International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Predicting crack initiation site in polycrystalline nickel through surface T

topography changes
⁎
Jalal Fathi Solaa, Randall Keltonb, Efstathios I. Meletisb, Haiying Huanga,
a
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19018, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
b
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19031, Arlington, TX 76019, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Fatigue loading generates plastic deformation and strain localization on the surface of polycrystalline metals,
Crack initiation which are known to be the precursor for crack initiation. The plastic deformations manifest themselves in the
Polycrystalline form of surface roughening that can be characterized using surface profiling techniques. In this study, surface
Plastic deformation topology changes on the surface of a nickel specimen under cyclic loading are monitored and analyzed to in-
Surface topography
vestigate the correlation between surface topography changes and crack initiation. Defining the surface
Fatigue
roughness parameters as the damage index, an algorithm was formulated to predict the crack initiation location
well before the formation of a visible crack. In addition, the crack initiation time can also be determined based
on the saturation of the surface roughness damage index as well as the rebound of the surface height near the
crack initiation location.

1. Introduction on the sensitivity of the measurement technique as well as the fre-

Fatigue is the main failure mode for many engineering structures.
Fatigue life typically is divided into three different stages: crack in-
cubation or nucleation where cyclic hardening or softening occurs,
crack initiation where small measurable crack forms, and crack pro-
pagation [1]. By the time a measurable crack emerges, up to 70% of the
fatigue life has been spent under Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF). For High
Cycle Fatigue (HCF), the spent fatigue life increases to 90% [2–4]. In
addition, the mechanism that drives crack initiation, i.e. plastic de-
formation, also governs early crack propagation. A better under-
standing of crack initiation behavior, therefore, could lead to more
reliable fatigue life prediction, early crack prevention, and better design
of fatigue resistant super-alloys. Unfortunately, the crack initiation lo-
cations are typically unknown prior to crack initiation. This makes in-
vestigating crack initiation very tedious and time-consuming; multiple
potential crack initiation sites have to be monitored closely over
thousands of cycles. Besides, crack initiation in polycrystalline metals
depends strongly on the local microstructures, such as the grain or-
ientation, the characteristic of neighboring grains, the existence of de-
fects or particles, etc. [1,5–7]. As a result, predicting crack initiation
location remains an unsolved challenge, despite intensive studies on
crack initiation carried out over the past century. Determining the time
at which the crack initiates is also problematic; crack initiation is de-
fined as the time when a measurable crack is detected, which depends
quency of measurements that can be realistically carried out.
Despite these difficulties, past research works have identified that
the formation of slip steps are the necessary condition for crack in-
itiation. When metals are cyclically loaded and the critical resolved
shear stress on a slip system is reached, dislocations move along the slip
direction, leading to the formation of slip steps. During the reverse
loading, the slip does not recover fully and cyclic slip irreversibility
occurs [8,9]. Subsequently, by applying more cyclic loading, the slip
continues on the same path resulting in surface roughening and strain
localization which eventually leads to persistent slip bands (PSBs) for-
mation. Based on these understandings, cyclic slip irreversibility and
critical accumulated slip were proposed as fatigue indicator parameters
(FIP) [1,10–12]. In these studies, a critical value of irreversibility was
defined as a necessary condition for crack initiation. However, this
condition is not sufficient for crack initiation [13]. Alternatively, other
researchers attempted to predict the crack initiation time based on the
accumulated energy in the slip bands [14–16]. The proposed theoretical
models and simulations have provided physical insights into crack in-
itiation phenomena. However, all of the proposed methods rely on
crystal plasticity simulations that have many simplifications and as-
sumptions. For example, many simulations only considered a few spe-
cific slip systems or the surface grains because the crystallographic
features underneath the surface cannot be measured easily. As a result,
the simulation results are only partly verified by experimental

⁎
Corresponding author at: 500 W. First Street, WH211, Arlington, TX 76019, USA. Tel.: +1 817 272 0563; fax: +1 817 272 5010.
E-mail address: huang@uta.edu (H. Huang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2019.02.027
Received 3 December 2018; Received in revised form 13 February 2019; Accepted 19 February 2019
Available online 27 February 2019
0142-1123/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

