This investigation, carried out under the "Engineering Faculty Internships" program, will be a joint project involving the faculty member as PI and a co-investigator from industry. The research objective is to determine the influence of initial materials quality (e.g., initial size and spatial distribution of inherent material inhomogeneities) on the fatigue like of structural components. The manner in which "small" fatigue cracks initiate from materials inhomogeneities, extend by cyclic loading, interact with adjacent flaws, and coalesce into a single dominant crack which control final fracture will be examined.
