In structure life prediction analysis the occurrence of crack defects are of paramount importance to be considered. Basic studies using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics approach shows that the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) parameter controls Fatigue crack growth (FCG). However, overloads may induce material memory effects that delay, arrest or accelerate the FCG rate, a behavior that is not described by considering a single elastic parameter. To account for service variable amplitude loadings, the use of a prescribed stress-strain distribution has been proposed in recent research studies, as the driving force of FCG, using the critical damage approach. Due to the assumptions considered in the analytical derivations, important equilibrium and compatibility conditions are violated in the obtained solutions, since an idealized singular stress-strain field at the crack front region is used. In this work a comprehensive review of the recently published analytical results for solutions under the elastic and elastoplastic material behavior regimens are presented: Williams and HRR with singular stress distribution field and Creager-Paris with a non singular stress field, but with the material elastic approach. These solutions are compared, throughout the study, to results obtained from the numerical analysis using a 3D finite element discretization with elastoplastic von Mises yielding criteria employed for the modeling of the crack tip blunt and some comprehensive conclusions are derived regarding application limits of the theoretical models as well as the required extent of the numerical model representation. In addition to monotonic increasing applied loads, unloading conditions were also considered in the numerical analysis, although no reference to this condition is available in the literature, considering the analytical approach. For the numerical simulations presented elastoplastic algorithms were implemented in a plugin based framework.