The Ovalisation of Steel Circular Hollow Sections under Bending

This paper investigates the ovalisation behavior of the Steel Circular Hollow Sections (CHSs) when subjected to bending moment. The experimental program included testing of ten specimens in four groups in order to examine the influence of changing the diameter, thickness, length and the presence of openings on the ovalisation phenomenon of these specimens.The experimental results showed that the ovalisation of the specimen cross-section appears clearly when the diameter to thickness ratio (D/t) is ranging from 17 to 50, while the ovalisation of the specimens that have D/t ratio greater than 50 is very little or unclear because the instability of these specimens are controlled by the local buckling. In addition, the change of the specimen length and the presence of openings didn’t cause the cross-section ovalisation

Influence of Specimen Geometry and Surface Quality on the Bending Strength of Short Fiber-Reinforced C/SiC

For continuous fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites, there is an extensive knowledge of the influence of specimen geometry on the failure mode and the determined strength in bending tests. In contrast, there are almost no studies on this topic for short-fiber-reinforced CMC, and as a consequence no testing standard for bending tests for such materials exists. In the present work, the influence of the specimen cross-section and the span width on the calculated mean and variance of the bending strength of different short fiber CMC (C/SiC with 3 mm and 10 mm fiber length) were examined. Below a certain specimen cross-section a decrease of the determined bending strength was observed. The relationships between the orientation of fiber bundles in the loaded area of the bending sample, the region of failure initiation and measured failure stress was investigated by high resolution X-ray CT in order to obtain further insight into the causes of strength scatter in these materials. The effect of different surface qualities prepared by grinding and milling on the measured bending strength in short fiber C/SiC was found to be negligible.

Minimum Surface Formation Energy for Three-Dimensional Intergranular Fracture

The minimum expended energy for fracture is the free energy required to form two new surfaces. For intergranular fracture, the minimum surface formation energy is complicated by the rough fracture surface, with area greater than the specimen cross-section. We utilize network optimization algorithms (max-flow/min-cut) to determine the minimum surface formation energies and surfaces for intergranular fracture in 3D polycrystals. For equiaxed grains and uniform boundary strength, the minimum energy fracture area is independent of grain size and is 45% larger than the specimen cross-section, and intergranular fracture will occur when surface energy is less than 1.6 times the grain boundary energy. The 3D fracture area is larger than projected from 2D systems. In systems with microcracked boundaries, the fracture surface deviates to preferentially include microcracked boundaries, creating interlocking grain configurations. Two-dimensional percolation of microcracks occurs at about 80% microcracked boundaries.