Evaluation Using Digital Image Correlation of Stress Intensity Factors in an Aerospace Panel

The fracture behavior of a crack propagating in a large (4.8 m × 1.4 m) aircraft panel was investigated quantitatively by experiment for the first time using digital image correlation. Mixed mode (I+II) stress intensity factors were evaluated using a methodology, which combined digital image correlation with the multi-point over-deterministic method to fit displacement field equations to the experimental data from around a crack tip. More than 800 images were taken during a 10-minute time period as the fracture of the panel occurred under monotonic loading. It was observed that the crack propagated through the skin of the panel at a relatively low speed, with an average crack tip velocity of 0.014 mm/s, and changed its propagation direction at particular points due to the reinforcement of the structure. In the later stages of the test, substantial shear lips were observed indicating a state of plane stress as would be expected in a thin, wide panel and the size of the plastic zone increased substantially. The value of the mode I stress intensity factor obtained from the measured displacement fields initially increased linearly to around 50 MPa√m (K_Ic = 37 MPa√m) and afterwards non-linearly reaching 300 to 400 MPa√m for crack extensions of the order of 100 mm. It is proposed that these high values of stress intensity factor do not represent an unrealistically high material fracture toughness but rather are indicative of the high resistance to crack growth of the structural assemblage of ribs, stringers and hole reinforcements in the panel which allow the skin to sustain a strain level that would otherwise cause unstable crack growth. Digital image correlation is demonstrated to be particularly powerful in elucidating this structural behavior.     

块谱特征与疲劳裂纹随机扩展

目前的疲劳裂纹随机扩展模型大多建立在损伤逐步累积的基础上，其数学描述繁琐复杂，计算用时较多。本文较为深入地研究了载荷分散性对裂纹随机扩展的影响，定义了块谱强度Ｓｅｑ和形状因子α，并用这些特征去描述载荷分散性对裂纹随机扩展的影响，结果表明裂纹随机扩展的均值可以用块谱强度Ｓｅｑ恰当地描述，而块谱的形状因子α可以很好地反映裂纹随机扩展的方差，因此通过块谱的特征迅速获取裂纹随机扩展的参数是可行的。     

基于数字散斑相关方法测定Ⅰ型裂纹应力强度因子

提出了一种通过数字散斑相关方法测定金属材料Ⅰ型裂纹尖端位置和应力强度因子的实验方法.实验采用疲劳试验机对含Ⅰ型缺口的Cr12MoV钢试件预制裂纹,通过数字散斑相关方法测试试件在三点弯曲加载条件下裂纹的扩展过程及裂尖区域的位移场.将位移场数据代入裂尖位移场方程组,采用牛顿-拉普森方法求解含未知参量的裂尖非线性位移场方程组,计算裂尖位置和应力强度因子.实验结果表明,采用该方法可以准确地测定金属材料Ⅰ型裂纹应力强度因子、裂尖位置及裂纹扩展长度,解决了以往研究中因不能准确测定裂纹尖端位置,而无法准确计算Ⅰ型裂纹裂尖断裂参数的难题,揭示了金属材料裂纹扩展过程中应力强度因子演化特征.     

试验确定自增强圆筒的表面裂纹K1因子和疲劳扩展规律

本文提供了一种可以进行自增强处理的圆筒试样,通过实验用柔度法确定了该试样的表面裂纹的应力强度因子,介绍了含表面裂纹试样的柔度测试技术,导出了柔度与表面裂纹尖端前缘各点的应力强度因子的关系式,该式可作为各种含表面裂纹试样柔度法测表面裂纹 K_1因子的参考,本文还测定了不同自增强程度下,自增强圆筒的表面裂纹疲劳扩展规律。     

The Stress Intensity Factor for an Elliptic Crack Under a Piecewise-Constant Load

A closed approximate solution is given for the stress intensity factor (SIF) at the front of an elliptic crack under uniform loading on the elliptic ring. The solution is constructed by modifying Rice's variational formula that integrally relates the SIFs for two different states on the crack faces. The first state is a combination of the second and principal states such that the total SIF is zero. In this case, Rice's formula reduces to the virtual-displacement principle for a combined loading on the crack faces.     

