New Fatigue Test and Statistical Method for Metallic Materials Used in Vehicle Transmissions

Aim To improve the efficiency of fatigue material tests and relevant statistical treatment of test data. Methods\ Least square approach and other special treatments were used. Results and Conclusion\ The concepts of each phase in fatigue tests and statistical treatment are clarified. The method proposed leads to three important properties. Reduced number of specimens brings to the advantage of lowering test expenditures. The whole test procedure has more flexibility for there is no need to conduct many tests at the same stress level as in traditional cases.

Research into Applicability of Wöhler Curve Method for Low-Cycle Fatigue of Metallic Materials

Recently,a description on a practicability of the Wöhler Curve Method for low-cycle fatigue of metals was given by the author.By the description and the low cycle fatigue test data of 16 MnR steel,it is important to show that,for low cycle fatigue of metals,such a way that a stress-based intensity parameter calculated by the linear-elastic analysis is taken to be a stress intensity parameter,S,to establish a relationship between the stress intensity parameter,S,and the fatigue life,N,is practicable.In this paper,many metallic materials from the literature are given to show that the Wöhler Curve Method is well suitable for low-cycle fatigue analysis of metals.

The Performance of Small Diameter Aluminum Light Support Structures Containing Handholes under Cyclic Fatigue

Aluminum light poles play a pivotal role in modern infrastructure, ensuring proper illumination along highways and in populated areas during nighttime. These poles typically feature handholes near their bases, providing access to electrical wiring for installation and maintenance. While essential for functionality, these handholes introduce a vulnerability to the overall structure, making them a potential failure point. Although prior research and analyses on aluminum light poles have been conducted, the behavior of smaller diameter poles containing handholes remains unexplored. Recognizing this need, a research team at the University of Akron undertook a comprehensive experimental program involving aluminum light poles with handholes containing welded inserts in order to gain a better understanding of their fatigue life, mechanical behavior, and failure mechanisms. The research involved testing seven large-scale aluminum light poles each 8-inch diameter, with two separate handholes. These handholes included a reinforcement that was welded to the poles. Finite Element Analysis (FEA), statistical analysis, and comparison analysis with their large counterparts (10-inch diameter) were used to augment the experimental results. The results revealed two distinct failure modes: progressive crack propagation leading to ultimate failure, and rupture of the pole near the weld initiation/termination site around the handhole. The comparison analysis indicated that the 8-inch diameter specimens exhibited an average fatigue life exceeding that of their 10-inch counterparts by an average of 30.7%. The experimental results were plotted alongside the fatigue detail classifications outlined in the Aluminum Design Manual (ADM), enhancing understanding of the fatigue detail category of the respective poles/handholes.

Methods for fatigue-life estimation:A review of the current status and future trends

With the development of modern industry and ever more complex structural loads,the possibility of fatigue failure is increasing.Fatigue analysis can be used to evaluate the service life of components and reduce the probability of accidents.Therefore,the development and application of fatigue-analysis technology have important research significance.This paper collects information from a wide field of literature and summarizes the current status of fatigue-analysis research.It covers related theoretical knowledge,fatigue-life prediction methods,and fatigue design methods and their application scenarios,and it summarizes the challenges and research hotspots in the field.On the basis of this examination,future development directions of fatigue-life prediction methods are proposed.The conclusions will have a certain guiding role in the development of fatigue-analysis methods.

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.

Statistical learning prediction of fatigue crack growth via path slicing and re-weighting

Predicting potential risks associated with the fatigue of key structural components is crucial in engineering design.However,fatigue often involves entangled complexities of material microstructures and service conditions,making diagnosis and prognosis of fatigue damage challenging.We report a statistical learning framework to predict the growth of fatigue cracks and the life-to-failure of the components under loading conditions with uncertainties.Digital libraries of fatigue crack patterns and the remaining life are constructed by high-fidelity physical simulations.Dimensionality reduction and neural network architectures are then used to learn the history dependence and nonlinearity of fatigue crack growth.Path-slicing and re-weighting techniques are introduced to handle the statistical noises and rare events.The predicted fatigue crack patterns are self-updated and self-corrected by the evolving crack patterns.The end-to-end approach is validated by representative examples with fatigue cracks in plates,which showcase the digital-twin scenario in real-time structural health monitoring and fatigue life prediction for maintenance management decision-making.

