scholarly journals Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing in Earth and Rockfill Dam Using Extended Finite Element Method

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Enyue Ji ◽  
Zhongzhi Fu ◽  
Shengshui Chen ◽  
Jungao Zhu ◽  
Zhizhou Geng
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Crack Length ◽  
Initial Crack ◽  
Extended Finite Element ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Propagation Length ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
The Core ◽  
Rockfill Dam ◽  
Earth And Rockfill Dam

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most important factors affecting the safety of earth and rockfill dam. In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate the hydraulic fracturing behavior in an actual high earth and rockfill dam. The possibility of hydraulic fracturing occurrence is analyzed, and the critical crack length is obtained when hydraulic fracturing occurs. Then, the crack propagation path and length is obtained by inserting initial crack of different lengths at different elevation. The results indicate that hydraulic fracturing will not occur without the permeable weak surface (initial crack). The critical initial crack length required for hydraulic fracturing is 5.3 m of the calculation model in this paper. The propagation length decreases with the increase of elevation, and the average propagation length decreases from 9.4 m to 3.4 m. Furthermore, it is proved that the direction of crack propagation has a certain angle with the horizontal plane toward the downstream. Considering the up-narrow and down-wide type of the core wall, the possibility of hydraulic fracturing to penetrate the core is extremely high when the upper part of the core wall reaches the critical crack length.

Prediction of the Fatigue Life of the Vibrational Sieve Supporting Beam

2017 ◽  
Vol 755 ◽  
pp. 274-278
Author(s):  
Jelena M. Djoković ◽  
Ružica R. Nikolić ◽  
Jan Bujnak
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Length ◽  
Crack Propagation Rate ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Propagation Rate ◽  
Initial Crack ◽  
Initial Crack Length ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Remaining Fatigue Life

Vibrational sieves are exposed to exceptionally high cyclic loading during their working life and that is the reason why the special attention should be paid to estimates of the fatigue life of their structural elements, as well as to design with respect to fatigue fracture. Any change in the design appearance of the structural component must be carefully analyzed, since even the rearrangement of the components' elements layout, with keeping all the sizes constant, can cause serious consequences to the particular component's fatigue life. The research subject considered in this paper is the remaining fatigue life of the carrying beam, as well as the suggestions for improving the working life of the vibrational sieve. The Paris' law was used for estimates of the average crack propagation rate. From the presented diagram of the initial crack length versus the remaining working life one could see that the fatigue life decreases with the crack length increase. When the initial crack length reaches a value a little less than a half of the critical crack length, the remaining fatigue life starts to drop abruptly.

scholarly journals Behaviour of Damaged B.F.I. Beam Repaired by CFRP Strips under Static or Fatigue Loads Using Finite Element Simulation

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hala M. Refat ◽  
Mohamed H. Makhlouf
Keyword(s):  
Crack Length ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Initial Crack ◽  
Initial Crack Length ◽  
Load Range ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Reinforced Polymer ◽  
Element Simulation ◽  
Cfrp Strip

This paper presents the numerical study to simulate the fatigue crack growth of artificially damaged steel Broad Flange I- beams section by single edge notched repaired with carbon fiber reinforced polymer CFRP strips. The study is carried out using ANSYS classic modeling approach is suggested to simulate the fatigue response of the beams, based on the cumulative damage theory and strain life method. Experimental test results were compared with FE results obtained. A parametric study was conducted using the validated model. The considered parameters were the number of CFRP strip layers used in the repair, the applied load range, initial crack length at time of strengthening and the thickness of CFRP strip. The numerical results indicated that the CFRP increased the critical crack length at which fracture occurred, and the strengthening was more effective at lower stress ranges. Moreover, the CFRP Strips can substantially delay failure and the results demonstrate the possibility of technique and highlight the importance of early intervention when repairing fatigue critical details. The ultimate load and ductility decreased substantially with increasing initial crack length at the time of installing the strengthening layer. Furthermore, increased capacity was achieved by increase the CFRP thickness and layers.

Impact of PWSCC and Current Leak Detection on Leak-Before-Break Acceptance

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gery Wilkowski ◽  
Rick Wolterman ◽  
Dave Rudland
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Crack ◽  
Crack Length ◽  
Flow Path ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Cracking Behavior ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Crack Morphology ◽  
Actual Flow ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Morphology Parameters

This paper assesses the effect of using primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) crack morphology parameters (roughness, number of turns, and actual flow path/pipe thickness) in determining the difference in the leakage crack length, and how the difference in the leaking crack lengths changes typical margins from past LBB submittals and published reports. Several past LBB submittal cases were selected; in addition, cases from generic LBB reports published by EPRI were also selected. The results of the analyses showed that the past submittals by nuclear steam system supply (NSSS) companies frequently used the surface roughness comparable to an air-fatigue crack with no turns and the actual flow path equal to the thickness of the pipe. This condition would give the shortest possible leakage flaw length. The roughness, number of turns, and actual flow path to thickness ratio for PWSCC cracks were determined from photomicrographs of service-removed cracks. When using the PWSCC crack morphology parameters that corresponded to the crack growing parallel to the long direction of the dendritic grains (V.C. Summer and Ringhals cases), then the leakage flaw length increased 69 percent over the air-fatigue crack length at the same leak rate. Using the same critical crack length as was used in the initial LBB submittals and the published documents, the margins on the crack length changed from 1.77 to 6.0 for the initial submittals (which we also reproduced) to 0.88 to 2.74 from our calculations for a PWSCC crack. If the crack grew in the buttered region of the bimetallic weld, then based on metallographic sections from service-removed flaws, there would be a more tortuous flow path. For this crack condition, in all but one case, the margins on the normal operating versus N+SSE crack lengths were below the safety factor of two required for LBB approval. The average margin decreased from 3.39 for the air-fatigue crack to 1.55 for the PWSCC crack growing transverse to the long direction of the dendritic grains. This was about an additional 20 percent decrease in the margin from the case of having the PWSCC grow parallel to the long direction of the dendritic grains. These results show that LBB is difficult to satisfy for PWSCC susceptible pipe using the current SRP 3.6.3 LBB approach. This LBB assessment did not consider the possible development of a long circumferential surface crack, which would be more detrimental to LBB behavior. Such cracking behavior would violate the LBB screening criterion.

