Use of dynamic speckle interferometry for contactless diagnostics of fatigue crack initiation and determining its growth rate

Steel 09G2S specimens are subjected to cyclic tests, and real-time monitoring of the initiation of a fatigue crack and its growth kinetics is performed by dynamic speckle interferometry. The time averaging of speckles are used to reveal a relation between the parameters that characterize random and deterministic changes in the relief height and speckle images of the surface near the notch during crack initiation.     

An energy-equilibrium model for complex stress effect on fatigue crack initiation

Based on Tanaka and Mura’s fatigue model and Griffith theory for fracture,an energy-equilibrium model was proposed to explain the complex stress effect on fatigue behavior.When the summation of the elastic strain energy release and the stored strain energy of accumulated dislocations reach the surface energy of a crack,the fatigue crack will initiate in materials.According to this model,for multiaxial stress condition,the orientation of the crack initiation and the initiation life can be deduced from the energy equilibrium equation.For the uniaxial fatigue loading with mean stress,the relation between the maximum stress or the minimum stress and the stress amplitude is in agreement with an ellipse equation on the constant life diagram.If the ratio of the mean stress to stress amplitude is less than a critical value-0.17,and the stress amplitude keeps constant,the fatigue crack initiation life will decrease with the increase of the compress mean stress.In this model,the mean stress does not cause damage accumulation with the fatigue cycles in crack initiation.For this reason,the loading sequence of different load levels would induce the cumulative damage to deviate from the Palmgren-Miner cumulative damage rule.The procedure of estimating the damage under random loading is also discussed.     

Nonlinear ultrasonic wave modulation for online fatigue crack detection

This study presents a fatigue crack detection technique using nonlinear ultrasonic wave modulation. Ultrasonic waves at two distinctive driving frequencies are generated and corresponding ultrasonic responses are measured using permanently installed lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers with a potential for continuous monitoring. Here, the input signal at the lower driving frequency is often referred to as a ‘pumping’ signal, and the higher frequency input is referred to as a ‘probing’ signal. The presence of a system nonlinearity, such as a crack formation, can provide a mechanism for nonlinear wave modulation, and create spectral sidebands around the frequency of the probing signal. A signal processing technique combining linear response subtraction (LRS) and synchronous demodulation (SD) is developed specifically to extract the crack-induced spectral sidebands. The proposed crack detection method is successfully applied to identify actual fatigue cracks grown in metallic plate and complex fitting-lug specimens. Finally, the effect of pumping and probing frequencies on the amplitude of the first spectral sideband is investigated using the first sideband spectrogram (FSS) obtained by sweeping both pumping and probing signals over specified frequency ranges.     

An amplitude correlation and differencing method for the monitoring of flaws in repeat ultrasonic inspections

A new amplitude correlation and differencing (ACD) method for the detection of flaw changes using digital pulse-echo ultrasonic data is proposed. The ACD method is based on signal processing techniques applied to digitized pulse amplitudes from scans of the same transducer recorded during two separate ultrasonic inspections. Changes in flaws with a wide variety of sizes and other characteristics can be detected, provided the change is in a direction perpendicular to the centre line of the ultrasonic beam.Practical experience of this method was gained by analysis of ultrasonic data from two inspections of a weld, separated by a year. The effectiveness of the ACD method for flaw monitoring is compared with that of the 6 dB drop sizing method, before and after resolution improvement by the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT).     

A new method for determining deformation amplitudes in ultrasonic fatigue systems

An experimental procedure is described, which allows determination of the deformation parameters of materials excited in resonance with high amplitude ultrasound. The theory concerning resonance in the case of hysteresis phenomena is outlined briefly. By this procedure the maximum stress in the sample and the plastic strain can be determined from measurements of strain and particle velocity obtained in the region where the sample remains elastic. Experimentally obtained data on aluminium samples are discussed and compared with respect to predicted theory.     

