Damage Evolution of Ballastless Track Concrete Exposed to Flexural Fatigue Loads:The Application of Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity,Impact-echo and Surface Electrical Resistance Method

In order to clarify the fatigue damage evolution of concrete exposed to flexural fatigue loads,ultrasonic pulse velocity(UPV),impact-echo technology and surface electrical resistance(SR) method were used.Damage variable based on the change of velocity of ultrasonic pulse(Du) and impact elastic wave(Di)were defined according to the classical damage theory.The influences of stress level,loading frequency and concrete strength on damage variable were measured.The experimental results show that Du and Di both present a three-stages trend for concrete exposed to fatigue loads.Since impact elastic wave is more sensitive to the microstructure damage in stage Ⅲ,the critical damage variable,i e,the damage variable before the final fracture of concrete of Di is slightly higher than that of Du.Meanwhile,the evolution of SR of concrete exposed to fatigue loads were analyzed and the relationship between SR and Du,SR and Di of concrete exposed to fatigue loads were established.It is found that the SR of concrete was decreased with the increasing fatigue cycles,indicating that surface electrical resistance method can also be applied to describe the damage of ballastless track concrete exposed to fatigue loads.

Frequency Domain Fatigue Evaluation on SCR Girth-Weld Based on Structural Stress

The Steel Catenary Riser(SCR)is a vital component for transporting oil and gas from the seabed to the floating platform.The harsh environmental conditions and complex platform motion make the SCR’s girth-weld prone to fatigue failure.The structural stress fatigue theory and Master S-N curve method provide accurate predictions for the fatigue damage on the welded joints,which demonstrate significant potential and compatibility in multi-axial and random fatigue evaluation.Here,we propose a new frequency fatigue model subjected to welded joints of SCR under multiaxial stress,which fully integrates the mesh-insensitive structural stress and frequency domain random process and transforms the conventional welding fatigue technique of SCR into a spectrum analysis technique utilizing structural stress.Besides,a full-scale FE model of SCR with welds is established to obtain the modal structural stress of the girth weld and the frequency response function(FRF)of modal coordinate,and a biaxial fatigue evaluation about the girth weld of the SCR can be achieved by taking the effects of multi-load correlation and pipe-soil interaction into account.The research results indicate that the frequency-domain fatigue results are aligned with the time-domain results,meeting the fatigue evaluation requirements of the SCR.

Analysis of Temperature Rise Characteristics and Fatigue Damage Degree of ACSR Broken Strand

In this paper,the research on ACSR temperature of broken strand and fatigue damage after broken strand is carried out.Conduct modeling and Analysis on the conductor through AnsoftMaxwell software.The distribution of magnetic force lines in the cross section of the conductor after strand breaking and the temperature change law of the conductor with the number of broken strands are analyzed.A model based on electromagnetic theory is established to analyze the distribution of magnetic lines of force in the cross section of the conductor after strand breaking and the temperature variation law of the conductor with the number of broken strands.The finite element analysis results show that with the increase in the number of broken strands,the cross-sectional area of the conductor decreases,the magnetic line of force of the inner conductor at the broken strand becomes denser and denser,and the electromagnetic loss of the conductor becomes larger and larger.Therefore,the temperature of the conductor at the broken strand becomes higher and higher.Then,the current carrying experiment of conductor is carried out for LGJ-240/30 conductor.It is found that the temperature rise at the junction of inner and outer layers at the broken strand is particularly obvious,and the temperature of inner aluminumconductor at the broken strand also increases with the increase of broken strand.According to the analysis of experimental data,with the increase of broken strands,the antivibration ability and service life of the conductor decrease.At the same time,under certain conditions of broken strand,the fatigue life of conductor increases with the increase of temperature.

A critical review of wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue of railway bogie in China

Purpose–This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.Design/methodology/approach–Vibration fatigue of railway bogie arising from the wheel/rail high frequency vibration has become the main concern of railway operators.Previous reviews usually focused on the formation mechanism of wheel/rail high frequency vibration.This paper thus gives a critical review of the vibration fatigue of railway bogie owing to the short-pitch irregularities-induced high frequency vibration,including a brief introduction of short-pitch irregularities,associated high frequency vibration in railway bogie,typical vibration fatigue failure cases of railway bogie and methodologies used for the assessment of vibration fatigue and research gaps.Findings–The results showed that the resulting excitation frequencies of short-pitch irregularity vary substantially due to different track types and formation mechanisms.The axle box-mounted components are much more vulnerable to vibration fatigue compared with other components.The wheel polygonal wear and rail corrugation-induced high frequency vibration is the main driving force of fatigue failure,and the fatigue crack usually initiates from the defect of the weld seam.Vibration spectrum for attachments of railway bogie defined in the standard underestimates the vibration level arising from the short-pitch irregularities.The current investigations on vibration fatigue mainly focus on the methods to improve the accuracy of fatigue damage assessment,and a systematical design method for vibration fatigue remains a huge gap to improve the survival probability when the rail vehicle is subjected to vibration fatigue.Originality/value–The research can facilitate the development of a new methodology to improve the fatigue life of railway vehicles when subjected to wheel/rail high frequency vibration.

