• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.572-582
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• 2021

This study investigated the creep and creep crack growth (CCG) behavior of the base metal (BM), weld metal (WM), and heat affected zone (HAZ) in a Gr. 91 weldment, which was made by a shield metal arc weld process. A series of tensile, creep, and CCG tests were performed for the BM, WM, and HAZ at 550 ℃. Creep behavior of the BM, WM, and HAZ was analyzed in terms of various creep laws; Norton's power-law, Monkman-Grant relation and damage tolerance factor (λ), and their constants were determined. In addition, each CCGR law for the BM, WM, and HAZ was proposed and compared in terms of a C^*-fracture parameter. The WM and HAZ revealed faster creep rate, lower rupture ductility, and faster CCGRs than the BM, but they showed a similar behavior in the creep and CCG. The CCGRs obtained in the present study exhibited a marginal difference when compared with those of RCC-MRx of currently elevated design code in France. A creep crack path in the HAZ plane progressed towards a weak fine-grained HAZ adjacent to the BM.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.283-299
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• 2010

This paper addresses the numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth in arbitrary 2D geometries under constant amplitude loading by the using a new finite element software. The purpose of this software is on the determination of 2D crack paths and surfaces as well as on the evaluation of components Lifetimes as a part of the damage tolerant assessment. Throughout the simulation of fatigue crack propagation an automatic adaptive mesh is carried out in the vicinity of the crack front nodes and in the elements which represent the higher stresses distribution. The fatigue crack direction and the corresponding stress-intensity factors are estimated at each small crack increment by employing the displacement extrapolation technique under facilitation of singular crack tip elements. The propagation is modeled by successive linear extensions, which are determined by the stress intensity factors under linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) assumption. The stress intensity factors range history must be recorded along the small crack increments. Upon completion of the stress intensity factors range history recording, fatigue crack propagation life of the examined specimen is predicted. A consistent transfer algorithm and a crack relaxation method are proposed and implemented for this purpose. Verification of the predicted fatigue life is validated with relevant experimental data and numerical results obtained by other researchers. The comparisons show that the program is capable of demonstrating the fatigue life prediction results as well as the fatigue crack path satisfactorily.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.295-305
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• 2023

This study introduces a smoothed finite-element implementation into the phase-field framework. In recent years, the phase-field method has recieved considerable attention in crack initiation and propagation since the method needs no further treatment to express the crack growth path. In the phase-field method, high strain-energy accuracy is needed to capture the complex crack growth path; thus, it is obtained in the framework of the smoothed finite-element method. The salient feature of the smoothed finite-element method is that the finite element cells are divided into sub-cells and each sub-cell is rebuilt as a smoothing domain where smoothed strain energy is calculated. An adaptive quadtree refinement is also employed in the present framework to avoid the computational burden. Numerical experiments are performed to investigate the performance of the proposed approach, compared with that of the finite-element method and the reference solutions.

• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.68-73
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• 2004

An analytical study was conducted to characterize the fatigue crack growth behavior of pre-cracked aluminum plates repaired with asymmetric bonded composite patch. For single-sided repairs, due to the asymmetry and the presence of out-of$.$plane bending, crack front shape would become skewed curvilinear started from a uniform through-crack profile, as observed from Previous studies. Therefore, for the accurate investigation of fatigue behavior, it is necessary to predict the actual crack front evolution and take it into consideration in the analysis. In this study, the fatigue analysis of single-sided repairs considering crack front shape development was conducted by implementing three-dimensional successive finite element method coupled with linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) concept, which enables the growing crack front to be directly traced and modeled in a step by step way. Through conducting present analysis technique, crack path of the patched plate as well as the fatigue life was evaluated with sufficient accuracy. The analytical predictions of both the crack front shape evolution and the fatigue life were in good agreement with the experimental observations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.6
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• pp.665-675
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• 2022

The safety problems of giant hydraulic structures such as dams caused by terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and wars often have an important impact on a country's economy and people's livelihood. For the national defense department, timely and effective assessment of damage to or impending damage to dams and other structures is an important issue related to the safety of people's lives and property. In the field of damage assessment and vulnerability analysis, it is usually necessary to give the damage assessment results within a few minutes to determine the physical damage (crack length, crater size, etc.) and functional damage (decreased power generation capacity, dam stability descent, etc.), so that other defense and security departments can take corresponding measures to control potential other hazards. Although traditional numerical calculation methods can accurately calculate the crack length and crater size under certain combat conditions, it usually takes a long time and is not suitable for rapid damage assessment. In order to solve similar problems, this article combines simulation calculation methods with machine learning technology interdisciplinary. First, the common concrete gravity dam shape was selected as the simulation calculation object, and XFEM (Extended Finite Element Method) was used to simulate and calculate 19 cracks with different initial positions. Then, an LSTM (Long-Short Term Memory) machine learning model was established. 15 crack paths were selected as the training set and others were set for test. At last, the LSTM model was trained by the training set, and the prediction results on the crack path were compared with the test set. The results show that this method can be used to predict the crack propagation path rapidly and accurately. In general, this article explores the application of machine learning related technologies in the field of mechanics. It has broad application prospects in the fields of damage assessment and vulnerability analysis.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2000