超声动态测距的一种直接数字解调处理方法

为了减少传统的相位差超声动态测距的复杂性,提出了一种基于直接数字解调的信号处理方法。运用STM32内部两路A/D同步采集超声测量信号与参考信号,对这两组信号数据通过最小二乘椭圆拟合方法,计算[-π,π]单周期范围内的实时相位差。在此基础上,对实时相位差进行解包裹运算,得到绝对相位差。最后,通过绝对相位差的变化量与距离变化量成正比的关系,计算出实时的动态变化距离值。实验结果表明:当目标速度不超过2.5 m/s时,该方法能够准确地将距离值直接解调出来,满足动态变化条件下跟踪测距要求。     

裂纹尖端超声散射场及动应力集中的动态光弹观测

超声波在裂纹尖端发生散射和动应力集中。深入研究裂纹尖端与超声波的相互作用是进行裂纹精确检测与评价的物理基础。在线性声学范畴内,裂纹尖端的散射场与弹性动力学的经典Lamb问题类似,而非线性响应更加复杂。利用动态光弹观测技术,可给出超声波在裂纹尖端散射过程的直观物理图像。无论是用于理论结果的实验验证,还是定量分析线性散射场和动应力集中现象,抑或深入探索非线性响应,动态光弹观测技术都可起到重要作用,因此,相关研究将促进检测声学与无损检测技术的发展。     

Effect of surface treatment for steel adherends on static and fatigue crack growth of epoxy adhesives

The fracture toughness of unmodified, glass-bead-reinforced and CNBR-modified epoxy adhesives under mode I loading is not improved by acid surface treatment of steel adherends since cohesive failure always occurs for all adhesives with or without acid surface treatment. On the other hand, the fatigue crack growth resistance greatly increases due to acid surface treatment of steel adherends. Especially, the threshold dramatically increases. The crack grows cohesively at all stages of crack velocity for DCB specimens treated with acids while it grows at the interface between the adherend and the adhesive layer for the specimens whose polished surface of adherends is only decreased with solvent. An optical microscope observation revealed that adherend surfaces treated with acids were rougher than ones without acid treatment, although XPS examination for the surfaces did not show significant difference in their chemical elements among the specimens with and without acid treatment.     

机器视觉疲劳裂纹扩展试验摄像头自动聚焦方法

在机器视觉疲劳裂纹扩展试验中,为了能够满足对裂纹宏观观察裂纹和准确定位裂纹尖端的要求,需要采用变焦镜头放大和缩小采集图像范围,针对于摄像头变焦后的聚焦问题,提出了摄像头的自动聚焦方法。首先建立图像采集系统,采集裂纹图像至计算机,通过中值滤波对图像预处理,去除噪声干扰,选取裂纹区域作为聚焦窗口,采用Laplace算子法作为清晰度评价函数,并提出一种变步长穷举法进行聚焦搜索。最后设计了以ARM7为核心的摄像头运动控制器。实验表明,所提出的方法能够实现疲劳裂纹扩展试验中摄像头在各种情况下的准确自动聚焦,为下一步精确测量疲劳裂纹扩展参数奠定基础。     

Low-cycle fatigue small crack initiation and propagation behaviour of cast magnesium alloys based on in-situ SEM observations

In-situ observations on the initiation and propagation behaviour of low-cycle fatigue small cracks in cast magnesium–aluminium alloys (AM50 and AM60B) were carried out with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to elucidate the resistance to fatigue cracking and to evaluate the fatigue small crack growth rate accurately and quantitatively. The results indicate that the fatigue small cracks formed preferentially on β-phase (Mg₁₇Al₁₂) boundaries at room temperature. In addition, the effects of the parameters of stress levels in low-cycle fatigue and temperatures as well as microstructure on fatigue small crack propagation behaviour are revealed. The variation of crack open displacement (COD) with stress levels and cycles at elevated temperature shows that it is unsuitable to estimate the fatigue small crack growth rate of cast magnesium alloys using conventional measurement methods such as the plastic-replica technique due to the obvious difference between microscopic cracks in the open and closed states. Stabilized crack propagation behaviour is limited to cases where the physical crack length is less than 1?mm in low-cycle fatigue.     

Magnetic detection of crack initiation and propagation

Crack initiation and propagation in steel has been detected by measurements of magnetic flux variations.     

An ultrasonic method for measuring stresses in engineering materials

A ‘multiparameter’ method for indirect evaluation of intrinsic anisotropy values for prestressed engineering materials is discussed. The proposed method is based on simultaneous measurement of both the velocity of elastic waves and the parameters, characterizing the frequency dispersion and/or attenuation. Preliminary experimental demonstrations of the feasibility of such methods for common engineering materials are presented.     

