclic stress. The acceleration for the case with tensile mean stresses was a little smaller than in the case without mean stress and it was related to a little higher crack closure level in the former case. Stress history in the precracking process had some effect on crack closure and, consequently, on the acceleration. A fairly good correlation was obtained between the acceleration and
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