Residual Stress Measurement Using Hole Drilling and Integrated Digital Image Correlation Techniques

The effectiveness of optical (mostly interferometric) methods for the measurement of residual stresses is largely demonstrated in literature. Nevertheless, these techniques are still confined to optical laboratories due to their high sensitivity to vibrations which makes it very difficult to perform the measurement in an industrial environment. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has recently been proposed as a possible solution to this problem: this non-interferometric technique is much less affected by vibrations, but its sensitivity is relatively low, thus negatively affecting the accuracy of results. This work proposes to use a variant of Digital Image Correlation, known as Integrated DIC (iDIC), in combination with the hole drilling technique. Since iDIC directly incorporates in its formulation the displacement field related to hole drilling, it overcomes most of the problems of standard DIC; in this way it is possible to obtain accurate results without using interferometric techniques.     

Residual Stress Analysis of Orthotropic Materials Using Integrated Digital Image Correlation

Measuring residual stress in an orthotropic material is a difficult task due to the complex behavior of the material. Recently, two different approaches based on Smith’s simplified real value formulation and the general solution developed by Lekhnitskii have been proposed. Both solutions assume the measurement of the displacement field via interferometric optical methods and estimate stress values through solving an inverse problem. However, the high sensitivity to vibrations of interferometric techniques makes their use difficult outside optical laboratories; standard Digital Image Correlation could be used, but its low sensitivity and relatively high standard deviation of displacements severely affect the reliability of estimates. In this work we propose to integrate the residual stress displacement functions related to orthotropic materials into the shape functions of Digital Image Correlation. This makes it possible overcome most of the problems related to low sensitivity and large standard deviation because a single large patch can be used for the measurement, thus providing an accurate and reliable algoritm for the measurement of residual stress.     

Study of a Crack at a Fastener Hole by Digital Image Correlation

In this work the efficacy of using digital image correlation to determine stress intensity factors for a crack emanating from a fastener hole has been investigated. To this end a fatigue crack was grown in pure mode I from a 50 mm diameter hole in an Al 7010 alloy plate test-piece. This crack was then loaded elastically under several combinations of mixed mode (I + II) displacements. In each case, images of the sample surface before and after the deformation were recorded using a high resolution digital camera. The surface preparation consisted only of scratching the surface lightly with silicon carbide abrasive paper. The crack location and resulting displacements were then calculated using digital image correlation. The analytical displacement fields for a traction free crack under arbitrary loading conditions based on the Muskhelishvili’s complex function approach were fitted to the experimentally measured displacement fields and the mixed mode stress intensity factor was determined in each case. Good agreement with the nominal applied values was obtained. The uncertainty of the crack tip position has a major influence on the accuracy of the stress intensity factors and so the Sobel edge finding filter was successfully applied to experimental displacement fields to establish precisely the crack tip location. This paper was presented at the 2007 SEM Congress held in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA     

压电材料平面问题的尖端场和应力强度因子的求解

利用Lekhnitskii理论和Stroh理论的相互联系,把已知的基于Lekhnitskii理论平面应变结果转化为Stroh理论形式的结果,直接获得Stroh公式中A,B的显式表达式,此方法可扩展到平面应力情况,然后导出压电材料平面应变问题的尖端场Williams形式的展开式,采用半权函数法计算有限大压电体平面问题应力和电位移强度因子。对无穷大板含中心裂纹的情况下本文结果和已有结果进行了比较,表明本文方法得到的结果精度可靠。本文方法的最大优点是可以求解有限压电体的应力强度因子,并且需要的单元少,精度高,实用性好。     

Micron-Scale Residual Stress Measurement by Micro-Hole Drilling and Digital Image Correlation