Fatigue Safety Assessment of Concrete Continuous Rigid Frame Bridge Based on Rain Flow Counting Method and Health Monitoring Data

The fatigue of concrete structures will gradually appear after being subjected to alternating loads for a long time,and the accidents caused by fatigue failure of bridge structures also appear from time to time.Aiming at the problem of degradation of long-span continuous rigid frame bridges due to fatigue and environmental effects,this paper suggests a method to analyze the fatigue degradation mechanism of this type of bridge,which combines long-term in-site monitoring data collected by the health monitoring system(HMS)and fatigue theory.In the paper,the authors mainly carry out the research work in the following aspects:First of all,a long-span continuous rigid frame bridge installed with HMS is used as an example,and a large amount of health monitoring data have been acquired,which can provide efficient information for fatigue in terms of equivalent stress range and cumulative number of stress cycles;next,for calculating the cumulative fatigue damage of the bridge structure,fatigue stress spectrum got by rain flow counting method,S-N curves and damage criteria are used for fatigue damage analysis.Moreover,it was considered a linear accumulation damage through the Palmgren-Miner rule for the counting of stress cycles.The health monitoring data are adopted to obtain fatigue stress data and the rain flow counting method is used to count the amplitude varying fatigue stress.The proposed fatigue reliability approach in the paper can estimate the fatigue damage degree and its evolution law of bridge structures well,and also can help bridge engineers do the assessment of future service duration.

Nonequilibrium Statistical Modeling of Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour

In order to study the influence of microstructural texture on the growth of short fatigue cracks in metals, the nonequilibrium statistical theory of fatigue fracture correlating a microscopic mechanism with the macroscopic properties is modified to take into consideration the microstructural features of a material, thereby allowing a rationalisation of the experimental data of short fatigue crack growth and long fatigue crack growth. The nonequilibrium statistical theory thus developed relates the growth of cracks with a dislocation mechanism to simulate short fatigue crack growth with the long fatigue crack growth behaviour and predicts the fatigue crack growth rates throughout the fatigue lifetime. The results is finally compared with that of other fatigue theories.

Vibration Fatigue Probabilistic Life Prediction Model and Method for Blade

Vibration fatigue is one of the main failure modes of blade.The vibration fatigue life of blade is scattered caused by manufacture error,material property dispersion and external excitation randomness.A new vibration fatigue probabilistic life prediction model(VFPLPM)and a prediction method are proposed in this paper.Firstly,as one-dimensional volumetric method(ODVM)only considers the principle calculation direction,a three-dimensional space vector volumetric method(TSVVM)is proposed to improve fatigue life prediction accuracy for actual threedimensional engineering structure.Secondly,based on the two volumetric methods(ODVM and TSVVM),the material C-P-S-N fatigue curve model(CFCM)and the maximum entropy quantile function model(MEQFM),VFPLPM is established to predict the vibration fatigue probabilistic life of blade.The VFPLPM is combined with maximum stress method(MSM),ODVM and TSVVM to estimate vibration fatigue probabilistic life of blade simulator by finite element simulation,and is verified by vibration fatigue test.The results show that all of the three methods can predict the vibration fatigue probabilistic life of blade simulator well.VFPLPM &TSVVM method has the highest computational accuracy for considering stress gradient effect not only in the principle calculation direction but also in other space vector directions.

Research on Analytical Method of Fatigue Characteristics of Soft Yoke Mooring System Based on Full-Scale Measurement

By focusing on the vulnerability of the structure of marine equipments, together with considering the randomness of meta-ocean load in statistics, a kind of analytical method of fatigue characteristics of marine structure based on full- scale and actual measurement of prototype is proposed. On the basis of short-term field measurement results of structural response, research is carried out on the fatigue analysis of hinge joints at the upper part of the Soft Yoke single point Mooring System （SYMS） by simultaneously monitoring the environmental load and considering the design criteria of offshore structure. Through analysis of finite element modeling, the time-histories of typical stress response are obtained, and then the assessment of fatigue damage at key hinge joints is conducted. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method can accurately analyze the fatigue damage of offshore engineering structure caused by the effect of wave load. The present analytical method of fatigue characteristics can be extended on other offshore engineering structures subjected to meta-ocean load.

