• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1250-1258
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• 2021

In this paper, the mechanical performance of cracked surface-coated Zircaloy cladding, which has different coating materials, coating thicknesses and initial crack lengths, has been investigated. By analyzing the stress field near the crack tip, the safety zone range of initial crack length has been decided. In order to determine whether the crack can propagate along the radial (r) or axial (z) directions, the energy release rate has been calculated. By comparing the energy release rate with fracture toughness of materials, we can divide the initial crack lengths into three zones: safety zone, discussion zone and danger zone. The results show that Cr is suitable coating material for the cladding with a thin coating while Fe-Cr-Al have a better fracture mechanical performance in the cladding with thick coating. The Si-coated and SiC-coated claddings are suitable for reactors with low power fuel elements. Conclusions in this paper can provide reference and guidance for the cladding design of nuclear fuel elements.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.11 s.242
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• pp.1472-1479
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• 2005

Multiple surface crack distributed randomly along a weld toe influences strongly on the fatigue crack propagation life of welded joint. It is investigated by using statistical approaches based on series of systematic experiments. From the statistical results, initial crack numbers and its locations follow the normal distribution, and the probability of initial crack depths and lengths can be described well by tile Weibull distribution. These characteristics are used to calculate the fatigue crack propagation life, in which the mechanisms of mutual interaction and coalescence of the multiple cracks are considered as well as the Mk-factors obtained from a parametric study on the crack depths and lengths. The automatic calculation is achieved by the NESUSS, where the parameters such as the number, location and size of the cracks are all treated as random variables. The random variables are dealt through the Monte-Carlo simulation with sampling random numbers of 2,000. The simulation results show that the multiple cracks lead to much shorter crack propagation life compared with those in single crack situation. The sum of the simulation and tile fatigue crack initiation life derived by the notch strain approach agrees well with the experiments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.119-129
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• 1990

In case that the body with a cusp crack is under uniform heat flow, thermal stress intensity factors are calculated by using boundary element method with linearized body force term. The crack surface is under insulated or fixed temperature condition and the types of crack are symmetric lip and airfoil cusps. Numerical values of thermal stress intensity factors for a Griffith crack and cusp cracks in infinite bodies are proved to be in good agreement within .+-.5% when compared with the previous numerical and exact solutions, respectively. The thermal stress intensity factors for symmetric lip and airfoil cusp cracks in finite bodies are calculated about various effective crack lengths, configuration parameters, and heat flow directions. With the same crack surface thermal boundary conditions, heat flow directions and crack lengths, there are no appreciable differences in variations of thermal stress intensity factors between symmetric lip and airfoil cusp cracks. The signs of thermal stress intensity factors for each cusp crack are changed with each crack surface thermal boundary condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.168-172
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• 2000

The stiffened panel is representative of a large portion of aircraft construction and therefore has much practical importance. In this paper, the influence of various shape parameters on the stress intensity factors and the fatigue crack growth in the panels with bonded composite stiffeners are studied experimentally. Results are presented as crack growth rates for various values of crack lengths, stiffness ratios, and stiffening Materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.569-582
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• 2018

Effects of crack separation, bridge area, on the tensile behaviour of concrete are studied experimentally and numerically through the Brazilian tensile test. The physical data obtained from the Brazilian tests are used to calibrate the two-dimensional particle flow code based on discrete element method (DEM). Then some specially designed Brazilian disc specimens containing two parallel cracks are used to perform the physical tests in the laboratory and numerically simulated to make the suitable numerical models to be tested. The experimental and numerical results of the Brazilian disc specimens are compared to conclude the validity and applicability of these models used in this research. Validation of the simulated models can be easily checked with the results of Brazilian tests performed on non-persistent cracked physical models. The Brazilian discs used in this work have a diameter of 54 mm and contain two parallel centred cracks ($90^{\circ}$ to the horizontal) loaded indirectly under the compressive line loading. The lengths of cracks are considered as; 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm, respectively. The visually observed failure process gained through numerical Brazilian tests are found to be very similar to those obtained through the experimental tests. The fracture patterns demonstrated by DEM simulations are mostly affected by the crack separation but the tensile strength of bridge area is related to the fracture pattern and failure mechanism of the testing samples. It has also been shown that when the crack lengths are less than 30 mm, the tensile cracks may initiate from the cracks tips and propagate parallel to loading direction till coalesce with the other cracks tips while when the cracks lengths are more than 30 mm, these tensile cracks may propagate through the intact concrete itself rather than that of the bridge area.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.1715-1720
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• 2010

