Experimental study on mechanical properties of dowel bar embedded in concrete under fatigue loads

To investigate the mechanical properties of a dowel action under fatigue loads, nine reinforced concrete specimens were fabricated, and the monotonic and fatigue loadings were performed on these specimens, respectively. All of these specimens were divided into two series. Six specimens in SeriesⅠwith different bar diameters of 12, 20 and 25 mm were subjected to monotonic loads and were used to confirm the ultimate bearing capacity. The remaining three specimens in Series Ⅱ were subjected to fatigue loads and were designed to investigate the attenuation character of dowel action and the fatigue failure modes. The test results show that the accumulated fatigue damage due to fatigue loads can reduce the ultimate bearing capacity of specimens. With the increase in fatigue loads, the failure mode can transform to fatigue rupture of the dowel bar under the serviceability loading state,i. e. 55% of the monotonic capacity. The fatigue life is determined by the fatigue properties of steel and concrete.Based on the test data, the failure process of dowel action can be divided into two stages： the accumulation of fatigue damage and the fatigue rupture of dowel bar.

Fatigue Life Prediction under Service Load Considering Strengthening Effect of Loads below Fatigue Limit

Lightweight design requires an accurate life prediction for structures and components under service loading histories. However, predicted life with the existing methods seems too conservative in some cases, leading to a heavy structure. Because these methods are established on the basis that load cycles would only cause fatigue damage, ignore the strengthening effect of loads. Based on Palmgren-Miner Rule （PMR）, this paper introduces a new method for fatigue life prediction under service loadings by taking into account the strengthening effect of loads below the fatigue limit. In this method, the service loadings are classified into three categories： damaging load, strengthening load and none-effect load, and the process for fatigue life prediction is divided into two stages： stage I and stage II, according to the best strengthening number of cycles. During stage I, fatigue damage is calculated considering both the strengthening and damaging effect of load cycles. While during stage II, only the damaging effect is considered. To validate this method, fatigue lives of automobile half shaft and torsion beam rear axle are calculated based on the new method and traditional methods, such as PMR and Modified Miner Rule （MMR）, and fatigue tests of the two components are conducted under service loading histories. The tests results show that the percentage errors of the predicted life with the new method to mean life of tests for the two components are –3.78% and –1.76% separately, much lesser than that with PMR and MMR. By considering the strengthening effect of loads below the fatigue limit, the new method can significantly improve the accuracy for fatigue life prediction. Thus lightweight design can be fully realized in the design stage.

Experimental investigations on mechanical performance of rocks under fatigue loads and biaxial confinements

In this research,a series of biaxial compression and biaxial fatigue tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical behaviors of marble and sandstone under biaxial confinements.Experimental results demonstrate that the biaxial compressive strength of rocks under biaxial compression increases firstly,and subsequently decreases with increase of the intermediate principal stress.The fatigue failure characteristics of the rocks in biaxial fatigue tests are functions of the peak value of fatigue loads,the intermediate principal stress and the rock lithology.With the increase of the peak values of fatigue loads,the fatigue lives of rocks decrease.The intermediate principal stress strengthens the resistance ability of rocks to fatigue loads except considering the strength increasing under biaxial confinements.The fatigue lives of rocks increase with the increase of the intermediate principal stress under the same ratio of the fatigue load and their biaxial compressive strength.The acoustic emission(AE)and fragments studies showed that the sandstone has higher ability to resist the fatigue loads compared to the marble,and the marble generated a greater number of smaller fragments after fatigue failure compared to the sandstone.So,it can be inferred that the rock breaking efficiency and rock burst is higher or severer induced by fatigue loading than that induced by monotonous quasi-static loading,especially for hard rocks.

