A Model for Diagnosing the Formation of Internal Cracks in Continuously CastSlabs

The internal cracks in continuously cast slabs are attributed to the excessive tensile strain occurring at the solidifying frontduring the continuous casting process. Based on the understanding, a model for diagnosing the formation of the internal cracks was established, in which the strains at the solidifying front caused by' bulging, straightening or unbending, and roll misalignment were calculated and compared with a critical strain value to estimate whether the internal cracks form. Moreover, the established model was appliedto a real slab caster to reveal the distribution of the strains in casting direction and its effect on the internal cracks. It was proved that themodel was reliable and useful for optimizing the operation of continuous casting.

Nonlinear dynamic modeling of a helicopter planetary gear train for carrier plate crack fault diagnosis

Planetary gear train plays a significant role in a helicopter operation and its health is of great importance for the flight safety of the helicopter. This paper investigates the effects of a planet carrier plate crack on the dynamic characteristics of a planetary gear train, and thus finds an effec- tive method to diagnose crack fault. A dynamic model is developed to analyze the torsional vibra- tion of a planetary gear train with a cracked planet carrier plate. The model takes into consideration nonlinear factors such as the time-varying meshing stiffness, gear backlash and viscous damping. Investigation of the deformation of the cracked carrier plate under static stress is performed in order to simulate the dynamic effects of the planet carrier crack on the angular displacement of car- rier posts. Validation shows good accuracy of the developed dynamic model in predicting dynamic characteristics of a planetary gear train. Fault features extracted from predictions of the model reveal the correspondence between vibration characteristic and the conditions （length and position） of a planet carrier crack clearly.

Abnormality diagnosis of cracks in the concrete dam based on dynamical structure mutation

A method of the fuzzy cross-correlation factor exponent in dynamics is researched and proposed to diagnose abnormality of cracks in the concrete dam. Moreover, the Logistic time series changing from period-doubling bifurcation to chaos is tested first using this method. Results indicate that it can distinguish inherent dynamics of time series and can detect mutations. Considering that cracks in the concrete dam constitute an open, dissipative and complex nonlinear dynamical system, a typical crack on the downstream face of a concrete gravity arch dam is analyzed with the proposed method. Two distinct mutations are discovered to indicate that the abnormality diagnosis of cracks in the concrete dam is achieved dynamically through this method. Furthermore, because it can be directly utilized in the measured crack opening displacement series to complete abnormality diagnosis, it has a good prospect for practical applications.