its simplicity and high temporal and spatial resolution. Unlike AFM,
Nomenclature
these optical techniques are non-contacting; they use interference of
light for measuring the surface topography in a wide height range. As
Sa Arithmetic average surface roughness
such, the field of view is larger and the effect of out-of-plane movement
St Maximum height of the profile
within the grain or across grain boundaries can be measured. Taking
advantage of this technique, it was discovered that the largest surface
displacements were concentrated on triple points and grain boundaries
observations, making them inaccurate in practice [17]. One challenge
[32] and the surface roughening was dominated by the out-of-plane
in validating these FIPs is that they involve out-of-plane strain com-
movement of the grains after the heights of the slip bands have satu-
ponents, which are difficult to measure using conventional non-de-
rated [33]. Muravsky [34] showed that the fatigue process zone (FPZ)
structive characterization tools. Even though Digital Image Correlation
can be calculated from surface topography measured using a two-step
(DIC) has been extensively studied for investigating strain hetero-
phase-shifting interferometry. In addition, researchers have also ana-
geneity around potential crack initiation sites [18–20], DIC, when
lyzed the surface topography images in an attempt to determine the
carried out in two-dimensions (2D), does not provide quantitative in-
crack initiation time [35–37]. These studies, however, performed the
formation about the out-of-plane strain components. These might be the
analysis over relatively large areas that contains hundreds of grains or
reason that no published work has successfully predicted the crack in-
more. Vladimirov et al. and Jha et al. [35,36] did not validate their
itiation location based on 2D DIC strain measurements.
findings using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images while the
Surface profiling techniques provide a quantitative measurement of
SEM images in [37] contained multiple cracks that are about
the surface topography and thus are capable of measuring the out-of-
200–300 μm in length. None of these work tried to predict the crack
plane displacements, at least on the sample surface. The extrusion
initiation site before the crack emerges.
height, measured using an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), was used
In our previous study, we adopted the SWLI technique to investigate
as a parameter to quantitatively represent strain irreversibility [21–23].
surface topography changes around the tip of a micro-sensitive small
They found that crack initiated when the extrusion height, normalized
crack [38–40]. It was observed that when the crack was arrested near a
by the grain size, reached a threshold. This threshold was found to
triple point, substantial surface topography change occurred in the FPZ
varying with the material. However, other studies have shown that
and a narrow depression was formed in front of the crack, through
some grains did not have crack initiation even though the extrusion
which the crack eventually grew. Based on these observations, we in-
height has reached the threshold [13,24]. HO et al [25] evaluated
troduced the surface roughness parameters as damage indices and
different surface roughness parameters to characterize the surface to-
formulated an algorithm that enables us to predict the tortuous crack
pographies of eight grains with crack initiation and eight grains
path over several grains. We also discovered that there is a damage
without. They claimed that the maximum peak height Sp parameter is
index threshold for a given stress intensity factor (SIF), beyond which
the best for differentiating the grains with crack initiation from those
the crack releases from an arresting point. When the crack was arrested,
without. Unfortunately, these AFM studies only investigated slip bands
the area in front of the crack was observed to reduce in height before
inside grains. As such, intergranular crack initiations and the out-of-
the crack was released from arresting and rebounded after the release.
plane grain displacements were not considered. Due to the raster
Since crack initiation and small crack propagation share similar driving
scanning mode of AFMs, imaging a large area could be very time-con-
mechanism and behavior, these discoveries motivated us to investigate
suming. In addition, AFM is not capable of measuring the surface to-
the surface topography changes during crack initiation in the present
pography of the narrow intrusions [9]. To overcome this problem, some
study. The surface topography changes of a pure nickel sample under
researchers combined AFM with the replica technique so that the for-
cyclic loading were monitored at real-time using an SWLI and analyzed
mation of thin intrusions between extrusions can be characterized
to predict the crack initiation location as well as to determine the crack
[3,26–31]. Using the replica technique, the crack length and site can be
initiation time. We demonstrated that the surface roughness damage
successfully detected, however, this technique cannot be performed in-
index, formulated based on the surface topography changes, is capable
situ and is labor intensive. More recently the study of surface profile
of predicting the crack initiation location well before a visible crack was
changes using optical measurement techniques, such as scanning white
detected using SEM. In addition, the crack initiation time was de-
light interferometry (SWLI), scanning laser confocal microscope (SLCM)
termined based on the saturation of the surface roughness damage
and two-step phase shifting interferometry has become popular due to
index as well as the recovery of the surface height near the crack

Fig. 1. (a) Dimensions of test specimen (all dimensions are in mm) (b) Test setup involving Electroforce fatigue testing machine, integrated with a scanning
whitelight interferometer (SWLI) surface profilometer.