Fatigue Assessment Method for Composite Wind Turbine Blade

Fatigue strength assessment of a horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT)composite blade is considered.Fatigue load cases are identified,and loads are calculated by the GH Bladed software which is specified at the IEC61400 international specification and GL(Germanisher Lloyd)regulations for the wind energy conversion system.Stress analysis is performed with a 3-D finite element method(FEM).Considering Saint-Venant′s principle,a uniform cross section FEM model is built at each critical zone.Stress transformation matrixes(STM)are set up by applied six unit load components on the FEM model separately.STM can be used to convert the external load into stresses in the linear elastic range.The main material of composite wind turbine blade is fiber reinforced plastics(FRP).In order to evaluate the degree of fatigue damage of FRP,the stresses of fiber direction are extracted and the well-known strength criterion-Puck theory is used.The total fatigue damage of each laminate on the critical point is counted by the rain-flow counting method and Miner′s damage law based on general S-N curves.Several sections of a 45.3mblade of a 2 MW wind turbine are studied using the fatigue evaluation method.The performance of this method is compared with far more costly business software FOCUS.The results show that the fatigue damage of multi-axis FRP can be assessed conveniently by the FEM-STM method.And the proposed method gives a reliable and efficient method to analyze the fatigue damage of slender composite structure with variable cross-sections.

APPLICATION OF THE PROBABILISTIC FRACTURE MECHANICS METHOD OF PREDICTING THE FATIGUE LIFE OF TUBULAR JOINTS

In this paper .fatigue strength of T-type tubularjoints subjected to in-planebending or out-of-plane bending load is investigated By, considering material constantsand initial crack sizes as random variables and applying Monte Carlo simulation method, we have giyen a statistical analvsis on fatigue life. Simultaneously, linearregression analyses of computed resuldts are performed and compared with that of theknown experimental data.

Fatigue Topology Optimization Design Based on Distortion Energy Theory and Independent Continuous Mapping Method

Fatigue failure is a common failure mode under the action of cyclic loads in engineering applications,which often occurs with no obvious signal.The maximum structural stress is far below the allowable stress when the structures are damaged.Aiming at the lightweight structure,fatigue topology optimization design is investigated to avoid the occurrence of fatigue failure in the structural conceptual design beforehand.Firstly,the fatigue life is expressed by topology variables and the fatigue life filter function.The continuum fatigue optimization model is established with the independent continuous mapping(ICM)method.Secondly,fatigue life constraints are transformed to distortion energy constraints explicitly by taking advantage of the distortion energy theory.Thirdly,the optimization formulation is solved by the dual sequence quadratic programming(DSQP).And the design scheme of lightweight structure considering the fatigue characteristics is obtained.Finally,numerical examples illustrate the practicality and effectiveness of the fatigue optimization method.This method further expands the theoretical application of the ICM method and provides a novel approach for the fatigue optimization problem.

Fatigue life evaluation of girth butt weld within welded cast steel joints based on the extrapolation notch stress method

The fatigue life evaluation of the girth butt weld within the welded cast steel joint was studied based on the extrapolation notch stress method.Firstly,the mesh sensitivity of the finite element model of the welded cast steel joint was analyzed to determine the optimal mesh size.Based on the stress field analysis of the finite element model of the welded cast steel joint at the weld toe and weld root,the sharp model of the extrapolation notch stress method was applied to derive the effective notch stress of the rounded model belonging to the effective notch stress method,in which the key problem is to calculate the extrapolation point C,and the extrapolation point C has an exponential function relationship with the geometric parameters of the welded cast steel joint.By setting different values of geometric parameters,the corresponding value of parameter C is calculated,and then the functional relationship between the extrapolation point C and the geometric parameters can be obtained by the multiple linear regression analysis.Meanwhile,the fatigue life evaluation of the girth butt weld within welded cast steel joints based on the effective notch stress was performed according to the guideline recommended by the IIW(International Institute of Welding).The results indicate that the extrapolation notch stress method can effectively simplify the process of calculating the effective notch stress and accurately evaluate the fatigue life of the girth butt weld within welded cast steel joints.

