Abstract
Previous studies has shown that the curve of low-cycle fatigue life was not expressed with the single line subjected to Manson-Coffin's law type and bent to short life in low ${\Delta}{\varepsilon}_p$ region. The main cause of this phenomenon has been considered that the localization of plastic strain in the crack initiation process fosters the crack initiation. In this study, the low-cycle fatigue life was investigated for each specimens omitted crack initiation process and it was found that fatigue life curve in log(${\Delta}{\varepsilon}_p$)-log($N_f$)was bent in low ${\Delta}{\varepsilon}_p$ region as ever. Therefore, the main cause of appearance of knee point in fatigue life curve is not found in the crack initiation process but in the crack propagation process. In the crack propagation process, the localization of the plastic strain in the vicinity of crack tip and the influence of test environment on the crack propagation rate were observed and these inclinations were more remarkable in low ${\Delta}{\varepsilon}_p$ region. Hence, it was concluded that these two phenomena in the crack propagation process were proved to the main cause which accelerates the crack propagation in low ${\Delta}{\varepsilon}_p$ region and bent the fatigue life curve in result.