Critique on fracture criteria in mixed-mode-loading

The paper presents an improved formulation of mixed-mode fracture criteria. Both the fracture toughness K_IC and K_IIC are taken into account. Consequently, the crack propagation direction and the fracture envelope in the and plane depends on the toughness ratio . In the plane only one envelope for each criterion is obtained.     

A combined fatigue crack initiation and propagation specimen—its initial development

The investigation detailed in this paper involves the initial design and development of a specimen geometry, designated as a BN(T) specimen, that is suitable for the combined determination of: (a) the fatigue crack initiation; and (b) the fatigue crack propagation, characteristics of materials. The experimental procedure developed during the course of this investigation is applied to a Ti---6Al-4V titanium alloy. This crack initiation and propagation test involves the use of the BN(T) compact-tension specimen with a polished notch root that facilitates an in-situ replication technique for the detection of crack initiation, and a modification of the ASTM-E647 Standard for crack growth data acquisition. The stress intensity factors, K_I, associated with the BN(T) specimen are established in this paper by means of a numerical finite element investigation. The use of this unique specimen for fatigue testing gives very satisfactory results and its extended use is expected.     

钢轨表面剥离掉块路径预测研究

轮轨滚动接触下,钢轨表面会产生典型的鱼钩形剥离掉块,其形成机理目前暂未明确.为了探究轮轨滚动接触下钢轨表面裂纹扩展机理,基于最大周向拉应力准则,建立轮轨滚动接触疲劳计算模型,提出裂尖扩展路径预测方法,并对不同初始角度裂纹的扩展路径进行预测.结果表明,钢轨表面微裂纹为Ⅰ-Ⅱ复合型裂纹,随着裂纹长度增加,KⅠ先增加后减小,...     

Crack propagation in concrete: Linear elastic fracture mechanics and boundary element method

Crack propagation in concrete is investigated by application of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) and the Boundary Element Method (BEM). Acoustic Emission (AE) measurement is made for detecting the load level at which unstable crack initiation occurs in a notched beam under bending. The corresponding critical stress intensity factor K_Ic does not vary appreciably with notch depth. This result is in contrast to that found by the conventional procedure.The critical stress intensity factor K_Ic is employed to analyze the process of crack propagation in an arbitraty direction. The BEM prediction is in good agreement with the experiments.The detection and assessment of crack initiation in concrete structures is of considerable technical interest.     

Resolved shear stress intensity coefficient and fatigue crack growth in large crystals

Fatigue crack growth is caused primarily by shear decohesion due to dislocation motion in the crack tip region. The resolved shear stress, which drives dislocation in a crystal, is strongly orientation dependent, and therefore, the cyclic plastic deformation of the shear decohesion process is highly anisotropic.The crack planes are often inclined to the loading axis both in the inplane orientation and in the thickness direction. This inclination induces all three modes of the crack tip stress field, K_I, K_II, and K_III.Fatigue crack growth in large-grain Al 7029 aluminum alloy was studied. The crack tip stress fields of the test specimens are calculated with the finite element method. The values of K_I, K_II, and K_III are evaluated. The orientation of the crystal at a crack tip was determined with the Laue X-ray method. The crystal orientation and the calculated crack tip stress fields are used to compute the resolved shear stress intensity of each of the twelve slip systems of the crystal at the crack tip. The resolved shear stress field of a slip system is linearly proportional to the resolved shear stress intensity coefficient, RSSIC.The values of RSSIC thus evaluated are used to analyze the orientations of the crack plane and to correlate with the shear fatigue crack growth rate.     

Influence of indenter geometry on half-plane with edge crack subjected to fretting condition

An edge crack is analyzed to study fretting failure. A flat punch with rounded corners and a half-plane are regarded as an indenter and a substrate, respectively. Plane strain condition is considered. Contact shear traction in the case of partial slip is evaluated numerically. It is assumed that an initial crack is extended to the point of minimum strain energy density in the half-plane from the trailing edge of contact. Dislocation density function method is used to evaluate K_I and K_II. The variations of K_I and K_II during crack growth are examined in the case of indentation by a punch with different ratio of the flat region (l) to the punch width (L). Sih's minimum strain energy density theory [1] is also applied to predict the propagation direction of the initial crack. The direction evaluated is similar to that found in the experiment. Stress intensity factor ranges (ΔK_I and ΔK_II) are examined during cyclic shear on the contact. For the design of contacting bodies, a suggestible geometry of punch for alleviating cracking failure is studied.     

