Creep Behavior of Saturated Clay in Triaxial Test and a Hyperbolic Model

As one of the basic mechanical properties of soil, the creep property of a given type soil is related to stress path, and stress level. In this paper, triaxial shear creep tests under different deviatoric stress levels were performed on both intact sample and the reconstituted sample of clay taken from Hangzhou, China. Based on the Boltzmann linear superposition principle, the creep curves of the clay sample under different levels of deviatoric stress were obtained, and the creep characteristics of the intact sample and the reconstituted sample were compared in both total stress creep analysis and effective stress creep analysis. Furthermore, the creep curves were fitted using a hyperbolic creep model. The results show that (1) under the same stress level, the creep of intact sample evolves more than that of reconstituted sample; (2) the hyperbolic creep model is suited to describe the creep characteristics of intact and reconstituted clay, and the model parameters A s and B s can be linearly correlated to the stress level D r ; (3) for the application of the hyperbolic model, the total stress analysis works better, and the model parameters A s and B s can be determined by a linear relationship with Dr.

Electrical creep and fatigue in 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 ceramics

In this study, the creep and fatigue characterization is performed for 0.5Ba(Zr[Formula: see text]Ti[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text]0.5(Ba[Formula: see text]Ca[Formula: see text]TiO3 (BZT-BCT) bulk ferroelectric ceramics. A function generator is used to generate the required waveform of the voltage amplifier for fatigue and creep analysis. The evolution of polarization is studied for electrical creep. The effects of temperature and electric field on the electric displacement are studied. Hysteresis–butterfly loops are analyzed for fatigue tests for different thermal loads up to 106 cycles. It inheres that the material is stable below 75[Formula: see text]C and can withstand high cycle fatigue loads (25 Hz, ± 1.5 kV/mm).

Optimal design of a commercial rubber isolator based on creep and creep-resistance analyses

Creep is a common important physical phenomenon in rubber material, which induces the instability of geometrical dimension and deteriorates the mechanical performances. The present work develops an optimal design approach of a commercial rubber isolator based on creep analysis. First and foremost, a nonlinear creep constitutive model of rubber material is established, which can capture the hyper-elastic and time-dependent creep behaviors. Complete mechanical and creep tests of rubber materials are conducted, and material parameters are identified according to the experimental data. Then, the parametric finite element model of a rubber isolator is established, with which the time-dependent creep analysis based on the proposed creep constitutive model is conducted. The accuracy of the numerical creep analysis is validated at material level and structural component level. For engineering application, a sensitivity analysis and optimization design for creep-resistance of the rubber isolator is developed by combing finite element simulation and optimization method. The results show that creep-resistance characteristics of the optimal rubber isolator is largely improved, which provides a long-term stable behavior in vibration attenuation. The proposed method may provide an efficient tool for predicting the creep performance and optimal analysis of other commercial rubber-base products.

Steam Generator Grade P91 Steel Components Creep-Assessment By Test After Extended Service

Previous study carried out creep analysis for steam generator high-temperature-section two components, outflow tubing and manifold of the superheater harp: they may have been critical because of the long continued service (109,000 hours or twelve years) and loading conditions, including maximum operation temperature (565°C) and applied stress (65 MPa). Metallographic methods by replica had showed no evidence of the creep cavitation in all the positions considered for both tubing and manifold. In particular, they had not found any cavitation or phases affecting creep strength of the material in the base, HAZ and weld metal microstructure. Now, present study carries out investigation for the two components based on the next plant outage outcome, after further 20,000-hours service. Both metallographic methods and hardness measurements’ results would compare with previous ones providing microstructure evolution in the period.

Mechanical and thermal behavior of plantain peel powder filled recycled polyethylene composites

In the arduous search for ways to clean up the environment and produce viable materials from waste plastics; plantain peel powder filled low density polyethylene wastes (wLDPE) were developed through melt mixing and compression moulding techniques. Optimum properties were determined at 15, 55 and 30 % formulation of plantain peel powder, and Kankara clay respectively. Composition with optimum properties has tensile strength of 55.5 MPa, flexural strength of 50.45 MPa and elastic modulus of 2.30 GPa with corresponding minimal water absorption of 0.95% after 30 days immersion period at room temperature. The thermal properties investigated by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis showed that the composite has better thermal stability at higher temperature than wLDPE. Similarly, through creep analysis, the composite was observed to have better load bearing capability at elevated temperature than waste low density polyethylene material. These results indicate that incorporation of treated plantain peel powder and Kankara clay into wLDPE enhanced the mechanical, thermal and creep resistance of wLDPE. This implies load bearing capability and potential suitability for different wall tiles applications.