Gaps,challenges and possible solution for prediction of wheel-rail rolling contact fatigue crack initiation

The prediction of wheel/rail rolling contact fatigue(RCF)crack initiation during railway operations is an important task.Since RCF crack evolution is influenced by many factors,its prediction process is complex.This paper reviews the existing approaches to predict RCF crack initiation.The crack initiation region is predicted by the shakedown map.By combining the shakedown map with various initiation criteria and the critical plane method,the crack initiation life is calculated.The classification,methodologies,theories and applications of these approaches are included in this paper.The advantages and limitations of these methods are analyzed to provide recommendation for RCF crack initiation prediction.This review highlights that wheel/rail dynamic characteristic,complex working conditions,surface defects and wear all affect the RCF crack initiation.The optimal selection of criteria is essential in the crack initiation prediction.Based on the research gap regarding the challenging process of crack initiation prediction detailed in this review,a proposed prediction process of RCF crack initiation is proposed to achieve a more accurate result.

Effect of main inclusions on crack initiation in bearing steel in the very high cycle fatigue regime

This work aims to investigate the effect of main inclusions on crack initiation in bearing steel in the very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） regime. The size and type of inclusions in the steel were quantitatively analyzed, and VHCF tests were performed. Some fatigue cracks were found to be initiated in the gaps between inclusions（Al2 O3, Mg O-Al2 O3） and the matrix, while other cracks originated from the interior of inclusions（Ti N, Mn S）. To explain the related mechanism, the tessellated stresses between inclusions and the matrix were calculated and compared with the yield stress of the matrix. Results revealed that the inclusions could be classified into two types under VHCF; of these two, only one type could be regarded as holes. Findings in this research provide a better understanding of how inclusions affect the high cycle fatigue properties of bearing steel.

Fatigue Crack Initiation Potential from Defects in terms of Local Stress Analysis

The competition of surface and subsurface crack initiation induced failure is critical to understand very high cycle fatigue（VHCF） behavior, which necessitates the elucidation of the underlying mechanisms for the transition of crack initiation from surface to interior defects. Crack initiation potential in materials containing defects is investigated numerically by focusing on defect types, size, shape, location, and residual stress influences. Results show that the crack initiation potency is higher in case of serious property mismatching between matrix and defects, and higher strength materials are more sensitive to soft inclusions（elastic modulus lower than the matrix）. The stress localization around inclusions are correlated to interior crack initiation mechanisms in the VHCF regime such as inclusion-matrix debonding at soft inclusions and inclusion-cracking for hard inclusions（elastic modulus higher than the matrix）. It is easier to emanate cracks from the subsurface pores with the depth 0.7 times as large as their diameter. There exists an inclusion size independent region for crack incubation, outside which crack initiation will transfer from the subsurface soft inclusion to the interior larger one. As for elliptical inclusions, reducing the short-axis length can decrease the crack nucleation potential and promote the interior crack formation, whereas the long-axis length controls the site of peak stress concentration. The compressive residual stress at surface is helpful to shift crack initiation from surface to interior inclusions. Some relaxation of residual stress can not change the inherent crack initiation from interior inclusions in the VHCF regime. The work reveals the crack initiation potential and the transition among various defects under the influences of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in the VHCF regime, and is helpful to understand the failure mechanism of materials containing defects under long-term cyclic loadings.

Crack initiation of granite under uniaxial compression tests:A comparison study

In this study,a combination of acoustic emission(AE)method(AEM)and wave transmission method(WTM)is used to investigate the behaviors of AE and ultrasonic properties corresponding to initial fracturing in granitic rocks.The relationships of AE characteristics,frequency spectra,and spatial locations with crack initiation(CI)are studied.The anisotropic ultrasonic characteristics,velocity distributions in different ray paths,wave amplitudes,and spectral characters of transmitted waves are investigated.To identify CI stress,damage initiations characterized by strain-based method(SBM),AEM and WTM are compared.For granite samples,it shows that the ratio of CI stress to peak strength estimated by SBM ranges from 0.4 to 0.55,and 0.49-0.6 by WTM,which are higher than that of AEM(0.38-0.46).The CI stress identified by AEM indicates the onset of microcracking,and the combination of AEM and WTM provides an insight into the detection of rock damage initiation and anisotropy.