Dislocation pile-up model of fatigue thresholds for 2024- and 7075-alike aluminium alloys

Two parameters, K_max^* and δK_th^*, are presented to describe fatigue threshold behaviour and damage under any load ratio without invoking crack closure. Modelled are two fatigue thresholds that are coherently related to fatigue limit δσ_FL; they predict the fundamental threshold curves for aluminium alloys. By using a continuous configuration of dislocations in pile-up, fatigue limit behaviour is simulated as pile-up of dislocations against grain boundaries. A fatigue limit is determined in terms of a critical condition at which a fictitious microcrack associated with the pile-up corresponds to the onset of propagation. These two fatigue thresholds are attainable as the local stresses at the crack front approaching the fatigue limit. Microstructure is incorporated in the model to account for the effect on threshold behaviour. As a result, two fatigue threshold criteria are required. Quantitative assessment of the two criteria requires only knowledge of the conventional material properties in conjunction with microstructure. The micromechanical modelling exhibits a strong dependence of fatigue thresholds upon local microstructure.     

Finite-deformation analysis of the crack-tip fields under cyclic loading

The plane-strain crack subjected to mode I cyclic loading under small scale yielding was analysed. The influence of the load range, load ratio and overload on the near-tip deformation-, stress- and strain-fields was studied. Although the near-tip zones of appreciable cyclic plastic flow for all loading regimes matched closely one another, when scaled with (ΔK/σ_Y)², the activities of plastic flow within them manifested dependence on K_max and K_min, as well as on overload. Cyclic trajectories of the crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) converged to stable self-similar loops of the sizes proportional to ΔK² and positions in CTOD-K plane dependent on the maximum K along the whole loading route, including an overload. Computed near-tip deformation evidenced plastic crack advance, this way visualising of the Laird–Smith concept of fatigue cracking. This crack growth by blunting-resharpening accelerated with rising ΔK and was halted by an overload. Crack closure upon unloading had no place. The affinities were revealed between computed near-tip stress–strain variables and the experimental trends of the fatigue crack growth rate, such as its dependence on K_max and K_min (or ΔK and K_max), and retardation by overload. Thus, the effects of loading parameters on fatigue cracking, hitherto associated with crack closure, are attributable to the stress–strain fields in front of it as the direct drives of the key fatigue constituents – damage accumulation and bond breaking.     

干态下车轮材料表面疲劳裂纹萌生试验研究

利用WR-1轮轨滚动磨损试验机,结合安定极限理论研究了干态下影响车轮材料表面疲劳裂纹萌生与扩展的因素,探究了表面疲劳损伤形成机理和演变规律.结果表明:随垂向力、横向力和冲角增大,表面疲劳裂纹越容易萌生扩展;冲角对表面疲劳裂纹的萌生与扩展起着重要作用,大冲角下斜线状表面疲劳裂纹萌生扩展明显;只有横向力而不存在冲角时,试样表面不会出现斜线状表面疲劳损伤;车轮试样在周期性循环载荷作用下在表面先形成塑性流动,然后沿轮轨表面切向力方向扩展成斜线状的表面疲劳起皮剥落损伤;垂向力是影响表面裂纹萌生时间的重要因素之一.     

Experimental investigation on the propagation of fatigue cracks emanating from sharp notches

The effect of notch geometry on the propagation of fatigue cracks emanating from sharp V-shaped notches is investigated by means of an experimental campaign performed on Al-7075-T651 specimens carrying notches with opening angles of 45°, 90°, and 135°. The samples were tested using a servohydraulic machine under different loading directions and at several loading levels. The crack deflection induced by the variation in loading direction was determined my measuring the kinking angle and by studying the crack propagation plane through fractographic analysis. A linear elastic fracture mechanics approach was adopted for the analysis of experimental results. Stress intensity factors were calculated using an appropriate weight function set up for studying inclined edge cracks emanating from sharp V-notches. The influence of K _II on the crack propagation was discussed on the basis of theoretical and semi empirical models.     