This paper reports a new technique, namely the incremental micro-hole-drilling method (IμHD) for mapping in-plane residual or applied stresses incrementally as a function of depth at the micron-scale laterally and the sub-micron scale depth-wise. Analogous to its macroscale counterpart, it is applicable either to crystalline or amorphous materials, but at the sub-micron scale. Our method involves micro-hole milling using the focused ion beam (FIB) of a dual beam FEGSEM/FIB microscope. The resulting surface displacements are recorded by digital image correlation of SEM images recorded during milling. The displacement fields recorded around the hole are used to reconstruct the stress profile as a function of depth. In this way residual stresses have been characterized around a drilled hole of 1.8microns. diameter, enabling the profiling of the stress variation at the sub-micron scale to a depth of 1.8 microns. The new method is used to determine the near surface stresses in a (peened) surface-severe-plastically-deformed (S²PD) Zr₅₀Cu₄₀Al₁₀ (in atomic percent, at.%) bulk metallic glass bar. In plane principal stresses of -800 MPa ± 90 MPa and −600 MPa ± 90 MPa were measured, the maximum compressive stress being oriented 15° to the axis of the bar.     

The Evolution of Stress Intensity Factors and the Propagation of Cracks in Elastic Media

When a crack Γ _s propagates in an elastic medium the stress intensity factors evolve with the tip x(s) of Γ _s . In this paper we derive formulae which describe the evolution of these stress intensity factors for a homogeneous isotropic elastic medium under plane strain conditions. Denoting by ψ=ψ(x,s) the stress potential (ψ is biharmonic and has zero traction along the crack Γ _s ) and by κ(s) the curvature of the crack at the tip x(s), we prove that the stress intensity factors A ₁(s), A ₂(s), as functions of s, satisfy:

Operational Modal Analysis of a Helicopter Rotor Blade Using Digital Image Correlation

A novel procedure to perform operational modal analysis on a reduced-scale, 2 m diameter helicopter rotor blade is described. Images of the rotor blade rotating at 900 RPM are captured by a pair of high-speed digital cameras at a sampling rate of 1000 frames per second. From these images, the out-of-plane bending deformation of the rotor blade is measured using Digital Image Correlation, with a spatial resolution of 7.2 mm and an accuracy of 60 μm, or 0.006 % of the rotor radius. Modal parameters including natural frequencies and mode shapes are determined from the bending deformation through application of the Ibrahim Time Domain method. The first three out-of-plane bending modes were identified at each rotational speed and compared to an analytical finite element model of the rotor blade. The experimental and analytical natural frequencies agreed to within 0.2 % in the best case and 10.0 % in the worst case. The experimental mode shapes were also found to closely match the analytical predictions. The results of this study demonstrate the ability of this procedure to accurately determine the modal parameters of rotating helicopter rotor blades.     

应用通用权函数法计算热机载荷作用下三维界面裂纹的应力强度因子

热机载荷共同作用下双材料、复合材料中的裂纹扩展往往发生在界面处,并且工程中实际遇到的裂纹大多数是三维裂纹,传统的求解热冲击及机械载荷共同作用下界面裂纹应力强度因子的数值方法如有限元、边界元法计算量大,计算效率低。由于通用权函数仅仅与裂纹体的几何形状有关,与载荷、时间无关,求解应力强度因子时避免了反复的应力分析,计算效率大大提高, 通用权函数法非常适合计算复杂冲击载荷下应力强度因子分布的过渡过程。根据Betti互易原理,本文推导出了三维界面裂纹问题通用权函数法的普遍表达式,并给出了热机载荷共同作用下三维界面I型、Ⅱ型和Ⅲ型裂纹问题通用权函数法的有限元格式. 通过实例计算比较,表明此方法得到的结果可以达到满意的工程应用精度。     

Stress Intensity Factor for the Interaction between a Straight Crack and a Curved Crack in Plane Elasticity

Formulation in terms of hypersingular integral equations for the interaction between straight and curved cracks in plane elasticity is obtained using the complex variable functions method. The curved length coordinate method and a suitable numerical scheme are used to solve such integrals numerically for the unknown function, which are later used to find the stress intensity factor, SIF.     