An ultrasonic multi-wave focusing and imaging method for linear phased arrays

To overcome the inherent limits of traditional single wave imaging for nondestructive testing,the multi-wave focusing and imaging method is thoroughly studied.This method makes the compressional waves and shear waves focused in both emission and reception processes,which strengthens the focusing energy and improves the signal-to-noise ratio of received signals.A numerical model is developed to study the characteristics of a multi-wave focusing field.It is shown that the element width approaching 0.8 wavelengths of shear waves can keep a balance between the radiation energy of two waves,which can achieve a desirable multi-wave focusing performance.And an experiment using different imaging methods for a linear phased array is performed.It can be concluded that due to the combination of the propagation and reflection characteristics of two waves,the multi-wave focusing and imaging method can significantly improve the imaging distinguishability of defects and expand the available sweeping range to a sector of-650 to 65°.     

列车外圆弹簧疲劳损伤的非线性超声测试

进行了列车外圆弹簧在疲劳载荷作用下所产生损伤的非线性超声测试。对列车外圆弹簧进行疲劳加载,利用专门的非线性超声测试系统激发和接收透过弹簧的超声纵波。在相应的信号处理后,建立了声学非线性系数与弹簧疲劳次数之间的关系。实验结果表明,当疲劳次数小于150万次时,由于弹簧材料内部位错、滑移带等微观缺陷还没有形成足以产生显著非线性的积累,该非线性系数增长不明显;当疲劳次数达到150万次至300万次之间的疲劳响应期时,非线性系数增加明显,表明弹簧材料的内部损伤快速增加;当疲劳次数超过300万次时,弹簧材料的内部损伤积累速度减缓,非线性系数增加放缓。该研究表明列车外圆弹簧的疲劳损伤程度与其声学非线性系数直接相关,利用该方法可以为材料和结构早期力学性能退化的检测和评价提供一种有效的途径。     

An extensive 3D dislocation dynamics investigation of stage-I fatigue crack propagation

Stage-I fatigue crack propagation is investigated using 3D discrete dislocation dynamics (DD) simulations. Slip-based propagation mechanisms and the role of the pre-existing slip band on the crack path are emphasized. Stage-I crack growth is found to be compatible with successive decohesion of the persistent slip band/matrix interface rather than a mere effect of plastic irreversibility. Corresponding crack tip slip displacement magnitude and the associated crack growth rate are evaluated quantitatively at various tip distances from the grain boundary. This shows that grain boundaries systematically amplify slip dispersion ahead of the crack tip and consequently, slow down the stage-I crack growth rate. The results help in developing an original crack propagation model, accounting for the boundary effects relevant to polycrystals. The crack growth trend is then evaluated from calculations of the energy changes due to crack length increments. It is shown that the crack necessarily propagates by increments smaller than 10 nm.     

From monoscale to multiscale modeling of fatigue crack growth: Stress and energy density factor

The formalism of the earlier fatigue crack growth models is retained to account for multiscaling of the fatigue process that involves the creation of macrocracks from the accumulation of micro damage.The effects of at least two scales,say micro to macro,must be accounted for.The same data can thus be reinterpreted by the invariancy of the transitional stress intensity factors such that the microcracking and macrocracking data would lie on a straight line.The threshold associated with the sigmoid curve disappears.Scale segmentation is shown to be a necessity for addressing multiscale energy dissipative processes such as fatigue and creep.Path independency and energy release rate are monoscale criteria that can lead to unphysical results,violating the first principles.Application of monoscale failure or fracture criteria to nanomaterials is taking toll at the expense of manufacturing super strength and light materials and structural components.This brief view is offered in the spirit of much needed additional research for the reinforcement of materials by creating nanoscale interfaces with sustainable time in service.The step by step consideraton at the different scales may offer a better understanding of the test data and their limitations with reference to space and time.     

超声非线性效应表征的动态小波指纹分析方法

针对结构早期损伤超声非线性检测中损伤表征问题,发展了一种基于动态小波指纹的超声信号分析方法,从超声信号的动态小波指纹分布中提取出一种可用于结构早期损伤表征的超声非线性特征参数。研究了小波基函数及分析尺度对超声非线性效应提取效果的影响,优选出对结构早期损伤敏感的小波基函数以及尺度范围。将提出的动态小波指纹分析方法应用于二次谐波及混频非线性超声检测信号分析,结果表明,动态小波指纹分析方法可有效提取出检测信号中的二次谐波及混频分量,基于小波指纹分布的非线性特征参数可用于板结构中微裂纹的定量表征.本文研究工作为结构早期损伤超声非线性检测中的弱非线性效应提取作了有益探索。