Numerical study of fatigue damage of asphalt concrete using cohesive zone model

In order to investigate the fatigue behavior of asphalt concrete, a new numerical approach based on a bi-linear cohesive zone model （CZM） is developed. Integrated with the CZM, a fatigue damage evolution model is established to indicate the gradual degradation of cohesive properties of asphalt concrete under cyclic loading. Then the model is implemented in the finite element software ABAQUS through a user-defined subroutine. Based on the proposed model, an indirect tensile fatigue test is finally simulated. The fatigue lives obtained through numerical analysis show good agreement with laboratory results. Fatigue damage accumulates in a nonlinear manner during the cyclic loading process and damage initiation phase is the major part of fatigue failure. As the stress ratio increases, the time of the steady damage growth stage decreases significantly. It is found that the proposed fatigue damage evolution model can serve as an accurate and efficient tool for the prediction of fatigue damage of asphalt concrete.

Nonlinear ultrasonic characterizing online fatigue damage and in situ microscopic observation

A robust experimental procedure was developed, by which the evolution of fatigue damage in AZ31 magnesium alloy was tracked online with the ultrasonic nonlinearity parameter β. β values of three sets of samples under different stress levels were measured. Microstructures of specimens at different fatigue stages were observed in situ by optical microscopy. The experimental results show that there is a significant increase in β linked to the accumulation of persistent slip bands （PSBs） and micro-cracks at the early stages of fatigue life and reaches the maximum, about 55% of fatigue life. Ultrasonic attenuation coefficient increases with the expanding of micro-cracks and leads to β decrease slightly after 55% of fatigue life. The variation of β with fatigue cycles is in good agreement with the growth of PSBs and micro-cracks. In addition, it has no significant effect on the experimental results for the changes of low- and high-cycle fatigue and the fatigue mode with tension-tension and tension-compression.

Residual Strength of Stiffened LY12CZ Aluminum Alloy Panels with Widespread Fatigue Damage

Experimental and analytical investigations on the residual strength of the stiffened LY12CZ aluminum alloy panels with widespread fatigue damage （WFD） are conducted. Nine stiffened LY12CZ aluminum alloy panels with three different types of damage are tested for residual strength. Each specimen is pre-cracked at rivet holes by saw cuts and subjected to a monotonically increasing tensile load until failure is occurred and the failure load is recorded. The stress intensity factors at the tips of the lead crack and the adjacent WFD cracks of the stiffened aluminum alloy panels are calculated by compounding approach and finite element method （FEM） respectively. The residual strength of the stiffened panels with WFD is evaluated by the engineering method with plastic zone linkup criterion and the FEM with apparent fracture toughness criterion respectively. The predicted residual strength agrees well with the experiment results. It indicates that in engineering practice these methods can be used for residual strength evaluation with the acceptable accuracy. It can be seen from this research that WFD can significantly reduce the residual strength and the critical crack length of the stiffened panels with WFD. The effect of WFD crack length on residual strength is also studied.

An Investigation on Low Frequency Fatigue Damage of Mooring Lines Applied in a Semi-Submersible Platform

Assessing the fatigue life of mooring systems is important for deep water structures. In this paper, a comprehensive fatigue analysis is conducted on the mooring lines applied in a semi-submersible platform with special focus on the low frequency(LF) fatigue damage. Several influential factors, including water depth, wave spectral parameters, and riser system, are considered. Numerical simulation of a semi-submersible platform with the mooring/riser system is executed under different conditions, and the fatigue damage of mooring lines is assessed by using the time domain analysis method as a benchmark. The effects of these factors on the mooring line tension and the fatigue damage are investigated and discussed in detail. Research results indicate that the LF fatigue damage only accounts for a very small portion of the total damage, although the LF components dominate the global motion response and the mooring line tension of the semi-submersible platform. However, it is demonstrated that the LF fatigue damage is clearly affected by the influential factors. The increase in water depth and spectral peak periods, and the existence of risers can weaken the contribution of the LF components to the mooring line fatigue damage, while the fatigue damage due to the LF components increases with the increase of significant wave height.

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.

