Mechanism of Spectral Distortion for Real-Time Crack Propagation on Aluminum Alloy Structure

This study investigates four characteristic damage mechanisms of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, with fatigue crack propagation in aluminum alloy. The multipeak wavelength distinguish algorithm was developed for FBG spectrum quantitative analysis. The results distinguish a subordinate peak skewing significantly, associated with strain patterns along the FBG, corresponding to various crack lengths. For parallel bonded direction grating, the subordinate peak skewing appears at the strain pattern transition region. This is located at the ratio 32%-34% of crack length lying in the crack tip. Meanwhile, the four damage characteristics correspond to subordinate peak skewing. When the strain is distributed along the grating, spectral distortion occurs. In this region, the cubic strain pattern determines the shorter wavelength location of subordinate peaks. This corresponds to the 15%-17% ratio of crack length lying in the grating, causing spectral oscillations.

Fatigue Crack Evaluation with the Guided Wave–Convolutional Neural Network Ensemble and Differential Wavelet Spectrogram

On-line fatigue crack evaluation is crucial for ensuring the structural safety and reducing the maintenance costs of safety-critical systems. Among structural health monitoring (SHM), guided wave (GW)-based SHM has been deemed as one of the most promising techniques. However, the traditional damage index-based method and machine learning methods require manual processing and selection of GW features, which depend highly on expert knowledge and are easily affected by complicated uncertainties. Therefore, this paper proposes a fatigue crack evaluation framework with the GW–convolutional neural network (CNN) ensemble and differential wavelet spectrogram. The differential time–frequency spectrogram between the baseline signal and the monitoring signal is processed as the CNN input with the complex Gaussian wavelet transform. Then, an ensemble of CNNs is trained to jointly determine the crack length. Real fatigue tests on complex lap joint structures were carried out to validate the proposed method, in which several structures were tested preliminarily for collecting the training dataset and a new structure was adopted for testing. The root mean square error of the training dataset is 1.4 mm. Besides, the root mean square error of the evaluated crack length in the testing lap joint structure was 1.7 mm, showing the effectiveness of the proposed method.

ANALYSIS OF DYNAMIC STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS FOR CRACKED STIFFENED PLATES BASED ON EXTENDED FE METHOD

The dynamic stress intensity factors (DSIFs) for cracked stiffened plates considering the actual boundary conditions in ship structures are analyzed by the extended finite element method (XFEM). The sensitivity of numerical results with respect to mesh size and time step is discussed. Some other influential parameters including stiffener height, crack location and crack length are also analyzed. The numerical results show that the convergence is affected by mesh size and time step. By using XFEM, singular elements are not needed at the crack front and moderately refined meshes can achieve good accuracy. The height of the stiffener and crack location significantly effect DSIFs, while the crack length slightly influences the DSIFs.

Influence of Growth Conditions on Mechanical Properties of K2NiXCo(1−X) (SO4)2·6H2O Crystals

K2NiXCo(1−X) (SO4)2·6H2O (KCNSH) mixed crystal is a promising material for solar blind optical filters, combining high transparency in the ultraviolet range with effective suppression of the visible spectral region. Increasing the mechanical strength of these crystals is important to enable them to be machined in the manufacture of optical elements. A comprehensive study of the inhomogeneities and crack resistance of KCNSH crystal as a function of the growth conditions was carried out. The influence of the radial and mosaic inhomogeneity, as well as other structural defects, on the crack resistance of the crystals was analyzed. To assess the crack resistance of crystals, the parameters ca (crack length), c/a (the ratio of crack length to the size of the indentation), and KC (fracture toughness) were used. The correctness of the obtained results was analyzed. The conditions for growing KCNSH crystals with the best crack resistance were determined on the basis of the results of the study. It is shown that growing the mixed crystals using the temperature difference technique with a peripheral solution supply into the shaper provides the best crystal quality.

A crack theory-based bonded particle model for rock particles considering size effect on crushing strength

Particle breakage shows significant effect on the macroscopic behavior of rock materials, and the discrete element method is a powerful tool to investigate the relationship between micro fracture and macro deformation and strength. In this study, the concept of crack is introduced into the bonded particle model (BPM) to simulate the breakage behaviour of rockfill materials, with randomly placed weak bonds representing cracks. Different from traditional BPM, the number, position and strength of the weak bonds are directly related to the number, position and length of cracks. With a reasonable length distribution of cracks, the proposed model can successfully reflect both the crushing strength variation and size effects. A set of crack parameters including the crack density, minimum crack length, maximum crack length and fractal dimension, are suggested. The crushing characteristics of realistic rockfill particles with two typical shapes are simulated quantitatively and verified with test data. It is found that the proposed model with suggested crack parameters can give reasonable prediction on the Weibull's modulus and size effect of rockfill particles.

Experimental study on fracture properties of dam concrete under post-peak cyclic loading based on DIC and acoustic emission techniques

In order to study the fracture properties of dam concrete under post-peak cyclic loading, wedge splitting tests with three loading rates (0.001 mm/s, 0.01 mm/s, 0.1 mm/s) were performed on notched cubic dam concrete specimens. Meanwhile, the acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) technologies were used to record the crack propagation process of specimens. Test results show that the fracture of dam concrete has a significant rate effect: with the loading rate increases, the peak load increases, the slope of the post-peak P-CMOD curve gradually decreases and the stiffness degradation of dam concrete becomes more serious. The cumulative AE count shows a step increasing trend and has a Kaiser effect. The Kaiser effect decreases with the post-peak cyclic loading procedure, and with the loading rate increases, the Kaiser effect increases. With the increasing of loading rate, AE energy fluctuates violently and b value fluctuates frequently, indicating the damage of dam concrete becomes more serious. As the loading procedure, the damage of the specimen accumulates gradually, and the strain recovery rate decreases gradually. With the loading rate increases, the strain recovery rate decreases and the permanent crack increases. Based on the fictitious crack model, the effective crack length shows a gradual and steady rising trend. As the loading rate increases, the growth rate of the effective crack length becomes large.

Paintings crack initiation time caused by microclimate

The current paper aims to use an irreversible cohesive zone model to investigate the effects of temperature and relative humidity cycles on multilayer thin-film paintings. The homogenous one-dimensional paint layers composed of alkyd and acrylic gesso over a canvas foundation (support) with known constant thicknesses are considered as the mechanical model of painting. Experimental data was used for mathematical modeling of canvas as a linear elastic material and paint as a viscoelastic material with the Prony series. Growth of crack through the length of the paint layers under the low amplitude cyclic stresses are modeled by cyclic mechanical loadings. The three-dimensional system is modeled using a finite element method. Fatigue damage parameters such as crack initiation time and maximum loads are calculated by an irreversible cohesive zone model used to control the interface separation. In addition, the effects of initial crack length and layers thickness are studied. With the increase of the painting thickness and/or the initial crack length, the value of the maximum force increases. Moreover, by increasing the Relative Humidity (RH) and the temperature difference at loading by one cycle per day, the values of initiation time of delamination decrease. It is shown that the thickness of painting layers is the most important parameter in crack initiation times and crack growth rate in historical paintings in museums and conservation settings.