The cohesive zone model for fatigue crack growth

In the past decade, the cohesive zone model has been receiving increasing attention as a powerful tool for the simulation of fatigue crack growth. When applying cohesive zone model to fatigue fracture problem, three aspects should generally be taken into account, that is, unloading-reloading path, damage evolution during cyclic loading, and crack surface contact and friction behavior. This paper addresses the critical views of these aspects. Before that, the formulation of cohesive zone model and identification of cohesive zone model parameters and its numerical implementation have been reviewed.