An elastic-plastic finite element analysis is performed to simulate closure behavior of fatigue cracks in center cracked tension(CCT) specimen. Attention is given to the effects of crack-tip node release scheme, initial crack length, and maximum stress. Furthermore, the effect of mesh size is discussed. The scheme of node release at minimum load provides more consistent results and is economic for computation than that of node release at maximum load. Initial crack length does not affect stable crack opening stress levels. The size of mesh in fine mesh region is very important in simulating fatigue crack closure behavior. Crack opening stress increases with mesh refinement. Employment of element of constant size hardly explains the experimental closure behavior for the whole range of crack growth. A method is proposed to determine the mesh configuration relevant to precise simulation of the observed crack closure behavior. Moreover, finite element analysis is performed to simulate crack closure behavior in a residual stress field.