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J. Fathi Sola, et al.
Fig. 2. The region of interest defined after applying the first fatigue cycle. The
surface topography image was acquired using a 10× magnificent lens. The
color map represents the surface height measured by an SWLI. (For inter-
pretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)
initiation location.
2. Experiment method
2.1. Sample preparation
Due to the superior property under harsh mechanical and thermal
loading, nickel alloys are extensively used in the aerospace industry.
Having a face-centric-cubic (FCC) crystal structure, nickel is also known
to develop noticeable surface topography changes under plastic de-
formation. The thin oxide layer on the surface of nickel makes the study
of surface topography changes under fatigue loading possible.
Therefore, annealed nickel with a 99.52% purity was chosen as the
model material for this study. EBSD inspection of the sample surface
showed a random grain size and orientation, and thus confirmed the
behavior of the material to be isotropic. The average grain size mea-
sured according to ASTM E112-13 planometric procedure was 89 µm. A
static tensile test of a dog-bone sample machined from the as-received
material determined that the yield stress of the material is 211 MPa.
This value was used to determine the maximum load applied to the
sample to ensure that the sample, except at the stress concentration
locations, remained elastic throughout the fatigue test.
A middle tension (MT) sample designed according to the ASTM E
647 standard, as shown in Fig. 1(a), was machined from the as-received
nickel sheet. The center notch was machined using Electrical Discharge
Machining (EDM) with a 0.254 mm wire, which resulted in a notch
width of 0.4 mm. After machining, the surfaces of the sample near the
tips of the notch were manually polished with conventional sandpapers
of different grit sizes. Afterward, the sample was polished using alu-
mina polish powders down to the size of 1 μm to achieve a mirror-like
surface. In order to highlight the grain boundaries, the surface was
etched using an ASTM E407 – 25 solution, producing a surface
roughness of 50 nm. Fig. 1(a) shows the dimensions of the sample after
polishing. For reference purpose, the left side of the notch is called the
west notch while the right side of the notch is called the east notch.
2.2. Fatigue test procedure
To apply cyclic loading, the sample was mounted in a fatigue test
bench (BOSE Electroforce) which was capable of applying cyclic
loading up to 3000 N at a frequency of up to 100 Hz. An SWLI profil-
ometer was integrated with the fatigue tester to acquire surface topo-
graphy images of the sample surface, as shown in Fig. 1(b). This ar-
rangement enabled us to image the sample surface without removing it
from the fatigue tester. All surface topography images were acquired
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International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81
when the sample was unloaded, i.e. the applied load was at zero, be-
cause of two reasons: (1) the entire system was slightly vibrating under
loading, which made acquiring clear SWLI images impossible; (2) the
imaging process could take up to 20 min and the sample is unloaded to
eliminate any possibility of relaxation. The sample was illuminated
using the built-in whitelight source of the SWLI. No additional lighting
was needed. The SWLI profilometer has two lenses of different magni-
fications; the 10× lens has a field of view (FOV) of 627 × 470 µm2 and
the 50× lens has an FOV of 235 × 175 µm2. The accompanying soft-
ware, vision64, enables acquiring multiple images by transversing the
lens in a raster motion and stitching them to form an image that is much
larger than the FOV of the imaging lens. More detailed information
about the operation of the SWLI can be found in the manufacturer’s
website [41].
The cyclic loading with a maximum load of 2900 N and a load ratio
of zero was chosen for the fatigue testing to ensure crack initiation [38].
For an initiation notch length of 4.8 mm, the resulting maximum SIF
was calculated, using the expression given in ASTM E647 for MT
samples, to be 9.83 MPa√m. Prior to applying the load, the sample
surface was imaged using both the 10× and 50× magnification lenses.
Measurement using the 10× magnification lens provides a high tem-
poral resolution since the FOV is larger, while measurement using the
50× magnification offers a higher spatial resolution.
After applying the first cycle, plastic deformations, manifested as
large surface roughness development, were observed near the tips of
the center notch. A method similar to that described in [38] was used to
measure the size of the plastic zone. The sample surface was imaged
using the 10× lens before and after applying the first cycle and the
difference image between these two images, which accounts for the
plastic deformation due to the applied load, was constructed. The dif-
ference image was then segmented into narrow vertical strips so that
the surface roughness for each strip can be calculated and plotted
versus the distance from the crack tip. The surface roughness steadily
decreased with distance from the crack and eventually levered off to a
value that is comparable to that of the unloaded sample. The distance at
which the surface roughness leveled off was identified as the edge of the
plastic zone. For the sample used in this study, the size of the plastic
zone was determined to be 0.4 mm. Accordingly, an area of
0.8 × 0.8 mm2 (0.1 mm containing the tip of the notch and 0.7 mm in
front of the tip) was defined as the region of interest (ROI). As shown in
Fig. 2, the ROI contains the entire plastic zone area (i.e. the areas in
blue and cyan) as well as some elastic region (i.e. the areas in yellow
and red) surrounding the plastic zone. In addition, it was observed that
more profound plastic deformations were concentrated in the areas
around the two tips of the notch. Therefore, these areas were imaged
using the 50× lens to obtain surface topography images with a finer
resolution. In total, 30 images, each has the size of 234 × 175 µm and a
predefined overlap of 20% with the neighboring images, were acquired.
Using the 50× magnification lens, the resolution of the acquired sur-
face height is 1 nm. These images were stitched together using Vi-
sion64, resulting in a surface topography image of the entire ROI with
2186 × 2186 pixels and a lateral resolution of 0.366 μm.
The fatigue test was continued up to 1000 cycles with a 10 Hz
loading frequency. During this stage, the test was paused at every 200
cycles and the sample surface was imaged. Since the surface topography
changes decreased gradually, the fatigue interval was increased to 500
cycles up to 5000 cycles, again increased to 1000 cycles up to 20,000
cycles, and finally increased to 2000 cycles up to 40,000 cycles. In
addition, SEM images were acquired after the first cycle, at 20,000
cycles, 40,000 cycles, and every 10,000 cycles thereafter. The SEM
images were correlated to the SWLI images by aligning the surface
features such as slip bands in the different locations of the sample
surface as well as near the notch. At 40,000 cycles, persistent slip bands
(PSBs) in the area ahead of the west notch was observed in the SEM
image, indicating crack initiation might occur in the following cycles. In
order to ensure that we do not miss the crack initiation, the SWLI image
J. Fathi Sola, et al.
interval was reduced to 1000 cycles. At 50,000 cycles, the formation of
a micro-crack was confirmed by the SEM image. To observe the crack
propagation, the fatigue interval was reduced from 1000 cycles to 500
cycles after 60,000 cycles. The experiment was terminated at 95,000
cycles when the formation of a through-thickness crack was observed.
