A Probabilistic Fatigue Damage Model for Aluminum 6061-T6 10-Gauge Sheet-Type Material

The 6061-T6 10-gauge sheet-type flat fatigue specimen was designed, manufactured, and tested on an Instron 8081 fatigue test machine. The fatigue tests were performed under five different cyclic axial loads with 195 tests. This paper will display how to use these 195 test data under different cyclic axial loads to build a probabilistic fatigue damage model. The model is validated by the results obtained from the traditional P-S-N curve approach. One advantage of this probabilistic fatigue damage model is that it can calculate the reliability of a component under any type of cyclic loads at any cyclic load level.

Pseudo-transient 3D Conjugate Heat Transfer Simulation and Lifetime Prediction of a Rocket Combustion Chamber

Rocket engine nozzle structures typically fail after a few engine cycles due to the extreme thermomechanical loading near the nozzle throat. In order to obtain an accurate lifetime prediction and to increase the lifetime, a detailed understanding of the thermomechanical behavior and the acting loads is indispensable. The first part is devoted to a thermally coupled simulation (conjugate heat transfer) of a fatigue experiment. The simulation contains a thermal FEM model of the fatigue specimen structure, RANS simulations of nine cooling channel flows and a Flamelet-based RANS simulation of the hot gas flow. A pseudo-transient, implicit Dirichlet–Neumann scheme is utilized for the partitioned coupling. A comparison with the experiment shows a good agreement between the nodal temperatures and their corresponding thermocouple measurements. The second part consists of the lifetime prediction of the fatigue experiment utilizing a sequentially coupled thermomechanical analysis scheme. First, a transient thermal analysis is carried out to obtain the temperature field within the fatigue specimen. Afterwards, the computed temperature serves as input for a series of quasi-static mechanical analyses, in which a viscoplastic damage model is utilized. The evolution and progression of the damage variable within the regions of interest are thoroughly discussed. A comparison between simulation and experiment shows that the results are in good agreement. The crucial failure mode (doghouse effect) is captured very well.

An Ultra-High Frequency Vibration-Based Fatigue Test and Its Comparative Study of a Titanium Alloy in the VHCF Regime

This paper proposes an ultra-high frequency (UHF) fatigue test of a titanium alloy TA11 based on electrodynamic shaker in order to develop a feasible testing method in the VHCF regime. Firstly, a type of UHF fatigue specimen is designed to make its actual testing frequency reach as high as 1756 Hz. Then the influences of the loading frequency and loading types on the testing results are considered separately, and a series of comparative fatigue tests are hence conducted. The results show the testing data from the present UHF fatigue specimen agree well with those from the conventional vibration fatigue specimen with the loading frequency of 240 Hz. Furthermore, the present UHF testing data show good consistency with those from the axial-loading fatigue and rotating bending fatigue tests. But the obtained fatigue life from ultrasonic fatigue test with the loading frequency of 20 kHz is significantly higher than all other fatigue test results. Thus the proposed ultra-high frequency vibration-based fatigue test shows a balance of high efficiency and similarity with the conventional testing results.

Tensile Properties of 7075 Aluminum Alloys Subjected to Pre-Fatigue in Humid Environment

The tensile properties of the quasi-static and the impact tests for 7075 aluminum alloys subjected to pre-fatigue deformation in a humid environment were investigated. An impact tensile test of the pre-fatigue deformed specimens was performed by means of the Split Hopkinson pressure bar method. Within the authors set of experiments, the flow stress in both the quasi-static and the impact tests was unaffected by the pre-fatigue deformation. On the other hand, it was shown that the ductility of the pre-fatigue specimen was slightly lower than that of the non-fatigue specimen. Additionally, the pre-fatigue specimen in a high-humidity environment had a lower ductility than in a low-humidity environment. The ductility of the quasi-static test was decreased as compared with the impact test. It is thought that the ductility loss occurred due to changes in the microstructure, such as dislocations caused by the presence of hydrogen in the specimen due to pre-fatigue deformation in a high-humidity environment.

Effect of Pre-Fatigue Deformation under Humid Environment on Impact Tensile Properties in 7075 Aluminum Alloys

The effect of pre-fatigue deformation in a humid environment on the impact tensile properties of 7075 aluminum alloys was investigated. An impact tensile test of the pre-fatigue deformed specimens was performed by means of the Split Hopkinson pressure bar method. Within the author’s set of experiments, the flow stress was unaffected by the pre-fatigue deformation. On the other hand, it was shown that the ductility of the pre-fatigue specimen was slightly lower than that of the non-fatigue specimen in the impact test. Additionally, the pre-fatigue specimen in a high-humidity environment had a lower ductility than in a low-humidity environment. It is thought that the decrease in ductility occurred due to changes in the microstructure, such as dislocations caused by the presence of hydrogen in the specimen due to pre-fatigue deformation in a high-humidity environment.

Effects of Carbon Fibre Geogrid Reinforcement on Propagation of Cracking in Pavement and Augmentation of Flexible Pavement Life

Most of the distresses in flexible pavement are due to cracking and rutting. Geogrids distribute the street and loads to adequate area and cause augmentation bearing capacity. This project surveys the function of carbon and Glass fiber Geogrids on Delay of Crack propagation in flexible pavement and placement configuration in pavement structure. Four point bending loading applied to beams with dimension 50.8*63.5*381 mm and 6.5 mm tolerance (AASHTO TP8-96). According to the received specimen from cutting slabs of case study toward chart fatigue life, for each condition reinforced and unreinforced beams 3 sample in 4-strain level were experimented. Simulatedrepeated loading with a frequency 10 Hz simulate high-speed traffic was applied to beam fatigue specimen. Based on definition (AASHTO T321-07) assumed achieving to 50% first bending stiffness for end of the fatigue life indicate a significant reduction in the rate of crack propagation in reinforced samples with carbon geogrids compared to unreinforced ones, augmentation service life is up to 3.5fold and placing the geogrid at a one-third depth of overlay thickness from the bottom provide the maximum service life.