Theoretical Analysis of Crack Propagation Measurement for Brittle Materials Based on Virtual Principal Strain Field

The measurement of crack propagation is crucial for revealing the fracture mechanical properties of materials and structures.Based on the virtual principal strain field and Steger’s algorithm,an accurate and automatic method has been proposed for measuring the geometric parameters of crack propagation.The measured geometric parameters of crack propagation include the width,length,and tip location of each crack.The mechanism of the crack-induced virtual principal strain field and the effects of subset,step,and strain window size are analyzed and discussed theoretically.The effectiveness of the derived theoretical equations is verified by the simulation experiments.According to the theoretical equations,it is determined that the distribution of the virtual principal strain field near the crack is similar to the grayscale distribution of the laser fringe image with optimized calculation parameters.Experiments are further conducted to validate the effectiveness of the derived equations.With the optimized calculation parameters,the minimum crack that can be measured is approximately 0.0362 pixel in the laboratory environment,while the measurement error of the crack width is less than 0.025 pixel for two-dimensional digital image correlation(DIC)and 0.020 pixel for three-dimensional DIC.

Present three-dimensional crustal deformation in Hainan Island

Hainan Island,located at the southeast edge of the Eurasian Plate,is affected by the motion of multiple plates,with its northeast edge mainly dilatating and its western margin presently compressing. By analyzing the GPS rates during 1999- 2007 in Hainan and its adjacent region,we determined horizontal movement rates of 3. 0-21. 1 mm /a at the west of 104°E,evidently affected by the Indian Plate extrusion.Their directions are SE-SN-SW from east to west and are separated by the main fault. The principal strains have the same characteristics. The stations east of 104°E move mainly in the SEE direction. The eastward rates are 2. 1-8. 5 mm /a and northward rates are 0. 4- 2. 7 mm /a. The GPS rates during 2009- 2013 show that stations at the edge of the island move SEE relative to the Eurasian Plate,with rates relative to the mean benchmark,indicating that there are small relative movements between stations,whereas QION station,located in the middle,moves in the NW direction at a greater rate. Vertical differential movement is apparent in the northeast zone of the island. Upwelling of mantle plume material possibly influences the local stress.Three-dimensional GPS rates indicate that,at present,inherited crustal movement is dominant in Hainan.

Numerical Simulation on Interfacial Creep Failure of Dissimilar Metal Welded Joint between HR3C and T91 Heat-Resistant Steel

The maximum principal stress, von Mises equivalent stress, equivalent creep strain, stress triaxiality in dissimilar metal welded joints between austenitic（HR3C） and martensitic heat-resistant steel（T91） are simulated by FEM at 873 K and under inner pressure of 42.26 MPa. The results show that the maximum principal stress and von Mises equivalent stress are quite high in the vicinity of weld/T91 interface, creep cavities are easy to form and expand in the weld/T91 interface. There are two peaks of equivalent creep strains in welded joint, and the maximum equivalent creep strain is in the place 27-32 mm away from the weld/T91 interface, and there exists creep constrain region in the vicinity of weld/T91 interface. The high stress triaxiality peak is located exactly at the weld/T91 interface. Accordingly, the weld/T91 interface is the weakest site of welded joint. Therefore, using stress triaxiality to describe creep cavity nucleation and expansion and crack development is reasonable for the dissimilar metal welded joint between austenitic and martensitic steel.