Fracture damage of integrated composite joint for fuselage structure under tensile loading

In order to solve the complex load transfer and structural design of the joint structures including skin, longeron and frame in the composite fuselage, the adhesively bonded integrated composite joint was designed. Static tensile test was performed and the strain-load curves and damage modes were obtained. Then the numerical simulation model of integrated composite joint was built. The damage initiation, propagation and failure process of integrated composite joint under tensile load were simulated and analyzed. Results show that: the first load drop and the ultimate failure load of the joint are 120.82 kN and 168.11 kN respectively; the initial damage occurs at the corner bend region of the lower-left corner-shaped preform, and extends across the radius bend region among short flange, long flange and web, and leads to the interface debonding of the upper and lower corner-shaped preform and the delamination of corner-shaped preform and L-shaped preform. Compared with the experimental results, the errors of the first load drop and the ultimate failure load from numerical calculated results are 6.68% and 2.61% respectively, which agree with each other very well.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Steel Sections under Impact Effect

Experimental and numerical behaviour of steel test specimens with various types of joints is investigated in this study. A drop weight test setup with necessary test equipment is used for this purpose. The mass and drop height of the hammer is taken to be constant so that the same impact energy can be applied on test specimens. The acceleration, displacement, impact load, drop numbers and drop durations, are obtained through experimental study. In addition, development of damage to test specimens is observed during tests. Numerical analyses of behaviour of test specimens under impact load are also conducted to verify test results using the Abaqus software, and a comparison of results is made.

Evaluation of Fiberglass and Aluminum Ladder Stability During a Simulated Tethered Operator Fall Event

Ladder-related falls are common in many industries and lead to high rates of injury and hospitalization. This study aimed to establish safety criteria for ladder stability and potential for failure in the event of an operator fall when equipped with a fall arrest system that has been attached to the ladder as opposed to a fixed structure anchor point. All combinations of five variables were tested in a custom-built load drop apparatus: ground surface, leaning surface, force direction, operator tether method, and ladder type. Overall, all conditions tested in this investigation with a simulated worker falling from a ladder with the fall arrest device attached to the ladder rails or a rung resulted in a pass. While there were clear deformations to the aluminum ladders and there were 3 failures due to repeated drop tests on the same ladder, replication of failed tests on a new ladder passed the failure conditions. Given a ladder that is in good working condition, has not be subjected to prior falls or damage, is properly erected and secured - a worker with a mass below 113kg (250lb) would be safely restrained when tethered to the ladder as opposed to the lanyard being tied off to a structure or a lifeline based on the simulated mass drops performed in this study in controlled laboratory conditions.

The Role of Glide during Creep of Copper at Low Temperatures

Copper canister will be used in Scandinavia for final storage of spent nuclear fuel. The copper will be exposed to temperatures of up to 100 °C. The creep mechanism at near ambient temperatures has been assumed to be glide of dislocations, but this has never been verified for copper or other materials. In particular, no feasible mechanism for glide based static recovery has been proposed. To attack this classical problem, a glide mobility based on the assumption that it is controlled by the climb of the jogs on the dislocations is derived and shown that it is in agreement with observations. With dislocation dynamics (DD) simulations taking glide but not climb into account, it is demonstrated that creep based on glide alone can reach a quasi-stationary condition. This verifies that static recovery can occur just by glide. The DD simulations also show that the internal stress during creep in the loading direction is almost identical to the applied stress also directly after a load drop, which resolves further classical issues.

Analysis of Fatigue Crack Growth in Standard Endurance Test Specimens in Support of Total Life Approaches to Fatigue Assessment

The ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Section III method for the evaluation of fatigue in nuclear plant components uses a fatigue design curve derived from the testing of standard cylindrical specimens to describe the fatigue endurance of austenitic stainless steel components. The test results describe the number of cycles to achieve a 25% total load drop within a standard specimen (approximately equal to a 3 mm crack) under membrane loading conditions and the design curve is commonly associated with fatigue initiation. However, for non-standard loading conditions, such as the case of a thermal gradient within a component where a crack may be growing into a decreasing stress field, this description of initiation may be overly conservative. Alternative approaches, such as the total life approach, may provide better representations of fatigue life in real plant components. By separating out quantifiable portions of long crack growth (Stage II) from the current design curve, alternative definitions of initiation can be derived and subsequently used in conjunction with standard fracture mechanics in order to model fatigue more accurately. In this paper numerical methods are used to model the fatigue crack growth between starting crack depths of 0.25 mm, and the depth associated with a 25% load drop in a standard cylindrical specimen. The numerical predictions are compared with striation spacings measured at a range of crack depths on the fracture surfaces of austenitic stainless steel specimens tested in both air and water environments, under strain control. A good correlation between numerical predictions and the measured striation spacings was obtained and the results are used to characterise different stages of fatigue cracking. Based upon the methods developed in this paper, modified fatigue design curves, using alternative definitions of crack initiation, are proposed and their applications in total life approaches to fatigue assessment are discussed, based on a worked example of a thermally fatigued stepped pipe experiment.