Material plasticity dependence of mixed mode fatigue crack growth in commonly used engineering materials

In this paper, an investigation of fatigue crack propagation in rectangular plates containing an inclined surface crack is presented. A criterion for the three-dimensional stress state is proposed to predict fatigue crack initiation angles. It is assumed that the direction of crack initiation coincides with the direction of the minimum radius of the plastic zone defined by the von Mises yield criterion. The maximum energy release rate criterion, i.e., G_max criterion, is extended to study the fatigue crack growth characteristics of mixed mode cracks. A modification has been made to this criterion to implement the consideration of the plastic strain energy. Subsequently, this concept is applied to predict crack growth due to fatigue loads. Experiments for checking the theoretical predictions from the proposed criterion have been conducted. The results obtained are compared with those obtained using the commonly employed fracture criteria and the test data.     

Fatigue crack extension behaviour in porous plasma spray 80%Ni---20%Cr material: The influence of R-ratio

This paper attempts to describe the fatigue crack growth response of a plasma spray 80%---20%Cr material, utilised in the corrosion protection of engineering components, whose microstructure consisted of (i) an austenitic matrix, (ii) a secondary dispersion of a chromite non-metallic inclusion phase and (iii) regions of closed and connected porosity.It was demonstrated that little or no effect of R-ratio was observed on the threshold stress intensity range ΔK_th, which was attributed to both the materials fine to intermediate grain size and probable plain stress testing conditions which significantly decrease crack closure effects. At intermediate fatigue crack growth rates high ratio results were an order of magnitude faster than the low R-ratio data. This was the result of the high R-ratio case seeking out more regions of porosity which then increased the local ΔK on the remaining ligaments leading to accelerated crack growth rates.Porosity was shown to significantly decrease the value of ΔK_th and the extent of porosity observed on fatigue fracture surfaces increased with ΔK level and was well in excess of that of 5% recorded by metallography. Hence the growing fatigue crack preferentially sought out regions of porosity as they represented locations of low fracture energy.     

Fatigue crack growth through residual stress fields—theoretical and experimental studies on thick-walled cylinders

Experiments are described which determined the effects of various residual stress distributions on the growth rate of fatigue cracks. For each stress distribution, the contribution (K_RS) to the net stress intensity at the crack tip is determined, and a comparison is then made with the behaviour predicted using a fracture mechanics approach based on a weight function analysis and a simple crack closure model. The example studied is a thickwalled pressure vessel containing a longitudinal crack which grows radially from the inner surface; fatigue cracks were grown under laboratory conditions in ring test specimens. sectioned from vessels which had been cold-expanded by different amounts to increase their pressure limits, and so contained various complex residual stress distributions. The experiments provide direct evidence that the effects of residual stress (and by extension, thermal stress) on the crack tip stress intensity may be modelled conveniently using weight function techniques, and can be incorporated satisfactorily in fatigue crack growth analyses.     

Ultrasonic evaluation of fatigue crack growth of high strength steel at ambient temperature and below

By means of an ultrasonic testing device, the crack length in compact tension specimens is monitored. Four ultrasonic probes are used to cover the region of crack extension by transmission waves. The echo of the crack is amplified during fatigue crack propagation. By a knowledge of the initial crack length after precracking and the critical crack length, the alteration of the ultrasonic echo provides the information for determining the intermediate crack length which can be used to calculate the stress intensity range ΔK with respect to the elapsed cycles and the crack growth rate, da/dN.     

Effect of stress ratio and specimen thickness on fatigue crack growth of CK45 steel

Presented are the effect of stress ratio and thickness on the fatigue crack growth rate of CK45 steel according to DIN 17200. Test results are obtained for constant amplitude load in tension with three stress ratios of R=0, 0.2 and 0.4 and three specimen thicknesses of B=6, 12 and 24 mm. Microgauge crack opening values were used to calculate ΔK_eff values from which the da/dN − ΔK_eff curves are obtained. Crack closure can be applied to explain the influence of mean stress and specimen thickness on the fatigue crack growth rate in the second regime of the two-parameter crack growth rate relation. An empirical model is chosen for calculating the normalized load ratio parameter U as a function of R, B and ΔK and, for correlating the test data.     