Development of multi-physics numerical simulation model to investigate thermo-mechanical fatigue crack propagation in an autofrettaged gun barrel

In this research,a detailed multi-physics study has been carried out by numerically simulating a solid fractured gun barrel for 20 thermo-mechanical cycles.The numerical model is based on thermal effects,mechanical stress fields and fatigue crack mechanics.Elastic-plastic material data of modified AISI 4340 at temperatures ranging from 25 to 1200℃and at strain rates of 4,16,32 and 48 s^(-1) was acquired from high-temperature compression tests.This was used as material property data in the simulation model.The boundary conditions applied are kept similar to the working gun barrel during continuous firing.A methodology has been provided to define thermo-mechanically active surface-to-surface type interface between the crack faces for a better approximation of stresses at the crack tip.Comparison of results from non-autofrettaged and autofrettaged simulation models provide useful information about the evolution of strains and stresses in the barrel at different points under combined thermo-mechanical loading cycles in both cases.The effect of thermal fatigue under already induced compressive yield due to autofrettage and the progressive degradation of the accumulated stresses due to thermo-mechanical cyclic loads on the internal surface of the gun barrel(mimicking the continuous firing scenario)has been analyzed.Comparison between energy release rate at tips of varying crack lengths due to cyclic thermo-mechanical loading in the non-autofrettaged and autofrettaged gun has been carried out.

Bearing characteristics and fatigue damage mechanism of multi-pillar system subjected to different cyclic loads

Aiming to investigate the fatigue damage mechanism and bearing characteristics of multi-pillar system under cyclic loading,a series of axial cyclic loading tests with different cyclic amplitudes were carried out on triple-pillar marble specimens.The acoustic emission(AE)and digital image correlation(DIC)were jointly applied to monitoring and recording damage evolution and failure behavior of each pillar,which reproduced the cataclysmic instability process of underground pillar groups.Experimental results indicated that the cyclic amplitude exceeding the threshold of damage initiation weakened the resistance to deformation,resulting in obvious release of dissipated energy and the reduction of bearing capacity.Conversely,after low-amplitude cyclic loading,both the pre-peak bearing capacity and the post-peak ductility of the pillar system increased due to the compaction of initial defects,indicating that the peak bearing capacity was closely related to the extent of pre-peak fatigue damage.The axial strain of each pillar was measured by DIC virtual extensometer to present the damage extent during cyclic loading phase.Meanwhile,fracture evolution of typical load drop points was also characterized by transverse strain fields(εxx),and observations showed that the damage extent of key pillar undergoing high-amplitude cyclic loads was more serious and violent,accompanied by the ejection of rock debris and loud noises.

Numerical simulation of thermo-mechanical fatigue properties for particulate reinforced composites

In this paper, a two dimensional Voronoi cell element, formulated with creep, thermal and plastic strain, is applied for the numerical simulation of thermo-mechanical fatigue behavior for particulate reinforced composites. The relation between mechanical fatigue phases and thermal fatigue phases influences the thermo-mechanical fatigue behavior and cyclic creep damage. The topological features of micro-structure in particulate reinforced composites, such as the orientation, depth-width ratio, distribution and volume fraction of inclusions, have a great influence on thermo-mechanical behavior. Some related conclusions are obtained by examples of numerical simulation.

Numerical simulation of fatigue crack propagation in heterogeneous geomaterials under varied loads using displacement discontinuity method

Heterogeneous brittle geomaterials are highly susceptible to cyclic loads.They contain inherent flaws and cracks that grow under fatigue loads and lead to failure.This study presents a numerical model for analyzing fatigue in these materials based on the two-dimensional(2D)boundary element method and linear elastic fracture mechanics.The process is formulated by coupling the displacement discontinuity method with the incorporation technique of dissimilar regions and the governing equations of fatigue.The heterogeneous media are assumed to consist of materials with different properties,and the interfaces are assumed to be completely bonded.In addition,the domains include multiple cracks exposed to constant and variable amplitude cyclic loads.The stress intensity factor is a crucial parameter in fatigue analysis,which is determined using the displacement field around crack tips.An incremental crack growth scheme is applied to calculating the fatigue life.The growth rate values are employed to estimate the length of crack extension when there are multiple cracks.The interaction between cracks is considered,which also includes the coalescence phenomenon.Finally,various structures under different cyclic loads are examined to evaluate the accuracy of this method.The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach in modeling fatigue crack growth and life estimation.The behavior of life curves for the heterogeneous domain was as expected.These curves illustrate the breakpoints caused by utilizing discrete incremental life equations.At these points,the trend of the curves changed with the material properties and fatigue characteristics of the new material around the crack tips.