A CUMULATIVE FATIGUE DAMAGE RULE UNDER THE ALTERNATIVE OF CORROSION OR CYCLIC LOADING

Fatigue damage increases with the applied loading cycles in a cumulative manner and the material deteriorates with the corrosion time. A cumulative fatigue damage rule under the alternative of corrosion or cyclic loading was proposed. The specimens of aluminum alloy LY12-CZ soaked in corrosive liquid for different times were tested under the constant amplitude cyclic loading to obtain S-N curves. The test was carried out to verify the proposed cumulative fatigue damage rule under the different combinations among corrosion time, loading level, and the cycle numbers. It was shown that the predicted residual fatigue lives showed a good agreement with the experimental results and the proposed rule was simple and can be easily adopted.

STUDY ON FATIGUE DAMAGE BELOW THE FATIGUE LIMIT AND THE COAXING EFFECTS

Rotary bending fatigue tests were carried out for smooth specimens of a mediumcarbon steel with two different grain sizes near the fatigue limit. The process of fatigue damagewas observed by replication method, and the effects of grain size,stress level and microstructure on surface damage were studied. The effect of following cycle stress level on the coaxing effects was also discussed. The fatigue limit is the maximum stress at which the short fatigue crack initiates and becomes a non-propagating crack.. The length of non-propagating crack is related to grain sizes and stress level. The coaxing effects disappear when the following stress level is greater than the critical value.

Cross-Flow VIV-Induced Fatigue Damage of Deepwater Steel Catenary Riser at Touch-Down Point

A prediction model of the deepwater steel catenary riser VIV is proposed based on the forced oscillation test data, taking into account the riser-seafloor interaction for the cross-flow VIV-induced fatigue damage at touch-down point （TDP）. The model will give more reasonable simulation of SCR response near TDP than the previous pinned truncation model. In the present model, the hysteretic riser-soil interaction model is simplified as the linear spring and damper to simulate the seafloor, and the damping is obtained according to the dissipative power during one periodic riser-soil interaction. In order to validate the model, the comparison with the field measurement and the results predicted by Shear 7 program of a full-scale steel catenary riser is carried out. The main induced modes, mode frequencies and response amplitude are in a good agreement. Furthermore, the parametric studies are carried out to broaden the understanding of the fatigue damage sensitivity to the upper end in-plane offset and seabed characteristics. In addition, the fatigue stress comparison at TDP between the truncation riser model and the present full riser model shows that the existence of touch-down zones is very important for the fatigue damage assessment of steel catenary riser at TDP.

Revised damage evolution equation for high cycle fatigue life prediction of aluminum alloy LC4 under uniaxial loading

The fatigue life prediction for components is a difficult task since many factors can affect the final fatigue life. Based on the damage evolution equation of Lemaitre and Desmorat, a revised two-scale damage evolution equation for high cycle fatigue is presented according to the experimental data, in which factors such as the stress amplitude and mean stress are taken into account. Then, a method is proposed to obtain the material parameters of the revised equation from the present fatigue experimental data. Finally, with the utilization of the ANSYS parametric design language （APDL） on the ANSYS platform, the coupling effect between the fatigue damage of materials and the stress distribution in structures is taken into account, and the fatigue life of specimens is predicted. The outcome shows that the numerical prediction is in accord with the experimental results, indicating that the revised two-scale damage evolution model can be well applied for the high cycle fatigue life prediction under uniaxial loading.

Reliability Analysis Based on a Nonlinear Fatigue Damage Accumulation Model

A modified nonlinear fatigue damage accumulation model based on the Manson-Halford theory was presented,and the new model was developed for fatigue life prediction under constant and variable amplitude loading, which took the effects of the load interactions and the phenomenon of material's strength degradation into account. The experimental data of the 30 Cr Mn Si A and the LY-12 cz from literature were used to verify the proposed model. And from the good agreement between the experimental data and predicted results,we can see it clear that the proposed method can be applied to predicting fatigue life under different loadings.

Fatigue damage reliability analysis for Nanjing Yangtze river bridge using structural health monitoring data

To evaluate the fatigue damage reliability of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge, according to the stress-number curve and Miner’s rule, the corresponding expressions for calculating the structural fatigue damage reliability were derived. Fatigue damage reliability analysis of some critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge was carried out by using the strain-time histories measured by the structural health monitoring system of the bridge. The corresponding stress spectra were obtained by the real-time rain-flow counting method. Results of fatigue damage were calculated respectively by the reliability method at different reliability and compared with Miner’s rule. The results show that the fatigue damage of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge is very small due to its low live-load stress level.

