Search

cited By 0; International audience; This work presents a new ultrasonic fatigue testing device for studying the initiation and propagation mechanisms of internal microstructurally short fatigue cracks using in situ synchrotron tomography. Its principle is described as well as the method used for automatically detecting crack initiation and its subsequent growth. To promote internal crack initiation, specimens containing internal casting defects were tested between the high cycle and very high cycle fatigue regimes (107-109 cycles). Preliminary results show the ability of this new device to initiate an internal microstructurally short crack in a reasonable testing time and monitor its growth. © 2019 Wiley Publishing Ltd.

The financial support of Shell UK is acknowledged. The authors would like to thank the following technical staff, Stuart Herbert, Alistair Robertson for the machining of the mini pipes, Derek Logan, and Irene Brand for resolving several electrical issues and providing accessories, and Jim Gall for help with the test set‐up and prompt supply of tools and equipment.

The effect of ion-exchange on the fracture behavior and the threshold load is investigated for radial crack initiation resulting from cube-corner indentation. Both tin and air sides of the sodium aluminosilicate float glass are considered. The threshold load and mechanical properties are experimentally measured by nanoindentation. A qualitative explanation of crack initiation is developed by analyzing the stresses at the indentation site. The ion-exchanged glasses show a lower threshold load for radial crack initiation with a cube-corner indenter than the raw glass, and this is due to a higher crack driving stress for ion-exchanged glasses. However, the compressive stress on the surface of the ion-exchanged glasses can inhibit the expanding of the radial cracks. The air side always shows higher values for the threshold load than the tin side before and after ion-exchange, which is in accordance with the calculated crack driving stress results.

Spur gears are widely used in practice, and one of their typical failures is tooth breakage. In general, the tooth breakage occurs at tooth root, and the amount of crack growth during a meshing cycle is in atomistic scale. This work aims at identifying the mechanisms of crack initiation and propagation at tooth root by using molecular dynamics simulation. The results prove that there are phase transition regions and edge dislocations at crack tips. According to the distribution characteristic of the atomic potential, its concentration can be observed obviously by visualization software. In these concentration regions, microvoids come into being and expand gradually, which results in the subcrack initiation. Additionally, the microvoids and subcracks propagate along the high potential direction and then come together to accelerate the crack growth. Through carrying out a comparative simulation, the effects of heavy load at single meshing area on crack initiation and propagation are addressed.

Cracks leading to failure in very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) of high-strength steels mostly initiate at subsurface inclusions at stress intensity factors (SIF) below the classical threshold value Kth for long cracks, especially for negative stress ratios. Here, a characteristic fine granular area (FGA) can be observed at the fracture surface in the vicinity of these initiating inclusions. According to various researchers, the FGA formation might be responsible for the late initiation of a propagable long crack. This study aims to clarify the threshold values of SIF for crack initiation for VHCF failure with FGA formation at nonmetallic inclusions. For this purpose, ultrasonic fatigue tests (R = −1) with the high-strength steel 100Cr6 (SAE 52100) were carried out until an ultimate number of cycles of 109. In addition, very high cycle stress increase tests were performed. A serial grinding investigation of fatigued specimens acted as a technique to evaluate the distribution of unharmful inclusion in the tested volume. By the combination of these tests, a threshold value of the SIF for the VHCF by FGA formation at inclusions can be derived. This threshold value depends on the size of the crack initiating inclusion.

The aim of the present work is to investigate the influence of different stress concentration factors (1.09, 1.31, and 2.42) and several R-values on the fatigue behaviour of martensitic steel X10CrNiMoV12-2-2 up to 2 · 109 load cycles at ambient temperature. The tests were performed using an ultrasonic fatigue testing system developed at the authors' institute. The S-N curves of specimens with the lowest investigated stress concentration factor of 1.09 show for both R = −1 and R = 0.5 a flat slope with transition from surface to volume crack initiation at about 1–2 · 107 load cycles. The maximum number of load cycles where fracture occurs increases with increasing R-value. The √area approach by Murakami describes lifetime behaviour within about 4 decades of lifetime and a wide range of load ratios. In case of internal crack initiation at R = −1, the fracture surface contains a fine granular area (FGA) around the inclusion within the typical “fish-eye” fracture. With increasing notch factor, the fatigue strength up to 2 · 109 load cycles decreases and the slope of the S-N curve becomes steeper in the low cycle fatigue and high cycle fatigue regime, especially for αk = 2.42. In this case, damage at internal defects is suppressed and fatigue cracks are generally initiated at the notch root.