Review on structural fatigue of NiTi shape memory alloys:Pure mechanical and thermo-mechanical ones

Structural fatigue of NiTi shape memory alloys is a key issue that should be solved in order to promote their engineering applications and utilize their unique shape memory effect and super-elasticity more sufficiently. In this paper, the latest progresses made in experimental and theoretical analyses for the structural fatigue features of NiTi shape memory alloys are reviewed. First, macroscopic experimental observations to the pure mechanical and thermo-mechanical fatigue features of the alloys are summarized; then the state-of-arts in the mechanism analysis of fatigue rupture are addressed; further, advances in the construction of fatigue failure models are provided; finally, summary and future topics are outlined.

Experimental Study on Fatigue Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams in Corrosive Environment with Cyclic Loads

In marine environments,reinforced concrete bridge structures are sub-jected to cyclic loads and chloride ingress,which results in corrosion of the rein-forcing bars,early deterioration,durability loss,and a considerable reduction in the fatigue strength.Owing to the complexity of the problem and the difficulty of testing,there are few studies on the fatigue performance of concrete structures under the combined action of corrosion environment and cyclic load.Therefore,a coupling test device for corrosion and cyclic load is designed and fatigue tests of reinforced concrete beams in air environments and chlorine salt corrosive envir-onments are carried out.The fatigue corrosion process,damage mode,and corro-sion features of the test beams as well as chloride ion content in concrete are analyzed.The relationships of deflection,crack,and number of cycles in the dif-ferent environments are given.Results show that the fatigue life of the beam is.greatly reduced under coupled effects of the cyclic load and corrosive environ-ment,the failure fom of the beam is corrosion fatigue damage.The deflection and crack keeps growing with the increase in loading cycles.Under the coupling of cyclic load and corrosion env ironment,the content of chloride ion in concrete is low and there is less variety along the direction of penetration.

Cyclic deformation behaviors of Ti-46Al-2Cr-2Nb-0.15B alloy during thermo-mechanical fatigue tests

Thermo-mechanical fatigue tests were carried out on the gamma-TiAl alloy in the temperature range of 500-800℃ under mechanical strain control m order to evaluate its cyclic deformation behaviors at elevated temperature. Cyclic deformation curves, stress-strain hysteresis loops under different temperature--strain cycles were analyzed and dislocation configurations were also observed by TEM. The mechanisms of cyclic hardening or softening during thermo-mechanical fatigue （TMF） tests were also discussed. Results showed that thermo-mechanical fatigue lives largely depended on the applied mechanical strain amplitudes, applied types of strain and temperature. On the hysteresis loops appeared two apparent asymmetries： one was zero asymmetry and the other was tensile and compressive asymmetry. Dislocations configuration and slip behaviors were contributed to cyclic hardening or cyclic softening.

Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Aircraft Turbine Disc under Random Loads

Due to bad working conditions and complicated structure,kinds of complicated cycle loads work on turbine disc, and it's difficult to determine the stress distribution of their equivalent load.Based on the traditional stress-strength interference model and conditional reliability,the reliability models of turbine disc without the stress distribution are established in this paper. In the range of fatigue limit, by improving fatigue life curve, the relationship between turbine disc's life probability distribution and material GH4133B's is got,and so is the relationship between life and stress.Then,on the basis of test data of smooth material test-piece from references,the fatigue life probability distribution of material testpiece is found out,and then the fatigue life probability distribution of turbine disc is confirmed. The fatigue life probability distribution of turbine disc is taken into reliability model and the reliability of turbine is analyzed disc under random loads. And this analysis result confirms the variation trend of engine's reliability.

