The Role of the Constraint in the Case of Short Cracks

2005 ◽  
Vol 482 ◽  
pp. 303-306
Author(s):  
Pavel Hutař ◽  
Stanislav Seitl ◽  
Zdeněk Knésl

A two-parameter constraint-based fracture mechanics approach is used to explain the effect of the constraint on the apparently anomalous behavior of short fatigue cracks. The different levels of stress constraint are quantified by the T-stress, and microstructurally as well as mechanically short cracks are discussed. Short cracks generally behave more sensitively to the constraint than the long ones. It is shown that in most cases, the existence of short cracks goes hand in hand with an intrinsic loss of the constraint, which contributes to a decrease of their fatigue threshold values and accelerates their growth. In this paper, the above effect is quantified and conclusions concerning the applicability of the fracture mechanics parameters and approaches to the estimation of the residual fatigue life of structures are discussed.

2005 ◽  
Vol 482 ◽  
pp. 307-310
Author(s):  
Tomáš Denk ◽  
Vladislav Oliva ◽  
Aleš Materna

A two-parameter constraint-based fracture mechanics approach is used to explain the effect of the constraint on the apparently anomalous behavior of short fatigue cracks. The different levels of stress constraint are quantified by the T-stress, and microstructurally as well as mechanically short cracks are discussed. Short cracks generally behave more sensitively to the constraint than the long ones. It is shown that in most cases, the existence of short cracks goes hand in hand with an intrinsic loss of the constraint, which contributes to a decrease of their fatigue threshold values and accelerates their growth. In this paper, the above effect is quantified and conclusions concerning the applicability of the fracture mechanics parameters and approaches to the estimation of the residual fatigue life of structures are discussed.


Author(s):  
M. R. Goldthorpe ◽  
A. H. Sherry

During operation, reactor components experience a range of static and cyclic loading that have the potential to result in environmental-fatigue crack initiation and growth. Recent experimental work has indicated that the ASME XI fatigue ‘in air’ design curves are non-conservative for fatigue cracks propagating in primary water environments at fixed temperatures of relevance to the plant. The approach adopted to assess these tests has, to date, followed current best practice: in which global Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) loading parameters are used to quantify crack growth rates. To help establish an improved understanding of these data, and to assist in their application to assess plant components, a local crack-tip finite element model has been developed. The model incorporates material constitutive behavior that simulates cyclic deformation of austenitic steel, can take account of plasticity-induced crack closure and can take into consideration cracks in structurally-representative geometries via the T-stress constraint parameter. The results of studies using the model suggest that highly compressive values of the T-stress constraint parameter tend to promote less severe reverse loading of the crack tip compared with high constraint geometries such as pre-cracked compact tension and bend test specimens. These findings indicate that rates of corrosion-fatigue in actual structural geometries might be different from those observed in pre-cracked test specimens.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Leonetti ◽  
Johan Maljaars ◽  
Bert Snijder

<p>Probabilistic fatigue life prediction models of welded steel joints are often used to estimate the level of safety, which is given in terms of the probability of failure or the reliability index as a function of the applied load cycles. Prediction models based on fracture mechanics allow taking into account the effect of inspections on the estimated level of safety. Recent developments in fracture mechanics based fatigue prediction models allow modeling the behavior of short and long fatigue cracks under constant and variable amplitude loading. Short cracks are relevant since their growth characterizes most of the fatigue life, especially under service loading. A recently proposed model by the authors is considered and compared to a more traditional and simplified model as proposed in the standard BS7910, where no distinction is made between short and long cracks. The effect of the model uncertainty, the type of inspection, and the time of the inspection on the estimated level of safety are quantified for welded cruciform steel joints.</p>


Author(s):  
Wengang Mao ◽  
Jingxia Yue ◽  
Da Wu ◽  
Luis De Gracia ◽  
Naoki Osawa

Fatigue cracks can be observed quite frequently on today’s ocean crossing vessels. To ensure the safety of ship structures sailing in the sea, it is important to know the residual fatigue life of these damaged ship structures. In this case, the fracture mechanics theory is often employed to estimate how fast these cracks can propagate along ship structures. However, large uncertainties are always associated with the crack prediction and residual fatigue life analysis. In this study, two uncertainties sources will be investigated, i.e. the reliability of encountered wave environments connected with shipload determinations and different fracture estimation methods for crack propagation analysis. Firstly, different available codes based on fracture mechanic theory are used to compute the stress intensity factor related parameters for crack propagation analysis. The analysis is carried out for both 2D and 3D cases of some typical ship structural details. The comparison is presented to illustrate the uncertainties of crack propagation analysis related with different codes. Furthermore, it is assumed that the structural details will undertake dynamic loading from a containership operated in the North Atlantic. A statistical wave model is used to generate wave environments along recorded ship routes for different years. The uncertainties of crack growth analysis related with encountered weather environments is also investigated in the study. The comparison of these two uncertainties indicated the requirement of further development for the fracture mechanics theory and associated numerical codes, as well as the reliable life-cycle encountered weather environments.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
K. Yakoubi ◽  
S. Montassir ◽  
Hassane Moustabchir ◽  
A. Elkhalfi ◽  
Catalin Iulian Pruncu ◽  
...  

The work investigates the importance of the K-T approach in the modelling of pressure cracked structures. T-stress is the constant in the second term of the Williams expression; it is often negligible, but recent literature has shown that there are cases where T-stress plays the role of opening the crack, also T-stress improves elastic modeling at the point of crack. In this research study, the most important effects of the T-stress are collected and analyzed. A numerical analysis was carried out by the extended finite element method (X-FEM) to analyze T-stress in an arc with external notch under internal pressure. The different stress method (SDM) is employed to calculate T-stress. Moreover, the influence of the geometry of the notch on the biaxiality is also examined. The biaxiality gave us a view on the initiation of the crack. The results are extended with a comparison to previous literature to validate the promising investigations.


Soft Matter ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (41) ◽  
pp. 7529-7536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad R. Mojdehi ◽  
Douglas P. Holmes ◽  
David A. Dillard

The generalized scaling law for adhesion is revisited, based on the classical fracture mechanics approach, leading to a revised scaling law that accounts for the role of load train compliance and extends to progressive failure modes.


1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. McEvily ◽  
Y.-S. Shin

A method for the analysis of the fatigue crack growth rate for short cracks has been developed and is applied to the case of fatigue crack growth of short surface cracks in a 1045 carbon steel. The method entails three modifications to standard LEFM procedures. These modifications include the use of a material constant to bridge between smooth and cracked specimen behavior, consideration of the plastic zone size to crack length ratio, and incorporation of the development of crack closure. Comparisons are made between calculations based upon this approach and experimental data.


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