The fatigue crack initiation in high-strength steels at surface inclusions is linked to high stress amplitudes. Low stress amplitudes are associated with a crack initiation at subsurface inclusions. The aim of the paper is to gain insight regarding the factors that lead to the transition of the crack initiation site from the surface to the interior. On the basis of fatigue tests and fracture mechanics evaluation, it was determined that the transition of the crack initiation site is effected by a constant threshold value for crack initiation at the surface and different crack propagation rates at the surface as opposed to the interior. It is shown that with lower stress amplitudes no critical inclusions with stress intensity factors above this threshold value are positioned at the specimen's surface. Therefore, the cumulative number of inclusions on the surface is calculated based on the cumulative number of inclusions in a metallographic section.

The environmental effect in the pressurized water reactor (PWR) water was investigated for various applied strain range using a type 316 stainless steel. The tests were conducted using cylindrical hollow specimens at 325°C. It was shown that the ratio of the fatigue life in the PWR water environment to that in air was about 0.3 to 0.4 regardless of the strain range when the applied strain ranges were 0.8% or more. Crack growth rates identified from spacing of striations observed on fractured surfaces were used to demonstrate that the fatigue life reduction in the PWR water environment could be attributed to the crack growth acceleration. The fractured surface observations revealed that crack initiation was enhanced by the PWR water environment. On the other hand, the reduction in the fatigue life was not significant when the strain ranges were 0.5% and 0.44%, and the specimens did not fail when the strain ranges were 0.38% or less. It was deduced that the crack initiation was not enhanced for the relatively small strain range, and the crack growth was not accelerated. Since the fatigue limit of the test material was 0.4% in the strain range in air, it was concluded that the fatigue limit was not reduced in the PWR water environment.

A new method for predicting crack plane direction in high-cycle multiaxial fatigue is proposed. This method considers material properties and loading conditions. Two situations are considered: (i) in-phase loading, where the crack plane direction only depends on the loading condition and material properties have little influence on it, and (ii) out-of-phase loading, where the crack plane direction is affected by both loading conditions and material properties. The prediction accuracy is assessed by comparison with several experimental results, including different loading conditions and materials. The results show that the proposed method provides a good prediction capability for these experiments.

Offshore structures are generally fabricated of welded joints, which are considered as potential spots for crack initiation owing to the degree of stress concentrations imposed by the weld geometry and the effects of residual stresses introduced by welding processes. There are significant numbers of the current and anticipated offshore installations coupled with the use of newer materials and fabrication techniques. It is therefore important to understand the crack growth mechanisms in these structures accompanied with the effects of mean or residual stresses for a safe estimation of their service lives. In this paper, crack growth results of HAZ and weld materials similar to those used for offshore installations are presented. Tests were conducted in air and in simulated free-corrosion conditions at loading frequencies of 0.3 Hz in seawater, 5 Hz in air and at loading ratios of 0.1, 0.5 and 0.7. Results showed that crack growth rates were influenced by mean stresses, materials microstructure accompanied by welding procedure and environment. Crack growth results showed good agreement when compared with those obtained from other steels used for offshore structures.

Lattice networks with dissipative interactions can be used to describe the mechanics of discrete meso-structures of materials such as 3D-printed structures and foams. This contribution deals with the crack initiation and propagation in such materials and focuses on an adaptive multiscale approach that captures the spatially evolving fracture. Lattice networks naturally incorporate non-locality, large deformations, and dissipative mechanisms taking place inside fracture zones. Because the physically relevant length scales are significantly larger than those of individual interactions, discrete models are computationally expensive. The Quasicontinuum (QC) method is a multiscale approach specifically constructed for discrete models. This method reduces the computational cost by fully resolving the underlying lattice only in regions of interest, while coarsening elsewhere. In this contribution, the (variational) QC is applied to damageable lattices for engineering-scale predictions. To deal with the spatially evolving fracture zone, an adaptive scheme is proposed. Implications induced by the adaptive procedure are discussed from the energy-consistency point of view, and theoretical considerations are demonstrated on two examples. The first one serves as a proof of concept, illustrates the consistency of the adaptive schemes, and presents errors in energies. The second one demonstrates the performance of the adaptive QC scheme for a more complex problem.

In this paper, the extended Direct Steady Cyclic Analysis method (eDSCA) within the Linear Matching Method Framework (LMMF) is combined with the Stress Modified Ductility Exhaustion method and the modified Cavity Growth Factor (CGF) for the first time. This new procedure is used to systematically investigate the effect of several load parameters including load level, load type and creep dwell duration on the creep–fatigue crack initiation process in a notched specimen. The results obtained are verified through a direct comparison with experimental results available in the literature demonstrating great accuracy in predicting the crack initiation life and the driving mechanisms. Furthermore, this extensive numerical study highlighted the possible detrimental effect of the creep–ratchetting mechanism on the crack growth process. This work has a significant impact on structural integrity assessments of complex industrial components and for the better understanding of creep–fatigue lab scale tests.