Residual Stress Determination Using Hole Drilling and 3D Image Correlation

In recent years, the hole drilling method for determining residual stresses has been implemented with optical methods such as holographic interferometry and ESPI to overcome certain limitations of the strain rosette version of hole drilling. Although offering advantages, the interferometric methods require vibration isolation, a significant drawback to their use outside of the laboratory. In this study, a 3D image correlation approach was used to measure micron-sized surface displacements caused by the localized stress relief associated with hole drilling. Residual stresses were then found from the displacements using non-dimensional relations previously derived by finite element analysis. A major advantage of image correlation is that it does not require interferometric vibration isolation. Experiments were performed to check the ability of this new approach for uniaxial and equi-biaxial states of stress. Stresses determined by the approach were in good agreement with computed values and those determined by hole drilling using holographic interferometry.     

Thermographical Analysis of Paper During Tensile Testing and Comparison to Digital Image Correlation

The thermal response in paper has been studied by thermography. It was observed that an inhomogeneous deformation pattern arose in the paper samples during tensile testing. In the plastic regime a pattern of warmer streaks could be observed in the samples. On the same samples digital image correlation (DIC) was used to study local strain fields. It was concluded that the heat patterns observed by thermography coincided with the deformation patterns observed by DIC. Because of its fibrous network structure, paper has an inhomogeneous micro-structure, which is called formation. It could be shown that the formation was the cause of the inhomogeneous deformations in paper. Finite element simulations was used to show how papers with different degrees of heterogeneity would deform. Creped papers, where the strain at break has been increased, were analysed. For these paper it was seen that an overlaid compaction of the paper was created during the creping process. During tensile testing this was recovered as the paper network structure was strained.     

Mapping Microscale Strain Fields Around a Crack Tip in Molybdenum Via Geometric Phase Analysis and Digital Image Correlation

Uniaxial tension tests were conducted on single-edge-notched tensile specimens of pure molybdenum with a mesh grid pattern in front of the notch. A series of images of crack initialization and propagation with a distorted mesh grid pattern were obtained by means of in situ scanning electron microscopy. Strain fields around the crack tip were mapped successively using geometric phase analysis and digital image correlation techniques, and then compared with the predictions obtained through linear elastic fracture mechanics(LEFM). The comparison shows that the measured strain distribution ahead of the crack tip is consistent with the LEFM predictions of up to 25 μm from the crack tip.     

Mechanical Characterization of Coatings Using Microbeam Bending and Digital Image Correlation Techniques

A new technique for characterizing end-supported microbeams of coating materials is presented. Microbeams are fabricated using micro-EDM machining to isolate the material under investigation from the underlying substrate. Three- and four-point bending is realized by a custom-built microspecimen testing system, and digital image correlation is employed to capture full-field strains and displacements in theses microbeams. These experiments provide the foundation for the use of finite element modeling and inverse methods to determine the mechanical properties (elastic moduli, strength, interfacial toughness) of the coatings. Here, the experimental details of the microbeam bending experiments are explained, discussed and illustrated through application to a multilayered metal/oxide/ceramic thermal barrier coating system commonly used in aero-turbines.     

Statistical Analysis of the Effect of Intensity Pattern Noise on the Displacement Measurement Precision of Digital Image Correlation Using Self-correlated Images

This paper discusses the effect of intensity pattern noise on the displacement measurement precision of digital image correlation (DIC). Through mathematical deduction, a formula is presented to estimate the displacement measurement error caused by intensity pattern noise. The resulting formula synthetically reflects the effects of the variance of noise, the intensity variance and the subset size on the displacement measurement precision. To verify the correctness of the resulting formula, two experiments are done. The first one is a real self-correlation experiment, and aims to analyze the effect of the subset size, while the second is a numerical self-correlation experiment, and is to analyze to the effect of the different noise levels. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The project is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (10572103).