In total, the entire experiment produced 126 SWLI images. The testing
schedule and imaging intervals are shown in Table 1.
3. Crack initiation behavior
The SEM images of the sample surface near the west notch at dif-
ferent fatigue cycles are shown in Fig. 3. For all images, the loading
direction is along the vertical direction. As explained in the previous
section, large plastic deformations were observed from the SWLI image
after the first cycle. This plastic deformation zone after the first cycle,
however, was not clearly visible in the SEM image shown in Fig. 3(a);
only very small slip bands are visible. The slip bands were seen to form
along a 45 degree angle with respect to the loading direction, indicating
that the maximum shear stress occurs in this direction. As the test
continued, more slip bands were created and the height and depth of
the extrusions and intrusions increased. At 20,000 cycles, five locations
near the edge of the west notch were observed to have large plastic
deformations in the form of slip bands, as shown in Fig. 3(b). These slip
bands were mostly formed around the edge of the notch. The size of two
sets of slip bands, i.e. the ones in zone 3 and 4, were bigger than the
other areas. A zoomed-in view of zone 3 and 4 at 40,000 cycles is shown
in Fig. 3(c). To determine the grain boundaries, microscopic image
using the SWLI profilometer was taken and overlaid on the SEM images.
Tracing the slip bands also helped to determine the grain boundaries;
the majority of the slip bands were formed in grain 1 and they were
stopped near the grain boundary between grains 3 and 4. The number
and size of the slip bands saturated and persistent slip bands (PSBs)
were formed. The slips bands are confined primarily in two grains, i.e.
grains 1 and 3. In grain 1, the slip bands start near the edge of the
notch, lies along the 45 degree direction with respect to the loading
direction, and end at the grain boundary. The slip bands in grain 3 are
also at a 45 degree angle with the loading direction; they are near a
triple point (i.e. the intersection of the grain boundaries of grain 1, 2,
and 3) and bounded by two grain boundaries. For both grains 1 and 3,
the slip bands near the triple point had larger intrusions and extrusions,
both in size and height, than those away from the triple point. Some of
the PSBs may have large inclusions that can be considered as a crack.
However, since the SEM image was acquired when the sample was
unloaded, it was almost impossible to differentiate a crack from large
PSBs. Grain 2 did not have significant slip band development as com-
pared to grain 1 and 3, except a slip band near the edge of the notch.
The SEM image around this slip band, acquired at 50,000 cycles, is
shown in Fig. 3(d). By tilting the sample, the SEM was able to image the
top surface as well as the vertical wall of the notch. It clearly shows that
a crack that extended about 2 μm inside the material had formed. This
is the first time that a visible crack was observed from the SEM images,
indicating that the crack initiated between 40,000 and 50,000 cycles.
The crack length on the surface, however, was difficult to determine
since it was difficult to differentiate a crack from large PSBs based on
the SEM image. In addition, the exact location of the crack initiation
cannot be determined; the crack could have initiated near the triple
point and propagated toward the edge or initiated at the edge of the
notch. The SEM image of the crack acquired at 60,000 cycles is shown
in Fig. 3(e). It appears that the crack has propagated along the grain
boundary between grain 1 and 3 and made a left turn at the triple point
between grain 1, 3, and 4. However, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly
where the crack tip was. In addition, there seems to have a few micro-
cracks at the intersection of the slip bands in grain 1 and the grain
boundary between grain 1 and 4. The crack path becomes much clear in
the SEM image taken at 95,000 cycles, i.e. at the end of the fatigue test,
as shown in Fig. 3(f). The crack length has reached about 130 μm in
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International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81
length and has passed four grains on the surface. More than half of the
crack path is perpendicular to the loading direction, either due to a
grain boundary that coincident with this direction or because the mode-
I SIF has become sufficiently large that the crack path is no longer
microstructure-sensitive. In addition, a through-thickness crack was
observed to have formed on the vertical wall of the notch.
The corresponding SWLI images showing the surface topography of
the sample are shown in Fig. 4. The slip bands formed just after the first
fatigue cycle were clearly visible in the SWLI image shown in Fig. 4(a).
The formation of more slip bands in multiple locations after 20,000
cycles similar to the ones observed in the SEM images are shown in
Fig. 4(b). The surface topography image acquired at 40,000 cycles, as
shown in Fig. 4(c), clearly shows the slip bands in grain 1 and 3.
However, the slip band in grain 2 where the crack initiated was not
clearly visible. This is because the edge of the notch was round off due
to polishing and the SWLI was not able to image this area because the
surface was at a large angle with the image plane. The surface topo-
graphy image acquired at 50,000 cycles (i.e. when crack initiation was
observed from the SEM image) was similar to that acquired at 40,000
cycles; however, the surface height of the areas farther from the notch,
as highlighted, has decreased; notice that the color has changed from
red in Fig. 4(c) to red-yellow in Fig. 4(d). This surface topography
changes, as discussed later, are indications of crack initiation. The
surface topography image acquired at 60,000 cycles, shown in Fig. 4(e),
matches closely with the SEM image shown in Fig. 3(e). Again, it is
difficult to identify the exact location of the crack tip and there appears
to be multiple micro-cracks along the grain boundary between grain 1
and 4. Similarly, the surface topography image acquired at 90,000
cycles, shown in Fig. 4(f), clearly shows the crack patch and matched
closely with the SEM image shown in Fig. 3(f).
4. Approach
4.1. Difference image calculation
Since we were interested in quantifying the surface topography
change between fatigue intervals, the images need to be registered to a
common coordinate system so that a difference image can be calculated
by subtracting any two registered images. The surface topography
image of the entire ROI acquired after applying the 1st cycle is shown in
Fig. 5(a). The plastic deformations near the notch are clearly visible in
blue and light green. The boundary of the plastic zone was determined
using the method described in [38]. To register the images, the method
similar to that explained in [38] was employed to find the common
features between a reference image and an image of interest. This re-
quires converting the surface topography image into a grayscale image
first by normalizing the height values between zero to one using linear
normalization. The grayscale image corresponding to Fig. 5(a) is shown
in Fig. 5(b). The area near the edge of the notch appears in the dark
because the edge of the notch was rounded off due to polishing, as
evidenced in the 3D view of the surface shown in Fig. 5(c). To evaluate
the effect of this edge rounding on the surface profiling, the surface
Table 1
SWLI and SEM imaging intervals (all units in cycle).
Fatigue cycle Imaging interval
SWLI SEM
0 1 1
1 1 1
1–1000 Every 200 None
1000–5000 Every 500 None
5000–20,000 Every 1000 At 20,000
20,000–40,000 Every 2000 At 40,000
40,000–60,000 Every 1000 Every 10,000
60,000–95,000 Every 500 Every 10,000
J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