This paper deals with the modelling of short crack initiation within a microstructure of medium carbon steel under fatigue loading, as well as with the influence of overload on the crack initiation period. Studies on the long crack growth show that the overload introduces first an increase in the crack growth rate that is then followed with a decrease, a so-called retardation. A micro-model containing the microstructure of the material is analysed using the finite element method in combination with a model for crack development – the assessment of number of cycles needed for crack initiation was based on the Tanaka–Mura equation. The analysis brings in a correlation between the crack growth rate and the crack length together with the effects of the overload on the crack growth rate. The overload is found to accelerate the short crack growth; however, the following retardation could not be captured due to the inability of the model to produce residual stresses, which are considered to be the main cause of the retardation effect.

Based on the Neuber's rule and Walker equation, a new measurement method considering the influence of mean stress and stress gradient is proposed. A stress gradient factor is defined to correct the traditional Walker equation; thus, it is easy to estimate the life of the structural components only based on the purely elastic finite element analysis. The low-cycle fatigue experiment was carried out by using the direct aging GH4169 notched specimen with different stress concentration factors under evaluated temperature. The fracture morphology of specimens was analyzed to determine the crack initiation position and the damage mechanism. The data points of the experiment life and the estimation life are correlated well within a three times scatter band. It indicates that the Walker equation corrected by introducing a new kind of measurement of stress gradient is reliable to estimate the notched specimen fatigue life.

The paper presents a verification and validation approach for peridynamic failure models. The use-case at hand is an enhanced energy-based failure model for state-based peridynamics. Solution robustness and validity of predicted crack initiation and propagation is demonstrated for a double cantilever beam. Tensile tests using the same material and energy release rate from the prior simulations are used to predict specimen failure. The model is implemented in the software Peridigm and will be published open-source.

The microstructural features and the fatigue propensities of interior crack initiation region for very-high-cycle fatigue (VHCF) of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy were investigated in this paper. Fatigue tests under different stress ratios of R=-1, -0.5, -0.1, 0.1 and 0.5 were conducted by ultrasonic axial cycling. The observations by SEM showed that the crack initiation of VHCF presents a fish-eye (FiE) morphology containing a rough area (RA), and the FiE and RA are regarded as the characteristic regions for crack initiation of VHCF. Further examinations by TEM revealed that a layer of nanograins exists in the RA for the case of R=-1, while nanograins do not appear in the FiE outside RA for the case of R=-1, and in the RA for the case of R=0.5, which is explained by the Numerous Cyclic Pressing model. In addition, the estimations of the fatigue propensities for interior crack initiation stage of VHCF indicated that the fatigue life consumed by RA takes a dominant part of the total fatigue life and the related crack propagation rate is rather slow.

Over the last decades, much research has been done to improve the surface quality of dental implants, but there was no change in the materials used to manufacture the implants. The purpose of the present work is to compare the compressive strength and fatigue failure of dental implants made with a new material, nanocrystalline Ti grade 4 fabricated by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) (Ti Hard) with a traditional material, microcrystalline Ti grade 4 (Ti G4). Machined screw-shaped implants with three different designs (Easy, Torq and Flash) made with the two materials were subjected to static and dynamic compressive loads. Implants made with Ti Hard showed higher static compressive strength (Easy: 889.9 ± 79.4 N, Flash: 588.9 ± 74.7 N, Torq: 498.3 ± 54.6 N) than implants made with TiG4 (Easy: 776.4 ± 74.5 N, Flash: 308.8 ± 15.2 N, Torq: 410.3 ± 25.2 N) and higher fatigue strength for 5 106 cycles (Easy: 400 N, Flash: 280 N, Torq: 260 N) than implants made with TiG4 (Easy: 300 N, Flash: 200 N, Torq: 200 N). The higher fatigue strength of nanocrystalline Ti G4 is attributed to a delay in crack initiation.

Recently, standardized solution strengthened ferritic ductile irons have met the interest of the industrial world since their improved mechanical properties and workability compared to standard ferritic–pearlitic ductile irons. For this reason, mechanical and fatigue properties of heavy section solution strengthened ferritic ductile irons castings are examined. Mechanical tests are carried out on specimens taken from the center of castings with long solidification times. Metallographic analyses are performed by using optical microscopy. Fracture surfaces of fatigue specimens are investigated in order to evaluate crack initiation and propagation zones. Finally, fatigue curves of the analyzed alloy are compared with those obtained from pearlitic ductile iron with the same casting geometry.