Fracture of Flat and Curved Aluminum Sheets With Stiffeners Parallel to the Crack

1961 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Frisch
Keyword(s):  
Crack Propagation ◽  
Crack Length ◽  
Uniaxial Tension ◽  
Radius Of Curvature ◽  
Appreciable Effect ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Crack Location ◽  
Aluminum Sheets ◽  
Curved Panels

The mode of crack propagation and failure in relatively large 2024-T3 aluminum sheets reinforced with stiffeners parallel to the crack direction has been investigated. Curved specimens with a 69-in. radius of curvature as well as flat panels were subjected to uniaxial tension perpendicular to a simulated crack to study the effects of curvature, crack location, and stiffener spacing. Increase in strength due to stiffening particularly in the curved panels was observed although these specimens exhibited considerable lower crack strength than flat ones. For the specimens tested, crack location as well as variations of stiffener spacing from 3 to 12 in. had no appreciable effect on either critical crack length or failure stress.

Numerical Analysis of the Crack Growth in a High Loaded Bolt Connection

2007 ◽  
Vol 348-349 ◽  
pp. 625-628
Author(s):  
Marko Knez ◽  
Srečko Glodež ◽  
Janez Kramberger
Keyword(s):  
Crack Growth ◽  
Crack Size ◽  
Initial Crack ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Final Failure ◽  
Heavy Loads ◽  
Bolt Connection

The present paper deals with the research on the crack growth in a bolt connection of a lug for crane counter weight bars. Counter weight bars are structural elements that are subjected to very heavy loads and therefore special attention must be paid. The main purpose of this research is to determine the number of the load cycles required for a crack to propagate from initial to critical crack length, when the final failure can be expected to occur. All required material parameters and the experimental results were determined in our previous research. The influence of the initial crack size upon the remaining life of the lug is researched numerically by means of finite element analysis and analytically by use of the corrected analytical model.

scholarly journals Validating modeled critical crack length for crack propagation in the snow cover model SNOWPACK

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Richter ◽  
Jürg Schweizer ◽  
Mathias W. Rotach ◽  
Alec van Herwijnen
Keyword(s):  
Crack Length ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Detection Method ◽  
Probability Of Detection ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Avalanche Forecasting ◽  
Snow Stratigraphy ◽  
Abstract Data

Abstract. Data on snow stratigraphy and snow instability are of key importance for avalanche forecasting. Snow cover models can improve the spatial and temporal resolution of such data, especially if they also provide information on snow instability. Recently, a new stability criterion, namely a parameterization for the critical crack length, was implemented into the snow cover model SNOWPACK. To validate and improve this parameterization, we therefore used data from three years of field experiments performed close to two automatic weather station above Davos, Switzerland. Monitoring the snowpack on a weekly basis allowed to investigate limitations of the model. Based on 145 experiments we replaced two variables of the original parameterization, which were not sufficiently well modeled, with a fit factor thereby decreasing the normalized root mean square error from 1.80 to 0.28. With this fit factor, the improved parameterization accounts for the grain size resulting in lower critical crack lengths for snow layers with larger grains. This also improved an automatic weak layer detection method using a simple local minimum by increasing the probability of detection from 0.26 to 0.91 and decreased the false alarm ratio from 0.89 to 0.47.

scholarly journals Validating modeled critical crack length for crack propagation in the snow cover model SNOWPACK

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 3353-3366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Richter ◽  
Jürg Schweizer ◽  
Mathias W. Rotach ◽  
Alec van Herwijnen
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Crack Propagation ◽  
Crack Length ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Critical Crack ◽  
Critical Crack Length ◽  
Avalanche Forecasting ◽  
Weak Layer ◽  
Snow Stratigraphy

Abstract. Observed snow stratigraphy and snow stability are of key importance for avalanche forecasting. Such observations are rare and snow cover models can improve the spatial and temporal resolution. To evaluate snow stability, failure initiation and crack propagation have to be considered. Recently, a new stability criterion relating to crack propagation, namely the critical crack length, was implemented into the snow cover model SNOWPACK. The critical crack length can also be measured in the field with a propagation saw test, which allows for an unambiguous comparison. To validate and improve the parameterization for the critical crack length, we used data from 3 years of field experiments performed close to two automatic weather stations above Davos, Switzerland. We monitored seven distinct weak layers and performed in total 157 propagation saw tests on a weekly basis. Comparing modeled to measured critical crack length showed some discrepancies stemming from model assumption. Hence, we replaced two variables of the original parameterization, namely the weak layer shear modulus and thickness, with a fit factor depending on weak layer density and grain size. With these adjustments, the normalized root-mean-square error between modeled and observed critical crack lengths decreased from 1.80 to 0.28. As the improved parameterization accounts for grain size, values of critical crack lengths for snow layers consisting of small grains, which in general are not weak layers, become larger. In turn, critical weak layers appear more prominently in the vertical profile of critical crack length simulated with SNOWPACK. Hence, minimal values in modeled critical crack length better match observed weak layers. The improved parameterization of critical crack length may be useful for both weak layer detection in simulated snow stratigraphy and also providing more realistic snow stability information – and hence may improve avalanche forecasting.

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