Surface micro-crack grows along intergranular or transgranular region of crystal grains. But if it meets the barrier such as sessile dislocation and precipitates it loses straightness and deflects. Investigators had many difficulties in estimating fatigue life of smooth specimen because of the random distribution growth and coalescence of surface micro-cracks. The path of surface micro-crack has irregularity due to nonhomogeneous microstructure. Euclidian geometry can't quantify the shape of surface micro-crack but fractal geometry can. Therefore in this paper fractal dimension is measured at various stage of cycle ratio and estimated cycle ratio in 2024-T3 aluminium, alloy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2008

Applications of fracture mechanics in the strength analysis of ceramic materials have been lately studied by many researchers. Various test specimens have been proposed in order to investigate the fracture resistance of cracked bodies under mixed mode conditions. Double Cleavage Drilled Compression (DCDC) specimen, with a hole offset from the centerline is a configuration that is frequently used in subcritical crack growth studies of ceramics and glasses. This specimen exhibits a strong crack path stability that is due to the strongly negative T-stress term. In this paper the maximum tensile stress (MTS) criterion is employed for investigating theoretically the initiation of brittle fracture in the DCDC specimen under mixed mode conditions. It is shown that the T-stress has a significant influence on the predicted fracture load and the crack initiation angle. The theoretical results suggest that brittle fracture in the DCDC specimen is controlled by a combination of the singular stresses (characterized by KI and KII) and the non-singular stress term, T-stress.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 1996

Monolithic AlN and AlN-W composites were fabricated by pressure-less sintering at 190$0^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen atmosphere and the influences of tungsten phase on the microstructure and mechanical properties were investi-gated. In the fabrication of sintered specimen no additive was used. And monolithic AlN showed substantial grain growth and low relative density. AlN-W composites were fully densified and grain growths of matrix were inhibited. The densification behavior of composites were inferred to be achieved through the liquid phase sintering process such as particle-rearrangement and solutino-reprecipitation. Also the oxid phases which is expected to form liquid phases duringsintering process were detected by XRD analysis. As the tungsten volume content increases fracture strength was decreased and fracture toughness was increased. It was suppo-sed that the strength decrease of composites with tungsten content was due to existence of interface phases. The subcritical crack growth behavior was observed from the stress-strain curve of composites. The effect of the secondary phase and interface phases on toughness in crease were studied through observation of crack propagation path and the influence of residual stress on crack propagation was investigated by X-ray residual stress measurement. In the result of residual stress measurement the compressive stress of matrix in composi-test was increased with tungsten volume content and the compressive stress distribution of matrix must have contributed to the inhibition of crack propagation.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.691-700
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• 1999

본 연구에서는 요소를 사용하지 않는 새로운 해석방법인 EFG(Element-Free Galerkin)법을 사용하여 복수의 초기균열을 지닌 강재가 반복피로하중을 받는 경우 균열들이 점진적으로 성장하여 부재가 파단에 이르는 과정을 해석적으로 규명하였다. 이를 위하여 본 연구에서는 일반적인 피로균열성장법칙을 EFG법을 이용한 균열해석 알고리즘에 적용하여 복수의 균열들이 각각의 응력상태에 따라 차별적으로 성장해 나가는 과정을 해석할 수 있는 알고리즘을 도입하고 이를 바탕으로 다양한 하중상태하에서 복수의 균열들의 성장경로를 추정함과 동시에 이에 따른 잔존수명을 산정할 수 있는 기법을 제시하였다. 본 연구에서 제안된 해석방법을 피로균열 발생빈도가 큰 몇가지의 강부재 형태에 적용해 본 결과 다수균열 함유 부재의 피로균열 성장거동과 균열들의 피로수명을 성공적으로 예측할 수 있었다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2011

CANDU reactor core is composed a few hundreds pressure tubes, which support and locate the nuclear fuels in the reactor. Each pressure tube provides pressure boundary and flow path of primary heat transport system in the core region. In order to guarantee the structural integrity of pressure tube flaws which can be found by in-service inspection, crack growth and fracture initiation assessment have to be performed. Stress intensity factors are important and basic information for structural integrity assessment of planar and laminar flaws (e. g. crack). This paper reviews and confirms the stress intensity factor of axial crack, proposed in CSA N285.8-05, which is an fitness-for-service evaluation code for pressure tubes in CANDU nuclear reactors. The stress intensity factors in CSA N285.8-05 were compared with stress intensity factors calculated by three methods (finite element results, API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 2007 Fitness-For-Service and ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section XI). The effects of Poisson's ratio and anisotropic elastic modulus on stress intensity factors were also discussed.