Full－range nonlinear analysis of fatigue behaviors of reinforced concrete structures by finite element method

The offshore reinforced concrete structures are always subject to cyclic load, such as wave load.In this paper a new finite element analysis model is developed to analyze the stress and strain state of reinforced concrete structures including offshore concrete structures, subject to any number of the cyclic load. On the basis of the anal ysis of the experimental data,this model simplifies the number of cycles-total cyclic strain curve of concrete as three straight line segments,and it is assumed that the stress-strain curves of different cycles in each segment are the same, thus the elastoplastic analysis is only needed for the first cycle of each segment, and the stress or strain corresponding to any number of cycles can be obtained by superposition of stress or strain obtained by the above e lastoplastic analysis based on the cyclic numbers in each segment.This model spends less computer time,and can obtain the stress and strain states of the structures after any number of cycles.The endochronic-damage and ideal offshore concrete platform subject to cyclic loading are experimented and analyzed by the finite element method based on the model proposed in this paper. The results between the experiment and the finite element analysis are in good agreement,which demonstrates the validity and accuracy of the proposed model.

PROBABILISTIC METHODOLOGY OF LOW CYCLE FATIGUE ANALYSIS

The cyclic stress-strain responses (CSSR), Neuber's rule (NR) and cyclic strain-life relation (CSLR) are treated as probabilistic curves in local stress and strain method of low cycle fatigue analysis. The randomness of loading and the theory of fatigue damage accumulation (TOFDA) are considered. The probabilistic analysis of local stress, local strain and fatigue life are constructed based on the first-order Taylor's series expansions. Through this method proposed fatigue reliability analysis can be accomplished.

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.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE PLOT METHOD OF FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION FORMULA

The fatigue life for components can be predicted by the plot method which is easy and convenient in engineering. Based on the usual fatigue life prediction formula, a new formula for estimating the low stress and high cycle fatigue life is proposed and deduced, which has adopted more accurate SN curve relationship——WeibullSN curve formula. The solution of the new formula is given, too. In addition, an example has been calculated and proved in practice. The results of the new formula and the old one are given and compared.

Non-equilibrium statistical theory about microscopic fatigue cracks of metal in magnetic field

This paper develops the non-equilibrium statistical fatigue damage theory to study the statistical behaviour of micro-crack for metals in magnetic field. The one-dimensional homogeneous crack system is chosen for study. To investigate the effect caused by magnetic field on the statistical distribution of micro-crack in the system, the theoretical analysis on microcrack evolution equation, the average length of micro-crack, density distribution function of microcrack and fatigue fracture probability have been performed. The derived results relate the changes of some quantities, such as average length, density distribution function and fatigue fracture probability, to the applied magnetic field, the magnetic and mechanical properties of metals. It gives a theoretical explanation on the change of fatigue damage due to magnetic fields observed by experiments, and presents an analytic approach on studying the fatigue damage of metal in magnetic field.

Fatigue Life Prediction of Horizontal Press Frame Based on Statistical Probability and Its Redesign

Horizontal press as an important part of hydro-forming machine is used to output the horizontal force to keep the high internal pressure during tube hydro-forming. However,the horizontal press frame is usually mounted on the press bed and not pre-stressed. Meanwhile it will be subjected to the reaction force caused by liquid pressure. Stresses are concentrated severely on the assemble region due to deformation,and total fatigue life will decrease. In order to predict the total fatigue life of the frame,the simulations are used firstly to determine to stress concentration region,and then strain gauge measurements are carried out under different loads. Next,the methods of statistical probability are conducted to calculate the fatigue life based on long-term load history. Finally a structure with the considerable longer fatigue life is redesigned.