CRITICAL NOTCH(CRACK)SIZE AS A CHARACTERISTIC PARAMETER EVALUATING CRYOGENIC BRITTLENESS IN LOW CARBON STEEL

The effect of notch depth on the cryogenic fracture behavior has been studied using a low car- bon steel.An analysis was made for the fracture features at T_c~*(cryogenic brittleness-char- acteristic temperature)at which the facture load reaehes a valley value.Furthermore,accord- ing to the experimental results and engineering design practice,a concept of critical notch (crack)'size for cryogenic brittleness,a_c,as well as its limit value a_c~*,was put forward and recommended to be a basic characteristic parameter for controlling the brittleness. Mathematical derivation was carried out to give the expression of a_c and a_c~*,the reliability of which was verified by the modeling tests under both static and cyclic loading conditions.

In-situ quantitative monitoring of fatigue crack using fastest time of flight diffraction method

Due to the cyclic loading and longtime exposure under extreme environment conditions, fatigue cracks often generate in the aircraft metal structures, i.e. wing skin, fuselage skin, strigners, pylons. These cracks could cause severe damages to the aircraft structures. Thus the position and size monitoring of fatigue cracks in the metal structures is very important to manufacturers as well as maintenance personnel for significantly improving the safety and reliability of aircraft. Much progress has been made for crack position monitoring in the past few years. However, the crack size monitoring is still very challenging. Fastest time of flight diffraction （FTOFD） method was developed to monitor both the position and size of a crack. FTOFD method uses an integrated sensor network to activate and receive ultrasonic waves in a structure. Diffraction waves will be generated when the ultrasonic waves pass a crack. These diffraction waves are received and analyzed to get the position and size of the crack. The experiment results show that the monitored size of the simulated crack is very close to the real size of the crack, and for frequencies of 350 and 400 kHz, the monitoring errors are both smaller than 5%.

Analytical study of subcritical crack growth under mode I loading to estimate the roof durability in underground excavation

The long-term stability of the roof is particularly important in designing underground rock structures.To estimate the durability of roof strata in underground excavation,a computation scheme of subcritical crack growth is proposed in this study.By adopting the proposed method,the potential collapse location of strata is derivable in accordance with a static model,the durability of roof strata can be estimated,a dynamic time step control strategy is achieved to balance the accuracy and speed of computing,and the initial crack size of rock can be estimated.In addition to the above,a mechanical model of underground excavation with non-uniformly distributed loads and partially yielded foundation is presented as the prototypical case.A set of case studies is carried out that showcase a power correlation between applied stress and roof durability.The allowable applied tensile stress for a 100-year life cycle is about 76%of the tensile strength.By using the proposed subcritical crack growth computation scheme,the roof stability in an underground excavation can be identified not only from the spatial view but also from the temporal perspective.

Two-Phase Fatigue Life Prediction of Small-Scale Welded Specimens Based on the Experimental Results

The study aims to calibrate parameters of two-phase fatigue prediction model based on the results of the small-scale fatiguetest experiments for zero stress ratio and without residual stresses, and then to investigate their applicability for differentstress ratios and in the presence of residual stresses. Total fatigue life using the two-phase model consists of crack initiationphase, calculated by strain-life approach, and crack propagation phase, calculated by fracture mechanic’s approach. Calibrationof the fatigue parameters is performed for each phase by fitting numerical to the experimental results. Comparative analysisof calculated and measured fatigue lives is then conducted for different stress ratios, in both stress-relieved and as-weldedconditions. Given that calculation parameters are calibrated for the basic case, uncertainty of predictions is large, showingthat application of the method for real-life complex marine structures is challenging.

A Lamb wave quantification model for inclined cracks with experimental validation

This paper investigates the influence of crack orientation on damage quantification using Lamb wave in plate structures. Finite element simulation is performed to acquire Lamb wave signal responses for different configurations of crack orientations and crack lengths. Two Lamb wave features, namely the normalized amplitude and the phase change, are used as damage sensitive features to develop a crack size quantification model. A hypothesis based on the geometrical influence on signal features is proposed, and the crack size quantification model incorporating the orientation angle is established using the hypothesis. An index of Probability of Reliable Quantification(PRQ) is proposed to evaluate the performance of the model. The index can be used to determine the sizing risk in terms of probabilities. A realistic aluminum plate is used to obtain the experimental data using piezoelectric(PZT) wafer-type sensors around a center through crack. The experimental data are used to validate the overall method. Results indicate that the proposed model can yield reliable results for size quantification of inclined cracks.

A simpliied fatigue assessment method for transverse illet welded joints

Under the as-welded condition the fatigue crack initiation period was considered nonexistent and Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics（LEFM） was used to calculate fatigue strength for a range of weld geometries. Fracture mechanics assessment of welded joints requires accurate solutions for stress intensity factor（SIF）. However, the solutions for the SIF of complex welded joints are dificult to determine due to the complicated correction factors. Three methods for SIF prediction are discussed on illet welded specimens containing continuous or semi-elliptical surface cracks, including the traditional correction method Mk, the approximate correction method Kt, and the suggested additional crack size method（ac＋ae）.The new additional crack parameter ae is used to replace the stress concentration effect of weld proile Mk, which simpliies the calculation process. Experimental results are collected to support fatigue strength assessment of the additional crack size method.