pripagation

G'day all

Having a metal element with a notch like crack (assume sharp one, exhibits plasticity),  what are the actual fracture mechanism (the phases the crack goes through) in the total fatigue-life. 

please comment on these scenarios:

1- crack initiation life calculated from the (S-N, e-N), then using LEFM/EPFM to determine the cycles for the crack propagation to failure...

Q/ how to find the crack length between the two phases, I mean from which stresses and at which crack length we start the crack propagation life estimation.