In this study, we analyzed the crack-healing characteristics of specimens; different crack lengths and coating methods of $Si_3N_4$ ceramic structures with long cracks were analyzed. Cracks with lengths of about $100-500\;{\mu}m$ were obtained using a Vickers indenter for a load of 24.5-98 N. In the case of a crack obtained by applying a load of 24.5 N, the crack-healed specimen with $SiO_2$ nanocolloid coating exhibited the highest bending strength, which was higher than that of a smooth specimen by 140%, but the bending strength of a crack-healed specimen that had a $SiO_2$ nanocolloid coating and originally had multiple cracks was lower than that of a smooth specimen. However, when compared to the cracked specimens, the bending strength of most specimens with multiple cracks increased slightly. On the basis of these results, the crack-healing characteristics of $Si_3N_4$ ceramic structures with multiple indentations were studied for different coating methods. The most effective coating method for long-crack specimens was hydrostatic pressure coating.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.197-202
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• 2000

A simple numerical procedure is presented to determine the stress intensity factors for crack in a stiffened panel subjected to a uniaxial uniform stress normal to the crack. Two types of stiffened panels are analyzed by the finite element method for various values of crack lengths, stiffness ratios, and stiffener spacings. From the finite element solution, the stress intensity factors were determined by using hybrid extrapolation method. Results are presented in graphical forms for upper mentioned parameters.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 1996

The fracture behaviour of concrete gravity dam mainly due to uplift pressure acting at the crack face was studied. Triangular type and parabolic type distribution of the uplift pressure including uniform type were first considered in case of calculating stress intensity factor(SIF) by the surface integral method. Second, the directions of crack propagation according to the uplift pressure distribution were pursued by FRANC(FRacture ANalysis Code). Third, critical crack lengths according to the uplift pressure distribution under the overflow depth were calculated. The SIF values obtained from the surface integral method were compared with those by FRANC and relatively good agrements could be obtained between both of them. And it could be seen that the direction of crack propagation in case of triangular pressure distribution was a little benter to the dam base than the one by the uniform type. Maximum critical crack lengths under the overflow depth were obtained at about 2/5-1/2 of the dam height.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2007

This paper presents a closed-form model for evaluating the restraint effect of pressure induced bending on the opening of a circumferential through-wall crack, which is considered plastic deformation behavior. Three-dimensional finite element analyses with different crack lengths, restraint conditions, pipe geometries, magnitudes of internal pressure, and tensile properties were used to investigate the influence of each parameter on the pressure-induced bending restraint on the crack opening displacement. From these investigations, an analytical model based on elastic-perfectly plastic material was developed in terms of the crack length, symmetric restraint length, mean radius to thickness ratio, axial stress corresponding to the internal pressure, and normalized crack opening displacement evaluated from a linear-elastic crack opening condition. Finite element analyses results demonstrate that the proposed analytical model reliably estimated the restraint effect of pressure-induced bending on the plastic crack opening of a circumferential through-wall crack and properly reflected the dependence on each parameter within the range over which the analytical expression was derived.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.1041-1050
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• 2000

In this paper the effect of specimen thickness on fatigue crack growth with the spatial distribution of material properties is presented. Basically, the material resistance to fatigue crack growth is treated as a spatial stochastic process, which varies randomly on the crack surface. The theoretical autocorrelation functions of fatigue crack growth resistance with specimen thickness are discussed for several correlation lengths. Constant ${\Delta}K$ fatigue crack growth tests were also performed on CT type specimens with three different thicknesses of BS 4360 steel. Applying the proposed stochastic model and statistical analysis procedure, the experimental data were analyzed for different specimen thicknesses for determining the autocorrelation functions and probability distributions of the fatigue crack growth resistance.