Electric-field-induced fatigue crack growth in ferroelectric ceramics

Electric-field-induced fatigue crack growth in pre-cracked PZT ferroelectric ceramics is experimentally investigated in this work. It is found that the crack open and close under an alternating electric field is a major mechanism of crack propagation. The experimental results also show that the frequency, waveform, as well as the amplitude ratio, of the electric loading, play important roles in electric-field-induced fatigue cracking. Empirical formulations of fatigue crack propagation rates are obtained based on the experimental results. It is revealed that the crack grows at a nearly constant rate when the loading frequency is below 100 Hz. However, with the increase of the loading frequency over 125 Hz, the crack propagation rate diminishes rapidly.     

螺栓连接件微动疲劳特性分析

工程中钢结构构件经常采用螺栓连接,被连接部位多处于复杂受力状态,单轴疲劳理论已无法满足该 形式下构件的寿命评估需求．针对现有理论不足,本文建立了螺栓连接件有限元模型,研究了不同工况下被连 接件微动疲劳裂纹萌生位置,并基于临界平面的多轴疲劳理论,比较了四种常用模型的适用性以及预测了连接 件的疲劳寿命．结果表明：(1) 裂纹萌生位置位于受拉端螺栓孔附近的滑移粘着区,在相同螺栓预紧力下,该 位置与施加的疲劳载荷大小无关;(2) 基于临界平面方法的四种模型均可以较好判断裂纹萌生位置,其中SWT (Smith-Watson-Topper)模型对不同载荷水平下的螺栓连接件微动疲劳寿命预测效果较好,大部分预测结果位于± 2倍分散带之内,预测结果优于其他三种模型;(3) 在规范规定的螺栓预紧力范围内,被连接件裂纹萌生区域距 孔边的距离与预紧力大小无关,可能是由于预紧力变化范围内的粘着滑移区未发生明显变化所致,并且随着预 紧力减小,被连接件的寿命预测值反而增大     

Fatigue crack propagaion under mixed mode loading

Mixed model fatigue crack propagation is analyzed in this paper, using a centre cracked plate geometry, loaded under un-iaxial cyclic tension. Based on maximum principal stress criterion, a modified Paris expression of fatigue crack growth rate is derived in terms of ΔK and crack angle β_α for an inclined crack. It is also shown that it is more convenient to express the Paris equation by means of crack length projected on the x -axis, α_x rather than the actual length, α itself. The crack trajectory due to cyclic loading is predicted, β is varied from 29° to 90°. Experimental data on Type L3 aluminium agree fairly well with predicted values when β_α exceeds 30°.     

Unsteady Dynamic Crack Propagation in a Brittle Polymer

Dynamic crack propagation in a brittle polymer, poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA), was studied using the method of caustics in combination with a Cranz–Schardin high-speed camera. Four different types of specimen geometry and loading method were employed to achieve the crack acceleration, deceleration, and/or reacceleration processes in one fracture event. The dynamic stress intensity factor K _ID and crack velocity were obtained in the course of the crack propagation and the corresponding relationship was determined. The effect of the crack acceleration and deceleration on the K _ID-velocity relationships was as follows: (1) the variations of K _ID and the velocity were strongly influenced by the specimen geometry and loading method; (2) the velocity change was qualitatively in accord with K _ID; (3) K _ID for a constant crack velocity was larger when the crack decelerated than it was when the crack accelerated or reaccelerated; (4) K _ID for an acceleration-free crack was uniquely related to the velocity; and (5) K _ID could be expressed as two parametric functions of the velocity and acceleration.     

Acoustic emission monitoring of crack propagation in additively manufactured and conventional titanium components

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel and innovative production technology that can produce complex and lightweight engineering products. In AM components, as in all engineering materials, fatigue is considered as one of the principle causes of unexpected failure. In order to detect, localise and characterise cracks in various material components and metals, acoustic emission (AE) is used as a non-destructive monitoring technique. One of the main advantages of AE is that it can be also used for dynamic damage characterisation and specifically for crack propagation monitoring. In this research, we use AE to monitor the fatigue crack growth behaviour of Ti6Al4V components under four-point bending. The samples were produced by means of AM as well as conventional material. Notched and unnotched specimens were investigated with respect to the crack severity and crack detection using AE. The main AE signal parameters –such as cumulative events, hits, duration, average frequency and rise time– were evaluated and indicate sensitivity to damage propagation in order to lead to a warning against the final fracture occurrence. This is the first time that AE is applied in AM components under fatigue.