An elastic-plastic finite element analysis is performed to investigate detailed closure behaviour of fatigue cracks in residual stress fields and the numerical results are compared with experimental results. The finite element analysis performed under plane stress using contact elements can predict fatigue crack closure behaviour. The mesh of constant element size along crack surface can not predict the opening level of fatigue crack. Specially, the mesh of element sizes depending upon the reversed plastic zone size included the effect of crack opening point can precisely predict the opening level. By using the concept of the mesh of element sizes depending upon the reversed plastic zone size included the effect of crack opening point, the opening level of fatigue crack can be determined very well.