Fracture properties of GGBS-dolomite geopolymer concrete

Purpose This study aims to predict the fracture properties of geopolymer concrete, which is necessary for studying failure behaviour of concrete. Design/methodology/approach Geopolymers are new alternative binders for cement in which polymerization gives strength to concrete rather than through hydration. Geopolymer concrete was developed from industrial byproducts such as GGBS and dolomite. Present study estimates the fracture energy of GGBS geopolymer concrete using three point bending test (RILEM TC50-FMC) with different percentages of dolomite and compare with cement concrete having same strength. Findings The fracture properties such as peak load, critical stress intensity factor, fracture energy and characteristic length are found to be higher for GGBS-dolomite geopolymer concrete, when their proportion becomes 70:30. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original experimental work.

Study of the destruction of the chassis main cross member made of VT22 alloy

The reasons for the destruction of the chassis main cross member made of alloy VT22 are considered and analyzed in bench test conditions. The chemical composition, mechanical properties, as well as macro- and microstructure of the material were studied. The tests of the cross-arm material for crack resistance and low-cycle fatigue (LCF) with the determination of the durability were carried out. The results of analysis proved that material meets the declared performance characteristics. A fractographic study of the traverse fracture showed that the fracture occurred from several foci according to the fatigue mechanism. The length of the longest fatigue crack was 1.7 mm and the critical stress intensity factor KIc was thus attained. Proceeding from the dimensions of the part at the site of fracture, the maximum crack length and the value of the critical stress intensity factor obtained experimentally KIc = 56.5 MPa • m1/2, we have calculated the nominal tensile stress at the moment of fracture. The calculated value of the nominal stresses is 1022 MPa, which is comparable to the yield strength of the material (1100 MPa). A high level of tensile stresses in the loading cycle is considered the most probable reason for the destruction of the chassis main cross member in the conditions of bench tests.

Gaps in Material Qualification Requirement and Acceptance for Severe to Extreme Sour-Sweet Corrosive HPHT Environments Impacting Completion Design

Severe to extreme sour-corrosive environment assisted cracking (EAC) phenomenon are complex. Mandatory test qualification requirements and acceptance criteria is non-existent, in relevant API and NACE standards for fracture toughness of the CRA's. This paper, perhaps an industry first, attempts to highlight some of these gaps and how it translates into material strength uncertainties thereby impacting tubing design and risk assessment. The materials in this context are high strength group 1 to 4 corrosion resistant alloys of API 5CRA. Fracture toughness or critical stress intensity factor is a measure of resistance to failure due to crack propagation - a key parameter for HPHT tubing material selection and design. This material aspect of fracture toughness can be influenced by several factors like Microstructure, Strength, Hardness, Heat treatment, Anisotropy etc. Low temperature is generally considered as worst case, nevertheless at higher temperatures, well environment driven embrittlement can have a serious impact on the fracture toughness value. Therefore, with several factors influencing, its characterization is important to define the burst envelope of the tubing when exposed to severe to extreme sour-sweet corrosive environment typical of HPHT wells. A unique approach is followed to determine the brittle burst tri-axial envelope of selected tubing based on minimum fracture toughness value of the CRA material, referred to as KIMAT for SSC (or EAC) as prescribed by the mill. Proportional radial scaling is proposed to generate scaled down von-mises brittle-burst envelope. The tubing loads and the safety factors are analyzed to the shrunken envelope to visualize the risks of tubular failure under sour-sweet corrosive environment. The analysis includes varying crack depths of 5% and 3%. In addition, a minimum KIMAT for SSC (or EAC) value required to achieve full scale VME is investigated to determine specific material property requirements. TM0177 NACE D covers methods to measure fracture toughness KIMAT for sour service at ambient temperature only and does not address the context of EAC exposure at ambient or elevated conditions i.e., KIMAT for EAC.This implies that a methodology for evaluation of EAC risk is not available as yet. Guidance on the potential for corrosion to cause cracking of CRAs is given in Table B.1 of ISO 15156-3 with primary and secondary failure mechanisms. However, a quantitative test to cover the risk of cracking of materials by specifying minimum required KIMAT for EAC for each group type in 5CRA is non-existent. Even KIMAT for sour service minimum requirements with SSC as primary failure mechanism, e.g., group 1 CRA, does not currently exist. Consequently, KIMAT for EAC minimum requirements are considered as far-fetched. Additionally, mills prescribed KIMAT for SSC lacks basis due to gaps in the minimum fracture toughness requirement stipulations for group 1 to 4 CRA materials listed at API 5CRA. Therefore, this paper provides risk insights and potential of tubing failure that can lead to serious integrity issues on a HPHT well. A joint industry program or joint API/NACE task group is proposed as a logical next step.