In this study, influences of hybrid filler networks of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon black (CB) on fracture resistance of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) composites were well investigated. The spherical CB was partially substituted by fibrous CNTs in two different ways: unequal replacement (1 phr CNTs replacing 4 phr CB) and equal replacement (1 phr CNTs replacing 1 phr CB). The J-integral tests were employed to evaluate the crack initiation and propagation resistance. The strain amplification and distribution near the crack tip was measured by digital image correlation to explore the fracture resistance mechanism. Results revealed that the fracture resistance was effectively improved by unequal replacement. Meanwhile, for unequal replacement, higher content of CNTs resulted in a weaker strain amplification factor and larger amplification area near the crack tip, which contributed to the improved fracture resistance. However, opposite trends were observed for equal replacement. A synergistic effect in fracture resistance of SBR composites between CB and CNTs was realized for unequal replacement. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2016. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers

In this retrieval study, we reported the failure mechanisms of the CoCrMo-based hip implants. Systematic analyses on the clinically failed modular femoral stems from Revitan™ revision prostheses revealed a multistep fracture process. Multiple microcracks were first developed under the combined action of pitting corrosion and dynamic tensile stress on the lateral side of the CoCrMo connection taper. These microcracks then served as the initiation sites of further corrosion fatigue cracking leading to the final catastrophic failure. This crack initiation process has not been previously reported on retrieved CoCrMo components and our findings provide valuable information on the clinical performance of such implants, as well as the material selection and structural designs of future modular stems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 1525-1535, 2017.

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is one of the most important failure mechanisms in rails with significant cost- and safety-related implications on the operation of railway systems. In this work, a metallurgical analysis of RCF crack initiation and propagation, including geometrical characteristics of RCF cracks – length, depth from surface, angle of propagation and spacing between cracks, is presented. The role of proeutectoid ferrite in crack initiation has been studied. Analysis of the fracture surface of an RCF crack revealed a ductile initiation zone followed by a quasi-cleavage crack propagation. Iron oxide formed in the interior of all cracks in rails exposed to stagnant water with implications to crack propagation rate because of crack closure effects. Sequential sectioning parallel to the rolling surface revealed that RCF cracks possess convoluted surfaces. The crack trace expands with depth from the rolling surface. Subsurface crack initiation has also been documented.

The self-piercing riveting (SPR) process is gaining popularity because of its many advantages. This study investigated the fatigue strength of SPR joints in tensile-shear specimens with dissimilar Al-5052 and steel sheets. A structural analysis of the specimen was conducted. For this specimen, the upper steel sheet withstood applied load in a monotonic test and played a major role in the low-cycle region. In the high-cycle region, however, the harder surface of the upper steel sheet reduced the fatigue strength by enhancing fretting crack initiation on the opposite softer aluminium surface. Therefore, the fatigue endurance of the specimen was reduced. The fatigue endurance of a SPR joint with the combination of steel and aluminium sheets was found to be governed by the strength of the lower sheet, which is more vulnerable to the applied loading. Thus, it is desirable to use a stronger metal sheet as the lower sheet with regard to the fatigue performance. Scanning acoustic microscopy was effectively used to reveal and prove the formation and growth of subsurface cracks in SPR joints. The structural stress can predict the fatigue lifetimes of the SPR joint specimens within a factor of three.

Effects of ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM) on the very high cycle fatigue response of AISI 310 stainless steel have been investigated. The higher impact force used in UNSM treatment showed a higher fatigue life improvement. The fatigue life improvement was higher in crack initiation from the surface of specimens. The subsurface crack initiation depth in the alloy increased with increase in the fatigue failure cycles. It was concluded that UNSM treatment can increase the life of the alloy significantly up to very high cycle fatigue.

This paper presents a crystal plasticity model to predict the tensile response and crack initiation in a mixed ferrite-martensite material with a low volume fraction of pro-eutectoid ferrite, representative of a welding-induced intercritical heat-affected zone. It is shown that small volume fractions of ferrite can have a significant effect on material strength and ductility depending on the ferrite grain orientation. For relatively soft ferrite grains, microcracks can grow across interferrite ligaments with damage accumulating in the ferrite, leading to a reduction in strength and strain hardening, but with little influence on ductility; in contrast, relatively hard ferrite grains act to accelerate microcrack initiation, leading to reduced ductility, with negligible influence on strain hardening up to the maximum load. This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under grant no. 14/IA/2604 and the College of Engineering and Informatics at NUI Galway. The authors are grateful to the Irish Center for High‐End Computing (ICHEC) for supporting the computational work (uleng040b). The authors are grateful for the helpful discussions with the Mechanics team (NUI Galway and UL). The assistance of Mr Edward Meade of the Bernal Institute at UL is also gratefully acknowledged. peer-reviewed