The elastic-plastic finite element (FE) method has been used successfully to study fatigue crack closure for more than twenty-five years. This paper provides a historical and critical review of the literature. Lessons learned about optimum construction of the numerical model are summarized, including considerations of element type, mesh size, crack growth increment, crack advance scheme, and constitutive relationship. Applications problems that have been addressed with the FE method are surveyed, including a wide range of load and load history effects, geometry effects, and special problems. Attention is given to interactions between advanced numerical analysis and experimental measurements or simpler analytical models. Prospects for future research are highlighted.
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