High-cycle fatigue crack initiation and propagation in laser melting deposited TC18 titanium alloy

This article examines fatigue crack nucleation and propagation in laser deposited TC18 titanium alloy. The Widmanstatten structure was obtained by double-annealing treatment,. High-cycle fatigue （HCF） tests were conducted at room temperature with the stress ratio of 0.1 and the notch concentration factor Kt = 1. Fatigue cracks initiated preferentially at micropores, which had great effect on the HCF properties. The effect decreased with the decrease of pore size and the increase of distance from the pore location to the specimen surface. The crack initiation region was characterized by the cleavage facets of a lamella and the tearing of β matrix. The soft a precipitated-free zone formed along grain boundaries accelerated the crack propagation. Subsurface observation indicated that the crack preferred to propagate along the grain boundary α or border of a lamella or vertical to a lamella.

Integrated Equipment Health Prognosis Considering Crack Initiation Time Uncertainty and Random Shock

With integrated equipment health prognosis, both physical models and condition monitoring data are utilized to achieve more accurate prediction of equipment remaining useful life （RUL）. In this paper, an integrated prognostics method is proposed to account for two important factors which were not considered before, the uncertainty in crack initiation time （CIT） and the shock in the degradation. Prognostics tools are used for RUL pre- diction starting from the CIT. However, there is uncertainty in CIT due to the limited capability of existing fault detection tools, and such uncertainty has not been explic- itly considered in the literature for integrated prognosis. A shock causes a sudden damage increase and creates a jump in the degradation path, which shortens the total lifetime, and it has not been considered before in the integrated prognostics framework either. In the proposed integrated prognostics method, CIT is considered as an uncertain parameter, which is updated using condition monitoring data. To deal with the sudden damage increase and reduction of total lifetime, a virtual gradual degradation path with an earlier CIT is introduced in the proposed method. In this way, the effect of shock is captured through identifying an appropriate CIT. Examples of gear prog- nostics are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Crack initiation and propagation induced by inclusions in a nickel-base P/M superalloy under fatigue load

In situ fatigue tests in special designed SEM were conducted to trace the whole process of crack initiation and propagation fill to fracture in mckel-base P/M superalloy seeded inclusions. The experimental results show that non-metallic inclusions can induce crack initiation. When the inclusion size is larger than the critical one, the crack can propagate as the main crack that induces the specimen to fracture. As a result, the LCF life of the specimen decreases.

Influence of different microstructural features on impact toughness and crack initiation behavior of coarse grain heat-affected zone in X80 pipeline steel

Coarse grain heat-affected zone samples of X80 pipeline steel under different heat inputs were obtained through thermal welding simulation experiments with Gleeble 3500.Charpy impact tests and a combination of multiscale characterizations were conducted to investigate the influence of various microstructural features on impact toughness and crack initiation behavior.The results prove that, as the heat input increases, the number of M/A components increases, thereby degrading toughness and increasing hardness.Meanwhile, more M/A constituents tend to aggregate on prior austenite grain boundaries(PAGBs),and the overall dimensions of M/A and the width and volume fraction of the lath martensite substructure inside M/A islands would increase as well.These changes make intersections between boundary M/As and PAGBs become one of the preferred sites for crack initiation.In addition, only large-sized grotesque inclusions can act as a direct inducement of crack initiation.

Crack initiation ahead of piled-up of dislocations emitted from a mode Ⅱ blunt crack

In situ tensile tests in a transmission electronmicroscope(TEM)show that dislocations emitted from a modelⅡcrack tipwill form a inverse piled-up group after equilibrium or a doublepiled-up group when they meet a obstruction, e.g., grain boundary orsecond phase. A microcrack can initiates in front of the piled-upgroup of dislocations. Micromechanics analysis shows thatdislocations emitted from a modelⅡblunt crack tip can form a inversepiled-up or double piled-up group, depending upon the applied stressintensity factor K_Ⅱa, lattice friction stressτ_f and the distanceof the obstruction from the crack tip L.

Characteristics of Faigue Crack Initiation in Ti-5Al-4Sn-2Zr-1Mo-0.7Nd-0.25Si Alloy

The characteristics of fatigue crack initiation in Ti-5AI-4Sn-2Zr1Mo-O.7Nd-O.25Si alloy wereStudied. Two modes Of fatigue crack initiation were found. The Nd-rich phase particles displaybetter resistance to fatigue crack initiation than the matrix at lower stress.