Fracture toughness of ABS additively manufactured by FDM process

Purpose: The purpose on this article is to study the failure of FDM printed ABS by exhibiting an exhaustive crack growth analysis mainly based on raster angle parameter. Design/methodology/approach: Two approaches have been developed in this study; On one hand, mechanical experiments were carried out to determine the critical stress intensity factor KIC. On the other hand, numerical analysis was used to predict the paths within the part as well as the crack propagation. Findings: This work has clearly shown the effect of raster angle on the damage mechanism of the ABS printed by FDM. Indeed, for the combination 1 (0°/90°), the structure presents an important stiffness and a high degree of stress distribution symmetry with respect to the notch. Moreover, the crack propagation is regular and straight, and the damage surfaces are on the same plane. However, for the combination 2 (-45°/45°), the structure is less resistant with an asymmetrical stress distribution according to two different planes. Research limitations/implications: In order to present an exhaustive study, we focused on the effect of two raster angles (including 0°/90°, -45°/45°) on the ABS crack propagation, additively manufactured. This study is still in progress for other raster angles, and will be developed from a design of experiments (DoE) design that incorporates all relevant factors. To highlight more the cracking mechanisms, microscopic observations will be developed in more depth. Practical implications: Our analysis can be used as a decision aid in the design of FDM parts. Indeed, we can choose the raster angle that would ensure the desired crack propagation resistance for a functional part. Originality/value: In this article, we have analyzed the mechanism of damage and crack propagation. This topic represents a new orientation for many research papers. For our study, we accompanied our experimental approach with an original numerical approach. In this numerical approach, we were able to mesh distinctly raster by raster for all layers.

MEAM interatomic potentials of Ni, Re, and Ni-Re alloys for atomistic fracture simulations

Second nearest neighbor modified embedded atom method (2NN-MEAM) interatomic potentials are developed for the Ni, Re, and Ni-Re binaries. To construct the potentials, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been employed to calculate fundamental physical properties that play a dominant role in fracture. The potentials are validated to accurately reproduce material properties that correlate with material’s fracture behavior. The thus constructed potentials were applied to perform large scale simulations of mode I fracture in Ni and Ni-Re binaries with low Re content. Substitutional Re did not alter the ductile nature of crack propagation, though it resulted in a monotonous increase of the critical stress intensity factor with Re content.

Determination of fracture toughness for steel 22k from the results of tests of different types specimens

Nowadays, in various industries, in particular in nuclear energy, to determine the fracture toughness, along with standard tests of compact specimens, which are quite expensive and complex, methods are developed to determine these characteristics by impact tests of Charpy specimens using different correlations between Charpy impact fracture energy (CVN) and critical stress intensity factor (J-integral). The paper analyzes correlation and analytical methods, the authors of which consider them universal for a certain class of steels. Correlation methods are divided into one-stage and two-stage. One-stage methods allow to obtain the value of the critical stress intensity factor by the known fracture energy. Two-stage methods in the first stage offer the calculation of the dynamic critical stress intensity factor, in the second the temperature shift and obtaining a static critical stress intensity factor. Analytical methods according to the іmpact fracture diagram of the specimen allow to construct a J-R curve and calculate the value of the J-integral. A series of fracture tests of CT specimens made of heat-resistant steel 22K was carried out, the reference temperature T0 was determined according to the single-temperature method of the ASTM-1921 standard and the Master curve was constructed. A series of standard Charpy specimens impact tests in the temperature range -50…+100°С was performed using an instrumented drop-weight impact testing machine equipped with a high-speed registration system. According to the results of Charpy specimens impact tests, the fracture toughness were determined using different methods. It is established that both analytical and correlation methods cannot be universal and can be used to determine the fracture toughness of 22K steel. Therefore, a new exponential correlation was proposed between the fracture energy of the Charpy specimens and the critical stress intensity factor for heat-resistant steel 22K.