CHARACTERIZATION OF THERMO-MECHANICAL FATIGUE PROPERTIES FOR PARTICULATE REINFORCED COMPOSITES

A Voronoi cell dement, formulated with creep, thermal and plastic strain was applied for investigation of thermo-mechanical fatigue behavior for particulate reinforced composites. Under the in-phase fatigue loading, the maximum of tensile deformation at the maximum given loading are larger than that at the same maximum under the out-phase fatigue. The stiffness decreases nonlinearly with the increasing of the phase angle, which results in increasing of the area of fatigue loop curve and the decrease in fatigue life. The spatially centralizing of inclusions results in decreasing of the plastic strain amplitude and the area of fatigue loop curve, which will also reduce the consumption of single-circle plastic strain energy and prolong the fatigue life.

The Effects of Fatigue Cracks on Fastener Loads during Cyclic Loading and on the Stresses Used for Crack Growth Analysis in Classical Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics Approaches

High strength threaded fasteners are widely used in the aircraft industry, and service experience shows that for structures where shear loading of the joints is significant, like skin splices, fuselage joints or spar caps-web attachments, more cracks are initiated and grow from the edges of the fastener holes than from features like fillets radii and corners or from large access holes. The main causes of this cracking are the stress concentrations introduced by the fastener holes and by the threaded fasteners themselves, with the most common damage site being at the edge of the fastener holes. Intuitively, it is easy to visualize that after the crack initiation, during the growth stages, some of the load transferred initially by the fastener at the cracked hole will decrease, and it will be shed to the adjacent fasteners that will carry higher loads than in uncracked condition. Using currently available computer software, the method presented in this paper provides a relatively quick and quantitatively defined solution to account for the effects of crack length on the fastener loads transfer, and on the far field and bypass loads at each fastener adjacent to the crack. At each location, these variations are determined from the 3-dimensional distribution of stresses in the joint, and accounting for secondary bending effects and fastener tilt. Two cases of a typical skins lap splice with eight fasteners in a two rows configuration loaded in tension are presented and discussed, one representative for wing or fuselage skins configurations, and the second case representative for cost effective laboratory testing. Each case presents five cracking scenarios, with the cracks growing from approx. 0.03 inch to either the free edge, next hole or both simultaneously.

Fatigue Life of Slewing Bearings under Combined Radial,Axial and Tilting Moment Loads

A calculation method of fatigue life for slewing bearings under combined radial, axial and tilting moment loads was proposed. Single row four-point contact ball slewing bearing being used as a case, the statics model of the slewing bearing was established and a set of equilibrium equations were obtained. By solving the equilibrium equatioas, the rolling element loads were obtained and the equivalent rolling element loads were calculated further. By using the geometrical parameters of the bearing, the rating rolling element loads were calculated, and the fa- tigue life of the bearing was calculated by using the rating rolling element loads and the equivalent rolling element loads. A calculation example shows the feasibility of the proposed method.

GIGACYCLE FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF CAST ALUMINUM IN TENSION AND TORSION LOADING

An improved understanding of fatigue behavior of a cast aluminum alloy（2-AS5U3G-Y35）in very high cycle regime is developed through the ultrasonic fatigue test in axial and torsion loading.The new developed torsion fatigue system is presented.The effects of loading condition and frequency on the very high cycle fatigue（VHCF）are investigated.The cyclic loading in axial and torsion at 35 Hz and 20 kHz with stress ratio R=-1 is used respectively to demonstrate the effect of loading condition.S-N curves show that the fatigue failure occurs in the range of 105—1010 cycles in axial or torsion loading and the asymptote of S-N curve is inclined,but no fatigue limit exists under the torsion and axial loading condition.The fatigue fracture surface shows that the fatigue crack initiates from the specimen surface subjected to the cyclic torsion loading.It is different from the fatigue fracture characteristic in axial loading in which fatigue crack initiates from subsurface defect in very high cycle regime.The fatigue initiation is on the maximum shear plane,the overall crack orientation is on a typical spiral 45° to the fracture plane and it is the maximum principle stress plane.The clear shear strip in the torsion fatigue fracture surface shows that the torsion fracture is the shear fracture.