Fig. 3. SEM images of the sample surface at different fatigue cycles; (a) after 1 cycle showing faint slip bands; (b) after 20,000 cycles showing five areas with
substantial slip band developments; (c) after 40,000 cycles showing a zoomed-in view of zone 3 and 4; (d) after 50,000 cycles showing the observation of a crack at
the notch wall; (e) after 60,000 cycles showing the bridging of the slip bands at the ends near the grain boundary; (f) after 95,000 cycles showing the crack path.

Fig. 4. Surface topography images of the sample near the notch after: (a) 1 cycle, (b) 20,000 cycles, (c) 40,000 cycles, (d) 50,000 cycles, (e) 60,000 cycles and (f)
95,000 cycles. The color represents the surface height. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)

topography image is overlaid with the SEM image and is shown in
Fig. 5(d). When using the 50× lens, the SWLI profilometer is capable of
measuring angles up to 26.7 degrees. As a result, the area right next to
the edge of the notch was not imaged because of the rounded edge that
resulted in a sharp angle between the surface and the imaging plane. In
addition, some pixels in the area just next to the unimaged area had
erroneous measurements. Therefore, these two areas are removed from
further analysis. The total width of these two areas was around 7 µm.
Because of this reason, the area near the edge of the notch, which we
observed to have a crack propagating into the material at 50,000 cycles,

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J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

Fig. 5. (a) Surface topography image acquired after the 1st cycle. The area shaded in blue shows the plastic zone; (b) grayscale image after 1st cycle showing the
selection of flat area for registration; (c) 3D surface topography image showing the rounded edge of the notch before applying the first cycle; (d) overlaid SWLI image
on SEM image showing un-imaged area due to the rounded edge; (e) registration features identified in the flat area; (f) different image between 0 and 1 cycles
showing out-of-plane deformation due to applied load. The inset highlights the monotonic plastic zone (shaded in blue). (For interpretation of the references to color
in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

was not imaged. On the other hand, the area around the triple point,
which is most likely to be the crack initiation site, was fully imaged.
The rounded edge also created some difficulties for image registration;
when the rounded area was included for image registration, the de-
tected registration points (i.e. the common features such as grain
boundaries between the reference and the image of interest) were
concentrated near the notch since the rounded edge has a large height
difference from the other areas. Having registration points con-
centrating in a small area led to large registration errors. To overcome
this problem, an area outside of the plastic zone with an almost flat
surface, as indicated by the rectangular box in Fig. 5(b), was chosen for
image registration. The registration points detected inside this flat area
between the surface topography images taken before and after applying
the 1st cycles are shown in Fig. 5(e). The transformation matrix that
accounts for the translation and rotation required for transforming the
second image to the coordinate of the first image was then calculated
from these registration points. By applying the transformation matrix to
the entire image, the registered image was produced. The surface to-
pography changes between the two images can then be calculated by
subtracting the registered images. The difference image between the
surface topography image before and after applying the first cycle
which represents the out-of-plane deformation due to the applied load
is shown in Fig. 5(f). By correcting the rounded edge and the inherent
initial surface roughness, the different image shows a more symmetric
surface topography change. The insert in Fig. 5(f) shows the zoom-in
view of the monotonic plastic zone, i.e. the plastic zone formed after
applying the first cycle. It manifested as a depression, i.e. an area that
has substantially negative height changes.
The surface topography images acquired after the first cycle and the
20,000 cycles are shown in Fig. 6(a) and 6(b). These two images look
almost identical except small changes in the height and formation of
slip bands near the notch, as shown in the zoomed-in images. The
difference image between these two images is shown in Fig. 6(c). It
represents the cyclic plastic zone, i.e. the change in depth between the
first cycle and the 20,000 cycles. The zoomed-in view of the cyclic
plastic zone indicated that the changes in the slip bands are mostly
concentrated around the triple point. The difference images at 30,000
cycles and at 40,000 cycles are shown in Fig. 6(d) and 6(e), respec-
tively. During these two fatigue intervals, the location of the depression
did not change much but its depth has increased, especially at the area
to the left of the triple point. At 50,000 cycles, however, the depression
appears to have moved to the left; the area near the triple point no
longer have the largest depth and the deepest location has moved at
about 50 μm to the left of the triple point, as shown in Fig. 6(f). The
location change of the depression coincided with the observation of the
crack initiation from the SEM image.
4.2. Surface roughness damage indices
To quantify the observed surface topography changes, the difference
images were divided into subsets so that local surface roughness para-
meters can be calculated. As we have discussed early, the surface to-
pography changes are contributed by both the slip bands and the out-of-
plane movements of the grains. In order to capture the out-of-plane
movements of the grains, the subset size should be sufficiently large. In
other words, the selection of the subset size is a trade-off between
spatial resolution and prediction reliability; a smaller subset size pro-
vides a finer spatial resolution but a larger subset size offers a more
reliable prediction. Since the grain size varied between 20 and 120 μm,
the subset size was chosen to be 50 × 50 pixels which covers an area of
18 × 18 μm. The difference image between the 1st and 200 cycles is
shown in Fig. 7(a) and the surface topography of a subset, capturing the

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J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

Fig. 6. (a) and (b) surface profile after the 1st cycle and 20,000 cycles; (c), (d), (e) and f) difference images between 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 cycles and the
1st cycle. These difference images represent plastic deformation development after the 1st cycle, i.e. the cyclic plastic deformation.

