Early Crack Propagation in Single Tooth Bending Fatigue: Combination of Finite Element Analysis and Critical-Planes Fatigue Criteria

Mechanical components, such as gears, are usually subjected to variable loads that induce multiaxial non-proportional stress states, which in turn can lead to failure due to fatigue. However, the material properties are usually available in the forms of bending or shear fatigue limits. Multiaxial fatigue criteria can be used to bridge the gap between the available data and the actual loading conditions. However, different criteria could lead to different results. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of different criteria applied to real mechanical components. With respect to this, five different criteria based on the critical plane concept (i.e., Findley, Matake, McDiarmid, Papadopoulos, and Susmel) have been investigated. These criteria were selected because they not only assess the level of damage, but also predict the direction of crack propagation just after nucleation. Therefore, measurements (crack position and direction) on different fractured gear samples tested via Single Tooth Bending Fatigue (STBF) tests on two gear geometries were used as reference. The STBF configuration was numerically simulated via Finite Elements (FE) analyses. The results of FE were elaborated based on the above-mentioned criteria. The numerical results were compared with the experimental ones. The result of the comparison showed that all the fatigue criteria agree in identifying the most critical point. The Findley and Papadopulus criteria proved to be the most accurate in estimating the level of damage. The Susmel criterion turns out to be the most conservative one. With respect to the identification of the direction of early propagation of the crack, the Findley criterion revealed the most appropriate.

Analysis of multiple failure behaviors of steering knuckle ball hinge of multi-axle heavy vehicle

The ball hinge is a key component of the vehicle chassis that connects the steering knuckle and the control arm. The study analyzed the multiple failure behaviors of the chassis ball hinge. Firstly, according to the macroscopic failure characteristics of the ball hinge, the fault tree analysis method was adopted to identify the possible cause of the failure. Then, the axial load and radial load on the ball joint were obtained by simulating the force of the vehicle under the typical extreme conditions. The stress distribution of the ball pin was obtained by finite element analysis of the ball joint. The calculation results are consistent with the fatigue crack position of the ball hinge. Finally, the macro morphology and microstructure of the ball joint seat, ball bowl, dust cover and other parts matched with the ball hinge were analyzed to further verify the failure mode of the ball hinge. The results showed that the dust cover of the ball hinge was firstly aged and cracked, and the external dust and particles enter into the friction contact area of the ball hinge, which caused the ball pin and ball bowl to be stuck. During the operating of the vehicle, the ball pin undergoes unidirectional bending fatigue fracture in the stress concentration area at the root of the conical surface.

Numerical prediction of the ductile damage for axial cracks in pipe under internal pressure

This study presents a numerical prediction of the ductile damage for axial cracks in pipe subjected to internal pressure. The three dimensional finite element methods used to evaluate the J-integral. The effect of the external radius (Rext),the thickness (t), length crack (a) , the applied loads (P) and the crack position of the pipes has studied. The Monte Carlo method was used to determine the probabilistic characteristics of the J-integral. It’s also used later to predict the failure probability based on initiation of the crack growth. We note that the crack size and the geometries of the pipe are an important factor influencing on the durability of the pipe.

Crack modeling of metal rod eigen-frequencies

The paper presents the development of approaches to the crack detection in metal rod structures based on the analysis of the lowest eigen-frequency modes. Full-scale experiments and numerical calculations are carried out, and the obtained results are compared. A vibration analyzer is used for full-scale experiments, and numerical calculations are performed by using Autodesk Inventor. With regard to the internal friction, the antinodes of various vibration forms were identified using a specially developed program. The model includes sensors for the the field experiment as masses affecting the frequency-response characteristics. The dependences are obtained for eigen-frequencies in the presence of cracks and for the crack locations. The polynomial dependences of the crack location on the lowest eigen-frequency modes of the rod can be used to analyze the crack position of in cantilever beams.

Simulation and Analysis with Wavelet Transform Technique and the Vibration Characteristics for Early Revealing of Cracks in Structures

Implementation of improved instruments is used to detect damage in an accurate manner and fully analyze its characteristics. An aluminum beam has been used in this work to identify cracks by using a vibration technique. The simulation of frequency response feature was conducted using a finite element model to provide average measures of intensities of vibration. Two forms of wavelet packet transform (WPT) entropies Shannon and log energy were applied to identify the position, width, and size of the crack. The results showed that with an increase in crack depth, the amplitude also increased at certain crack sizes and for all crack positions. For two crack depths of 1.6 mm and 0.16 mm having the same crack size and position 12 mm and 60 mm, respectively, a 4.5% increase in amplitude was observed at a crack depth of 1.6 mm. Moreover, the amplitude varied inversely with the position. A 12.6% increase in amplitude was observed at a crack depth of 1.6 mm rather than 0.16 mm, while both depths occurred at the same crack position (75 mm) and size (20 mm). Experimental validation was performed on a cantilever beam with one crack. The maximum absolute error found was 7.5% for the crack position and 9.1% for the crack size. With the increase in crack depth, the obtained results decrease the stiffness of a beam in a single crack case.

Load-bearing capacity of crane beams with fatigue cracks in the compressed belt zone

The method of determining the critical parameters of stability of the crane beam walls with fatigue cracks in the compressed belt zone is briefly described. The dependences of the bifurcation critical and limit stresses in the wall on the crack length, the crack position in the section, and on the wall flexibility are shown. The results of numerical studies of the effect of cracks on the increase in normal stresses in the compressed belt are presented. A method for assessing the local stability of the beam wall with a crack is proposed.

Estimation of the severity of damage produced by a transverse crack

This paper presents a method to find the severity of a crack for cantilever beams that can be used to estimate the frequency drop due to the crack. The severity is found for the crack located at the location where the biggest curvature (or bending moment) is achieved. Because the fixing condition does not permit a symmetrical deformation around the crack, the apparent severity is smaller as the real one. The latter is found by the estimated value of the trend-line at the fixed end, it being constructed on points that consider the crack position (equidistant points in the proximity of the fixed end) and the resulted deflections.