A Fatigue Damage Model for FRP Composite Laminate Systems Based on Stiffness Reduction

This paper introduces a stiffness reduction based model developed by the authors to characterize accumulative fatigue damage in unidirectional plies and(0/θ/0)composite laminates in fiber reinforced polymer(FRP)composite laminates.The proposed damage detection model is developed based on a damage evolution mechanism,including crack initiation and crack damage progress in matrix,matrix-fiber interface and fibers.Research result demonstrates that the corresponding stiffness of unidirectional composite laminates is reduced as the number of loading cycles progresses.First,three common models in literatures are presented and compared.Tensile viscosity,Young’s modulus and ultimate tensile stress of composites are incorporated as key factors in this model and are modified in accordance with temperature.Four types of FRP composite property parameters,including Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer(CFRP),Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymer(AFRP),Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer(GFRP),and Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer(BFRP),are considered in this research,and a comparative parameter study of FRP unidirectional composite laminates with different off-angle plies using control variate method are discussed.It is concluded that the relationship between the drop in stiffness and the number of cycles also shows three different regions,following the mechanism of damage of FRP composites and the matrix is the dominant factor determined by temperature,while fiber strength is the dominant factor that determine the reliability of composite.

Probabilistic Analysis and Fatigue Damage Assessment of Offshore Mooring System due to Non-Gaussian Bimodal Tension Processes

Both wave-frequency(WF) and low-frequency(LF) components of mooring tension are in principle non-Gaussian due to nonlinearities in the dynamic system.This paper conducts a comprehensive investigation of applicable probability density functions(PDFs) of mooring tension amplitudes used to assess mooring-line fatigue damage via the spectral method.Short-term statistical characteristics of mooring-line tension responses are firstly investigated,in which the discrepancy arising from Gaussian approximation is revealed by comparing kurtosis and skewness coefficients.Several distribution functions based on present analytical spectral methods are selected to express the statistical distribution of the mooring-line tension amplitudes.Results indicate that the Gamma-type distribution and a linear combination of Dirlik and Tovo-Benasciutti formulas are suitable for separate WF and LF mooring tension components.A novel parametric method based on nonlinear transformations and stochastic optimization is then proposed to increase the effectiveness of mooring-line fatigue assessment due to non-Gaussian bimodal tension responses.Using time domain simulation as a benchmark,its accuracy is further validated using a numerical case study of a moored semi-submersible platform.

A Numerical Investigation of Vortex-Induced Vibration Response and Fatigue Damage for Flexible Cylinders Under Combined Uniform and Oscillatory Flow

Vortex-induced vibration(VIV)for flexible cylinders under combined uniform and oscillatory flow is a challenging and practical issue in ocean engineering.In this paper,a time domain numerical model is adopted to investigate the characteristics of cross-flow VIV response and fatigue damage under different combined flow cases.Firstly,the adopted VIV model and fatigue analysis procedure are validated well against the published experimental results of a4-m cylinder model under pure oscillatory flows.Then,forty-five combined flow cases of the same cylinder model are designed to reveal the VIV response characteristics with different non-dimensional oscillation period T^*and combined ratio r.The combined flow cases are classified into three categories to investigate the effect of r on cylinder’s dynamic response,and the effect of T*is described under long and short period cases.Finally,fatigue analysis is carried out to investigate how the structural fatigue damage varies with the variations of r and T^*.The captured characteristics of structural response and fatigue damage are explained through the VIV mechanism analysis.

Feasibility Research on Fatigue Damage Evaluation Based on Magnetic Memory Method

To confirm whether Magnetic Memory Method can be used to evaluate the fatigue damage of ferromagnetic part or not,this paper stated the principle of magnetic memory method.Also, the relationship between testing parameter of magnetic memory method and fatigue damage was analyzed based on the experiment. The results show that magnetic memory method can be used to evaluate the fatigue damage represented by stress concentration. However, the relationship between the parameter of magnetic memory method and fatigue damage still needs to be studied.

Bi-variable damage model for fatigue life prediction of metal components

Based on the theory of continuum damage mechanics,a bi-variable damage mechanics model is developed,which,according to thermodynamics,is accessible to derivation of damage driving force,damage evolution equation and damage evolution criteria. Furthermore,damage evolution equations of time rate are established by the generalized Drucker＇s postulate. The damage evolution equation of cycle rate is obtained by integrating the time damage evolution equations,and the fatigue life prediction method for smooth specimens under repeated loading with constant strain amplitude is constructed. Likewise,for notched specimens under the repeated loading with constant strain amplitude,the fatigue life prediction method is obtained on the ground of the theory of conservative integral in damage mechanics. Thus,the material parameters in the damage evolution equation can be obtained by reference to the fatigue test results of standard specimens with stress concentration factor equal to 1,2 and 3.