surface height variations across grain boundaries, is shown as the inset.
To construct the damage index map, the arithmetic average surface
roughness Sa, as well as the maximum height of the surface St, were
calculated for each subset. Since the ROI contained the notch that does
not have a surface, the pixels covering the notch did not have any depth
value. As a result, these pixels were manually removed from further
analysis. The Sa map calculated from the difference image shown in
Fig. 7(a), after removing the subsets containing the notch, is shown in
Fig. 7(b). As expected, the subsets near the notch have higher damage
indices; three regions, one at around between 10 and 11o’clock, one
near 8o’clock, and the other near 7o’clock appear as “hot-spots”, i.e.
localized areas with concentrated large damage indices. Among the
three hot-spots, the hot-spot at 8o’clock has the largest damage indices.
The evolution of the damage indices in these areas with the fatigue
cycles was tracked and analyzed for predicting the crack initiation site.
5. Results
5.1. Predicting the crack initiation site
The difference images between the 1st cycle and the 1,000, 10,000,
and 20,000 cycles, respectively, are shown in Fig. 8(a–c) and the cor-
responding Sa damage index maps are shown in Fig. 8(d–f). At 1000
cycles, the difference image and the corresponding damage index map
are similar to those at 200 cycles (see Fig. 8(a), 8(d) and Fig. 7), i.e. the
difference maps show a small depression formed to the left of the notch
and the damage index map shows three “hot spots”. At 10,000 and
20,000 cycles, the depression increased in size as well as in depth, as

Fig. 7. (a) Difference image between 1 and 200 cycles; the inset shows the surface topography of a 50 × 50 pixel subset (b) Sa damage map calculated by dividing a)
into subsets.

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J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

Fig. 8. Difference image between the first cycle and (a) 1000, (b) 10,000, and (c) 20,000 cycles and the corresponding Sa damage index maps after (d) 1000, (e)
10,000, and (f) 20,000 cycles.

shown in Fig. 8(b) and 8(c). However, the Sa damage index became In addition, the three subsets had similar damage indices for the first
more concentrated. At 10,000 cycles, the subsets having large damage few thousand cycles. After 5000 cycles, however, the crack initiation
indices were more concentrated around 8o’clock, as shown in Fig. 8(e). subset started to have a consistently larger damage index increase than
While a few subsets at around 7o’clock still have relatively large da- its two neighboring subsets, even though the damage index increase
mage indices, the area between 10 and 11o’clock can no longer be still has significant fluctuations. A 10-point moving average applied to
considered as a “hot spot”. At 20,000 cycles, one subset at 8o’clock has the damage indices shown in Fig. 10(b) smoothed out the curves sub-
a substantially higher damage index than the other subsets, as shown in stantially, as shown in Fig. 10(c); the crack initiation subset displayed
Fig. 8(f). In comparison, the other two locations had substantially less consistently larger damage increases and a higher increase rate than its
damage index values. At this point, we are confident to predict that the neighbors after 5000 cycles. Based on Fig. 10(c), we can confidently
crack initiated at the subset with the highest damage index. To validate predict the crack initiation site after 10,000 cycles, if not earlier.
this prediction, the damage index map was overlaid on the SEM image The averaged Sa damage index map, constructed from the 10-point
acquired at 20,000 cycles and is shown in Fig. 9. The subset having the moving average of the consecutive height difference images after 1000,
largest damage index coincided with the slip bands that have the largest 10,000 and 20,000 cycles are shown in Fig. 11(a–c). Comparing with
extrusion and intrusion, right next to the triple point. The two subsets the damage index map shown in Fig. 8(b), the averaged damage index
just above and below the subset having the largest damage index, map shown in Fig. 11(b) clearly shows that the crack initiation subset
marked as subset 1 and 2, also had relatively large damage indices. had the largest damage index. In other words, the crack initiation site
The variations of the Sa damage indices of the crack initiation subset can be predicted from the averaged Sa damage index map at 10,000
(i.e. the subset having the largest Sa at 20,000 cycles) and its two im-
mediate neighbors are compared in Fig. 10(a). While the crack initia-
tion subset has a consistently larger Sa than its neighbors shortly after
15,000 cycles, the differences are relatively small. Besides, the damage
indices for all three subsets fluctuated despite the overall increasing
trend; neighboring subset 1 had significant fluctuations with the da-
mage index exceeded that of the crack initiation subset at around
10,000 cycles. This fluctuation is due to the fact that the damage indices
were calculated from the difference image between a specific fatigue
cycle and the first cycle. As such, they only account for the accumula-
tive surface topography changes between these two cycles. On the other
hand, the fluctuation of the damage index indicated that some of the
surface topography changes are reversible (i.e. strain or height ratch-
eting). In order to account for the height ratcheting, the difference
images were calculated between consecutive fatigue intervals and the
resulting Sa damage indices for the three subsets are plotted in
Fig. 10(b). The Sa damage indices increase were relatively large for the
first few fatigue intervals, consistent with the observations that early
fatigue intervals generated relatively large plastic deformations. After
the initial increase, however, the damage indices increase reduced to a Fig. 9. Damage index map overlaid on the SEM image; both acquired after
lower level, indicating that the material hardens with the fatigue cycle. 20,000 cycles. The subset with the maximum damage index coincided with the
triple point area experiencing large slip band developments.