Crack Initiation under Cyclic Compression

The crack initiation behaviour under cyclic compression foy the notched specimen was investigated. It has been found that the cycles for crack initiation increase with the increase of compressive mean stress, and the decrease of stress amplitude. The stress amplitude plays a more important role than the mean stress does. Photoelastic coating and finite element methods were employed to measure and calculate the stress field in the notched part. The resul ts show that the crack initiation under compression is attributed to the tensile stress which may exist during unloadtng. If the true stress state in the notch is compressive, no crack initiates.

A STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION OF FATIGUE CRACK INITIATION AND GROWTH PROCESS BASED UPON A LARGE SAMPLE SIZE EXPERIMENT

After finishing 102 replicate constant amplitude crack initiation and growth tests on Ly12-CZ aluminum alloy plate, a statistical investigation of the fatigue crack initiation and growth process is conducted in this paper. According to the post-mortem fractographic examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), some qualitative observations of the spacial correlation among fatigue striations are developed to reveal the statistical nature of material intrinsic inhomogeneity during the crack growth process. From the test data, an engineering division between crack initiation and growth is defined as the upper limit of small crack. The distributions of crack initiation life N-i, growth life N, and the statistical characteristics of crack growth rate da/dN are also investigated. It is hoped that the work will provide a solid test basis for the study of probabilistic fatigue, probabilistic fracture mechanics, fatigue reliability and its engineering applications.

CRACK INITIATION POINT DETERMINATION AND DYNAMIC FRACTURE TOUGHNESS FOR CHARPY PRE-CRACKED SPECIMEN

The method to detect the crack initiation point of Charpy pre-cracked specimen under dy- namie loading was studied using strain gauge.The load-time curve and nominal strain-time curve at the crack tip for impact testing specinens may be shnultaneously measured by twin-channel oscilloscope with high speed sampling and diskette storing.Based on the dynam- ic finite element simulation of impact response of Charpy specimen,the measuring method of dynamic fracture toughness was analysed and some problems in previous dynamic fracture toughness measurement were discussed.

Anisotropy of crack initiation strength and damage strength of coal reservoirs

The crack volume strain method and acoustic emission(AE)method are used to analyze the anisotropy of the crack initiation strength,damage strength,the failure mode and the AE characteristics of coal reservoir.The results show that coal reservoirs show obvious anisotropic characteristics in compressive strength,cracking initiation strength and damage strength.The compressive strength of coal reservoirs decreases with the increase of bedding angle,but the reservoirs with bedding angles of 450 and 900 differ little in compressive strength.The crack initiation strength and damage strength decrease first and then increase with the increase of bedding angle.The crack initiation strength and damage strength are the highest,at the bedding angle of 0°,moderate at the bedding angle of 90°,and lowest at the bedding angle of 45°.When the bedding angle is 0°,the failure of the coal reservoirs is mainly steady propagation of large-scale fractures.When the bedding angle is 45°,one type of failure is caused by steady propagation of small-scale fractures,and the other type of failure is due to a sudden instability of large-scale fractures.When the bedding angle is 90°,the failure is mainly demonstrated by a sudden-instability of small-scale fractures.Compared with the cumulative count method of the AE,the cumulative energy method is more suitable for determining crack initiation strength and damage strength of coal reservoirs.

Strain transfer behavior and crystallographic mechanism of crack initiation during cyclic deformation in zirconium

Fully-reversed cyclic deformation of a pure Zr(a thickness of 17 mm)was conducted at two different strain amplitudes(0.4%and 0.8%)to investigate the deformation and crack initiation behaviors based on slip trace analysis.It was found that prismaticaslip with a higher Schmid Factor(m>0.4)was the dominant deformation mode.The grains containing persistent slip bands(PSBs)tended to go towards[1210]pole and the Schmid Factor had a critical value of 0.4 above which prismatic and pyramidal slip were dominant.Fatigue cracks were mainly initiated at PSBs and grain boundaries(GBs).It showed that 61.1%of the cracks were PSB cracks under a strain amplitude of 0.4%,while it decreased to 53.5%at a strain amplitude of 0.8%.PSB cracks were mainly parallel to prismaticaslip with higher Schmid Factor while some cracks tended to be initiated at GBs with higher misorientation angles.The interaction of PSBs with GBs would result in strain transferring to the neighboring grain.Strain transfer was more likely to occur at the condition of the higher geometrical compatibility factor m,and lower residual Burgers vectorb,which could reduce strain localization.