The Transport Properties of Concrete under the Simultaneous Coupling of Fatigue Load and Environment Factors

A set of coupling experimental instrument was designed to study the transport properties of chloride ion in concrete under simultaneous coupling action of fatigue load and environmental factors. Firstly the water-saturated performance of modem concrete was investigated, then diffusion performance of chloride ion under different stress levels and different temperature were studied respectively; meanwhile, the time- dependent behavior of the chloride ion diffusion in concrete was also researched. The results showed that the saturation degree of concrete can reach as high as 99%. Besides, diffusion coefficient of chloride ion increased with increasing of the stress level and temperature, and when the stress level and temperature are at 0.6 and 60 ℃ respectively, the diffusion coefficient is 6.3 ×10 -14 m2/s, moreover the diffusion coefficient of chloride ion in concrete decreased with time under the simultaneous coupling action of fatigue load and environment factors.

MULTIAXIAL CREEP-FATIGUE LIFE EVALUATION UNDER PROPORTIONAL LOADING

A new method was proposed for the multiaxial creep-fatigue life evaluation under proportional loadings. Because this method was derived from the strain range partitioning method with a multiaxiality factor, it was possible to consider the influence of both creep-fatigue interaction and multiaxial stress state on fatigue life. In order to predict the combined axial-torsional fatigue life the damage under combined loading was defined as linear summation of the damages under axial loading and torsional loading. Axial-torsional creep-fatigue tests were carried out using tubular specimens of 316LC austenitic stainless steel and the ferritic rotor steel. This rotor steel was developed for the permanent magnet type eddy current retarder in heavy trucks. Experimentally obtained lives of both steels were well corresponded with the lives predicted by the proposed method. It was found that the proposed method was effective in multiaxial fatigue life evaluation under proportional creep-fatigue loadings.

PREDICTION OF FATIGUE LIVES OF RC BEAMS STRENGTHENED WITH CFL UNDER RANDOM LOADING

The investigation on fatigue lives of reinforced concrete （RC） structures strength- ened with fiber laminate under random loading is important for the repairing or the strengthening of bridges and the safety of the traffic. In this paper, two methods are developed for predicting the fatigue lives of RC structures strengthened with carbon fiber [aminate （CFL） under random loading based on a residual life and a residual strength model. To discuss the efficiency of the model, 12 RC beams strengthened with CFL are tested under random loading by the MTS810 testing system. The predicted residual strength approximately agrees with test results.

Rain-Flow and Reverse Rain-Flow Counting Method for the Compilation of Fatigue Load Spectrum

The rain-flow counting method is widely used to compile the fatigue load spectrum, The second stage counting of the rain-flow method is a troublesome process. In order to overcome this drawback, the rain-flow and reverse rain-flow counting method is proposed in this paper. In this counting method, the rule for counting of the rain-flow method is modified, so that the sequence of load-time need not be adjusted. This is a valid and useful method to count cycles and compile the load spectrum and it can be widely used in ocean engineering.

Residual Tensile Strength of Plain Concrete Under Tensile Fatigue Loading

The functional relation between the residual tensile strength of plain concrete and number of cycles was determined. 99 tappered prism specimens of plain concrete were tested under uniaxial tensile fatigue loading. Based on the probability distribution of the residual tensile strength, the empirical expressions of the residual tensile strength corresponding to the number of cycles were obtained. The residual tensile strength attenuating curves can be used to predict the residual fatigue life of the specimen under variable-amplitude fatigue loading. There is a good correlation between residual tensile strength and residual secant elastic modulus. The relationship between the residual secant elastic modulus and number of cycles was also established.