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J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

a 140 b 140 c 100

Crack Initiation subset Crack Initiation subset 90 Crack Initiation subset
120 Subset 1 120 Subset 1 Subset 1
Subset 2 Subset 2 80
100 100 Subset 2
70
60

Sa (nm)

Sa (nm)
Sa (nm)

80 80
50
60 60 40
40 40 30
20
20 20
10
0 0 0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 0 5000 10000 15000 20000
Fatigue cycle Fatigue cycle Fatigue cycle

Fig. 10. The evolution of the Sa damage index with increasing fatigue cycles for three subsets in the critical area; (a) Sa damage indices calculated using the image
after the first cycle as the reference; (b) Sa damage indices calculated using the image acquired at previous fatigue interval as the reference; (c) Sa damage indices
averaged over 10 fatigue intervals.

cycles, as compared to at 20,000 cycles based on the damage index map
calculated from the difference image using the image at first cycle as
the reference. A similar trend was observed for the compound St da-
mage index, as shown in Fig. 11(d–f). Since St is calculated from the
absolute difference between the maximum and minimum height, it is
more susceptible to the measurement or registration errors, as evi-
denced by the number of isolated pixels having relatively larger St than
their neighbors. Nevertheless, the crack initiation site can be still de-
tected just after 10,000 cycles.
5.2. Detecting crack initiation time
In addition to predicting the crack initiation site, tracking the var-
iation of the damage index with the fatigue cycle may also enable us to
determine the time at which the crack initiated; it is expected the da-
mage index will increase steadily before crack initiation and stabilize
after the crack initiation. To validate this hypothesis, five subsets were
selected for investigation: subset 1 corresponds to the crack initiation
subset, subset 2 is the subset immediately to the left of subset 1, and
subset 3–5 are three random subsets that were away from the crack
initiation site, as shown in Fig. 12(a). The Sa damage indices of these
five subsets are plotted versus the fatigue cycles in Fig. 12(b). For subset
1, the Sa damage index increased steadily up to 42,000 cycles and re-
mained steady afterwards. This behavior can be explained by ex-
amining the local stresses before and after crack initiation. Before crack
initiation, subset 1 was likely to have large local stresses since it was at
the crack initiation site. When the crack initiated, a crack tip was
generated at a location in front of subset 1. In other words, subset 1 is
now behind the crack tip and no longer has large stresses. Due to this
stress reduction/release, subset 1 experiences very little additional
plastic deformation after crack initiation. As a result, the damage index
of subset 1 stabilized after crack initiation. The stabilization of the
damage index implies that the crack might have initiated around
42,000 cycles, which is again consistent with the SEM observation. The
same trend was observed for subset 2 except that the damage indices
decreased slightly after the crack initiation. This decrease can be related
to the elastic energy release at crack initiation. After the decrease, the
damage indices increased until approximately 55,000 cycles when the
crack reached this subset, after which the damage index remained
constant. The damage indices of subsets 3–5, i.e. the subsets that are

Fig. 11. Moving averaged Sa damage index maps after (a) 1 cycle, (b) 10,000 cycles. and (c) 20,000 cycles; and moving averaged St damage index maps after (d) 1
cycle, (e)10,000 cycles, and (f) 20,000 cycles.

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J. Fathi Sola, et al. International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81

300.0
b Subset 1 Crack Initiation time
250.0 Subset 2
Subset 3
200.0 Subset 4
Subset 5

Sa (nm)
150.0

100.0

50.0

0.0
0 20000 40000 60000
Fatigue cycle

Fig. 12. (a) Location of subsets at which the variations of the damage indices were studied; (b) variation of Sa damage index versus fatigue cycles at different
locations.

away from the crack initiation site, increased steadily with the fatigue
cycle. However, their magnitudes were considerably lower than those
of subset 1 and 2, indicating the surface topography changes are small
at these subsets.
To correlate the damage index variations to the surface topography
changes, the change of the surface profile, along a vertical line passing
the crack initiation subset (see Fig. 13(a)), was investigated. The sur-
face profile changes were calculated with respect to the surface profile
after applying the first cycle. The surface profile contained some
“noise”, i.e. small height changes contributed by the slip lines or re-
gistration errors. To remove the “noise”, a Butterworth Low Pass Filter
(LPF) was applied and the filtered height changes at fatigue intervals of
5,000 cycles are shown in Fig. 13(b). The curve at 20,000 cycles clearly
shows a depression spanning from around 350 μm to 450 μm. The depth
of this depression increased with the fatigue cycling up to 40,000 cy-
cles. At 45,000 cycles, however, the depth of the depression rebounded,
becoming considerably less than the previous cycles. This surface re-
bound indicates that the crack may have initiated between 40,000 to
45,000 cycles and this is consistent with the SEM observation as well as
the prediction of the Sa damage index. The surface profile changes,
therefore, can provide a quantified index for detecting the time at
which the crack initiated.
6. Discussion
The image registration technique and the formulation of the surface
roughness damage index presented in this work are similar to those
described in [40], in which the damage index was used to predict the
future propagation path of a microstructure-sensitive crack. The readers
should refer to [40] for more detailed discussions on the selection of the
subset size, the temporal resolution of the SWLI imaging, the influence
of the registration errors, etc. Two modifications were made in the
present work and are worth discussing. In addition, a few interesting
observations pertinent to crack initiation are also worth discussing.
Registration error: In this study, due to the rounded edge of the
notch, the area farther from the notch, i.e. the elastic region outside of
the plastic zone, was chosen for image registration, which could in-
troduce some registration errors due to the in-plane plastic deforma-
tions. However, it expected that the plastic deformations are pre-
dominately along the out-of-plane direction and the in-plane plastic
deformations are relatively small. Moreover, it was observed that the
majority of the plastic deformation occurred at the first cycle, and the
plastic deformation was much smaller in subsequent cycles. Using the
image acquired after the first cycle as the reference, registration using
the elastic region may not introduce significant registration errors to
the plastic region. To assess the amount of registration errors, ten
characteristic geometric features, such as the corners of the grain
boundaries, in the areas close to the notch were identified manually and
the errors of their respective registered locations were calculated to be
1.3 pixels in average. This value is comparable to the registration error
reported in [40]. In other words, using the elastic region for image
registration did not seem to introduce additional registration errors.
Calculation of compound damage index: A modification is made to
how the fluctuation of the damage index due to strain ratcheting is
accounted for; [40] introduced a compound damage index based on a
weight averaging formula while the present work smoothens the da-
mage index curve using a 10-point moving average. The moving
average was introduced based on the variation of the damage index
shown in Fig. 10; it is simpler to calculate and more straightforward to
explain.
Crack initiation from the sample surface versus from the bore of the
notch: crack initiation in a polycrystalline sample depends on two