Characterizing Mode I Fracture Behaviors of Wood Using Compact Tension in Selected System Crack Propagation

The fracture behaviors of four wood species commonly used in wood products were characterized when subjected to compact tension (CT) load in radial-longitudinal (RL) system crack propagation. Meanwhile, the failure modes of evaluated CT samples were compared and analyzed using the fractal dimension method. The results showed that wood species had a significant effect on fracture characteristic values, including maximum fracture load, critical stress intensity factor and fracture energy. These characteristic values changed in the same way, i.e., beech wood CT samples obtained the maximum characteristic values, followed by ash, okoume, and poplar in descending order. The fracture behaviors of all wood species evaluated can be described by combining linear and exponential fitting equations at the crack initial stage and evolution stage, respectively. Linear positive proportional relationships were observed between fracture characteristic values and fractal dimensions calculated using cracks in front and left views of CT samples. However, the relationships between fracture characteristic values and fractal dimensions calculated using fracture surfaces were negative. The fractal dimensions of cracks in front view of CT samples could be a better indicator used to predict critical stress intensity factor and fracture energy, which had greater correlation coefficients beyond 0.95.

Atomic Insights into Fracture Characteristics of Twisted Tri-Layer Graphene

Graphene twistronics have recently gained significant attention due their superconductive behavior as a consequence of their tunable electronic properties. Although the electronic properties of twisted graphene have been extensively studied, the mechanical properties and integrity of twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG) under loading is still elusive. We investigated the fracture mechanics of tTLG with a twist angle of ±1.53° utilizing molecular dynamics simulation. This twist angle was chosen because it is known to exhibit highly superconductive behavior. The results indicate that tTLG does not preserve the excellent mechanical properties typically associated with graphene, with toughness and fracture strain values much lower in comparison. The Young’s modulus was an exception with values relatively close to pristine graphene, whereas the tensile strength was found to be roughly half of the intrinsic strength of graphene. The fracture toughness, fracture strain and strength converge as the crack length increases, reaching 0.26 J/m3, 0.0217 and 39.9 GPa at a crack length of 8 nm, respectively. The Griffth critical strain energy is 19.98 J/m2 and the critical stress intensity factor Kc is 4.47 MPa M1/2, in good agreement with that of monolayer graphene in the experiment. Our atomic insights might be helpful in the material design of twisted trilayer graphene-based electronics.

Roles of Small Polyetherimide Moieties on Thermal Stability and Fracture Toughness of Epoxy Blends

Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) was blended with polyetherimide (PEI) as a thermoplastic toughener for thermal stability and mechanical properties as a function of PEI contents. The thermal stability and mechanical properties were investigated using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a universal test machine, respectively. The TGA results indicate that PEI addition enhanced the thermal stability of the epoxy resins in terms of the integral procedural decomposition temperature (IPDT) and pyrolysis activation energy (Et). The IPDT and Et values of the DGEBA/PEI blends containing 2 wt% of PEI increased by 2% and 22%, respectively, compared to those of neat DGEBA. Moreover, the critical stress intensity factor and critical strain energy release rate for the DGEBA/PEI blends containing 2 wt% of PEI increased by 83% and 194%, respectively, compared to those of neat DGEBA. These results demonstrate that PEI plays a key role in enhancing the flexural strength and fracture toughness of epoxy blends. This can be attributed to the newly formed semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs) composed of the epoxy network and linear PEI.