Evolution of silicon particle damage on fatigue crack initiation and early propagation in an aluminum alloy

Low-cycle fatigue tests under both mechanical cyclic and thermal cyclic loadings were conducted to study the behavior of fatigue crack initiation and early propagation by means of metallographic and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The damage mode of silicon particles has significant influence on crack behavior.Cracks are induced from fractured particles in mechanical fatigue or from debonded particles in thermal fatigue.Initiation of cracks by breaking through particles happens in particles with non-equiaxial particles,while initiation of cracks from debonded interfaces happens widely in clustered particles.For cracks induced by fracture particles,the subsequent coalescence of microcracks proceeds through the alternation of brittle fracture of particles.The sequent broken of particles takes the important part in the early propagation stage of fatigue crack.

Method for Predicting Crack Initiation Life of Notched Specimen Based on Damage Mechanics

Based on the theory of damage mechanics, a method for fatigue crack initiation life prediction of notched components is proposed in this paper. The damage evolution equation of notched specimen under tensioncompression loading is obtained in term of closed-form solution. The crack initiation life of notched specimen is estimated by the proposed method even when material and stress concentration factor are different. It has been verified that the result calculated by the proposed method agrees with the experimental result. The proposed method is concise, effective and feasible to practical application.

Fatigue crack initiation for Al-Zn-Mg alloy welded joint

To investigate fatigue crack initiation characteristics of A1-Zn-Mg alloy welded joint, notched specimens were used in fatigue test for the base metal, welding bead and heat affected zone （HAZ）. The fatigue fracture surface near the fatigue crack initiation site was observed by scanning electron microscope （SEM）. The results show that the differences of fatigue crack initiation life among base metal, welding bead and HAZ are not obvious. Inhomogeneity in microstructure and mechanical performance of HAZ influences the fatigue crack initiation life. The ratio of fatigue crack initiation life （Ni） to fatigue failure life （Nf） for the base metal, welding bead and HAZ of A7N01 aluminium alloy welded joint are 26.32%, 40.21% and 60.67%, respectively. Fatigue crack initiation life can be predicted using a uniform model. Observation of fatigue fracture surfaces shows that for the welding bead a fatigue crack initiates from the smooth surface due to the welding process, the blowhole in HAZ causes fatigue crack and the crushed second phase particles play an important role in fatigue crack initiation for the base metal.

A Nano-Cantilever Method for Crack Initiation at the Free Edge of the Cu/Si Interface in Nanoscale Components

Straight and Bent nano-cantilever specimens are respectively proposed to investigate the single-mode and mixed-mode crack initiation at the Cu/Si interface edge in nanoscale components. With a minute loading apparatus, all nanoscale samples are in situ loaded and observed. Numerical analysis is employed to acquire the critical interfacial stress distributions during crack initiation. The stress concentration regions near the edge of Cu/Si interface in all specimens are within the scale of 100 nm, and the critical normal and shear stresses have a circular relation in nanoscale components, which represents the fracture criterion of the interface in nanoscale components.

Crack Initiation Mechanism of Z3CN20.09M Duplex Stainless Steel during Corrosion Fatigue in Water and Air at 290 °C

The crack initiation mechanism of a Z3CN20.09M duplex stainless steel （DSS） during corrosion fatigue （CF） in water and air at 290 ℃ was investigated by using a CF cracking machine and a scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The cracks were initiated successively at the persistent stip bands （PSBs）, phase boundaries （PBs） and pitting corrosion points （PCPs） of the specimens when they were tested in water at 290 ℃, while in airat 290 ℃ the cracks were only initiated at the PSBs and PBs. And the cracks were found mainly to initiate at the PSBs and PBs when the specimens were tested in water and air at 290 ℃, respectively. The results also reveal that the cracks were likely to be initiated at the first 20% of fatigue life of the specimens tested in water at 290 ℃. However, the cracks were not found until 50% of fatigue life when tested in air at 290 ℃. Moreover, the crack numbers of the specimens tested in water at 290 ℃ were much more than those tested in air at 290 ℃.