500.0
b
0.0
Height (nm)

-500.0

20,000 cycles
-1,000.0
26,000 cycles
30,000 cycles
-1,500.0 36,000 cycles
40,000 cycles
45,000 cycles
-2,000.0
300.0 350.0 400.0 450.0 500.0 550.0
Y (μm)

Fig. 13. (a) Location of the vertical line along which the surface profile changes were investigated; the vertical line is parallel to the loading direction; (b) surface
profile change at different fatigue cycles along the defined line.

79
J. Fathi Sola, et al.
factors, namely the stress state and the weakest grain. For thin samples,
the stress state on the surface is plane stress while the state of stress in
the bore is plane strain. Generally, plane stress is more critical for crack
initiation [42]. Previous studies have shown that, when dominated by
the plane stress condition, cracks primarily initiated from the edge of
the notch [43,44] because the grains on the edge of the notch are less
constrained and deform easier [45]. This is the reason that most crack
initiation studies were focused on the surface of thin samples
[13,22,24,25,32,36,37,46,47]. Another consideration is that crack in-
itiation starts from the grains that are favorably oriented for plastic
deformation. When the thickness increases and more grains exist in the
bore of the notch, the possibility that the weakest grain (i.e. the fa-
vorably oriented grain) exists in the bore increases. In this case, the
crack may initiate in the bore of the notch instead of the surface. It
would be difficult to measure the surface topography of the bore surface
using an SWLI. However, the surface will develop roughness as soon as
the crack-tip plastic zone reaches the surface. Therefore, it is still pos-
sible to predict at which location the crack will break the surface based
on the surface roughness damage index of the surface.
Applying the surface roughness damage index for studying other
crack initiation mechanisms: This study focused on the crack initiation
behavior of a pristine sample in a benign environment. In this case, the
surface topography change is a result of the out-of-plane plastic de-
formation due to the microstructure heterogeneity in a polycrystalline
sample. Since the damage indices defined in this study are calculated
directly from the surface topography changes, they provide a quanti-
tative characterization of plastic deformation that is the precursor for
crack initiation. This technique is applicable for the study of other crack
initiation mechanisms as long as the material experiences plastic de-
formation before crack initiation. For example, corrosive environments
will generally make the material more susceptible to plastic deforma-
tion [48,49]. Similar to crack initiation in the air, crack usually forms in
the surface in corrosive environments [50]. Therefore, the present
technique could potentially be used to study crack initiation under
different corrosive environments.
7. Conclusion
The surface topography changes of a pure nickel sample with a
center notch were investigated under fatigue loading and quantitatively
analyzed to predict the crack initiation site as well as to determine the
crack initiation time. We observed that
1) Plastic deformation led to the formation of a depression near the
ends of the notch after applying the first cycle. The depression
deepened with fatigue cycling and moved forward after crack in-
itiation;
2) Slip bands were formed at multiple locations near the ends of the
notch after applying the first cycle. The slip bands increased in
height as the fatigue cycle increases. One of these slip band systems
eventually led to crack initiation between 40,000 and 50,000 cycles,
as confirmed by SEM imaging.
Based on these observations, the surface roughness parameters were
introduced as the fatigue damage index and evaluated for crack in-
itiation site prediction. The surface roughness parameters were calcu-
lated from the surface topography changes between a particular fatigue
cycle and a reference image. Two different types of reference images,
i.e. the surface topography images acquired after the first cycle and the
one acquired at the previous fatigue interval, were studied. When using
the surface topography image acquired after the first cycle as the re-
ference image, the crack initiation site was predicted at 20,000 cycles.
When the damage index was calculated from the surface topography
changes between consecutive fatigue intervals and smoothened using a
10-point averaging, it predicted the crack initiation site at 10,000 cy-
cles. In addition, the damage index at the crack initiation site increased
80
International Journal of Fatigue 124 (2019) 70–81
steadily with fatigue cycling before the crack initiation but remained
steady after the crack initiation. Therefore, the crack initiation time can
be determined based on the saturation of the damage index. The crack
initiation time can also be determined by tracking the depth of the
depression near the crack initiation site; it increased steadily before
crack initiation and rebounded after the crack has initiated. This study
established the surface roughness parameter as a reliable damage index
for crack initiation site prediction as well as for crack initiation detec-
tion. Since this study is purely empirical, the presented technique could
be combined with EBSD, X-ray tomography, 3D DIC strain measure-
ment techniques and crystal plasticity simulation in the future to gain a
mechanistic understanding of crack initiation mechanisms.
Acknowledgments
This work has been funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific
Research (AFOSR) grant FA9550-14-1-0319.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2019.02.027.
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