• Computers and Concrete
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.375-388
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• 2008

Crack opening governs many transfer properties that play a pivotal role in durability analyses. Instead of trying to combine continuum and discrete models in computational analyses, it would be attractive to derive from the continuum approach an estimate of crack opening, without considering the explicit description of a discontinuous displacement field in the computational model. This is the prime objective of this contribution. The derivation is based on the comparison between two continuous variables: the distribution if the effective non local strain that controls damage and an analytical distribution of the effective non local variable that derives from a strong discontinuity analysis. Close to complete failure, these distributions should be very close to each other. Their comparison provides two quantities: the displacement jump across the crack [U] and the distance between the two profiles. This distance is an error indicator defining how close the damage distribution is from that corresponding to a crack surrounded by a fracture process zone. It may subsequently serve in continuous/discrete models in order to define the threshold below which the continuum approach is close enough to the discrete one in order to switch descriptions. The estimation of the crack opening is illustrated on a one-dimensional example and the error between the profiles issued from discontinuous and FE analyses is found to be of a few percents close to complete failure.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.220-227
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• 2001

The fatigue crack initiation life is studied on automotive tensile-shear spot weldment made from cold rolled carbon steel(SPC) sheet by using DCPDM and local strain approach. It can be found that the fatigue crack initiation behavior in spot weldment can be definitely detected by DCPDM system. To predict the fatigue life of spot weldment, the local stresses and strains at the potential critical region are estimated by approximate method based on Neubers rule and elastic-plastic FEM analysis. A satisfactory correlation between the predicted life obtained from Local strain approach based on Neubers rule and experimental life can be found in spot weldment within a factor of 2.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2019

This paper introduces a near-tip grid refinement and explores its usefulness in the crack analysis by the natural element method(NEM). As a sort of local h-refinement in finite element method(FEM), a NEM grid is locally refined around the crack tip showing high stress singularity. This local grid refinement is completed in two steps in which grid points are added and Delaunay triangles sharing the crack tip node are divided. A plane strain rectangular plate with symmetric edge cracks is simulated to validate the proposed local grid refinement and to examine its usefulness in the crack analysis. The crack analysis is also simulated using a uniform NEM grid for comparison. Unlike the uniform grid, the refined grid provides near-tip stress distributions similar to the analytic solutions and the fine grid. In addition, the refined grid shows higher convergence than the uniform grid, the global relative error to the total number of grid points.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.719-741
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• 2014

Monitoring surface cracks is important to ensure the health of concrete structures. However, traditional visual inspection to monitor the concrete cracks has disadvantages such as subjective inspection nature, associated time and cost, and possible danger to inspectors. To alter the visual inspection, a complete procedure for automated crack assessment based on adaptive digital image processing has been proposed in this study. Crack objects are extracted from the images using the subtraction with median filter and the local binarization using the Niblack's method. To adaptively. determine the optimal window sizes for the median filter and the Niblack's method without distortion of crack object an optimal filter size index (OFSI) is proposed. From the extracted crack objects using the optimal size of window, the crack objects are decomposed to the crack skeletons and edges, and the crack width is calculated using 4-connected normal line according to the orientation of the local skeleton line. For an image, a crack width nephogram is obtained to have an intuitive view of the crack distribution. The proposed procedure is verified from a test on a concrete reaction wall with various types of cracks. From the crack images with different crack widths and patterns, the widths of cracks in the order of submillimeters are calculated with high accuracy.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2017

Fatigue life prediction of a multi-row countersunk riveted lap joint was performed numerically. The stress and strain conditions in a highly stressed substructure of the joint were analysed using a global/local finite element (FE) model coupling approach. After validation of the FE models using experimental strain measurements, the stress/strain condition in the local three-dimensional (3D) FE model was simulated under a fatigue loading condition. This local model involved multiple load cases with nonlinearity in material properties, geometric deformation, and contact boundary conditions. The resulting stresses and strains were used in the Smith-Watson-Topper (SWT) strain life equation to assess the fatigue "initiation life", defined as the life to a 0.5 mm deep crack. Effects of the rivet-hole clearance and rivet head deformation on the predicted fatigue life were identified, and good agreement in the fatigue life was obtained between the experimental and the numerical results. Further crack growth from a 0.5 mm crack to the first linkup of two adjacent cracks was evaluated using the NRC in-house tool, CanGROW. Good correlation in the fatigue life was also obtained between the experimental result and the crack growth analysis. The study shows that the selected methodology is promising for assessing the fatigue life for the lap joint, which is expected to improve research efficiency by reducing test quantity and cost.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2018

The focus of this paper is on the elements with stable open cracks. To analyze plane problems, two triangular elements with three and six nodes are formulated using force method. Flexibility matrices of the elements are derived by combining the non-cracked flexibility and the additional one due to crack, which is computed by utilizing the local flexibility method. In order to compute the flexibility matrix of the intact element, a basic coordinate system without rigid body motions is required. In this paper, the basic system origin is located at the crack center and one of its axis coincides with the crack surfaces. This selection makes it possible to formulate elements with inclined cracks. It is obvious that the ability of the suggested elements in calculating accurate natural frequencies for cracked structures, make them applicable for vibration-based crack detection.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.4 s.181
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• pp.116-123
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• 2006

During the last two decades, many researchers investigated influences of stress triaxiality on ductile fracture for various specimens and structures. With respect to a transferability issue, the local approach reflecting micro-mechanical specifics is one of effective methods to predict constraint effects. In this paper, the applicability of the local approach was examined through a series of finite element analyses incorporating modified GTN (Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman) and Rousselier models as well as fracture toughness tests. To achieve this goal, fracture resistance (J-R) curves of several types of compact tension (CT) specimens with various crack length, with various thickness and with/without 20% side- grooves were estimated. Then. the constraint effects were examined by comparing the numerically estimated J-R curves with experimentally determined ones. The assessment results showed that the damage models might be used as useful tool for fracture toughness estimation and both the crack length and thickness effects should be considered for realistic structural integrity evaluation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.199-208
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• 1997

A local strain approach was applied to an external single and double grooved C-shaped specimen in order to evaluate and predict the fatigue crack initiation life by using low cycle fatigue properties. The low cycle fatigue properties were determined from the strain-controlled fatigue tests using smooth cylindrical axial specimens. Fatigue crack initiation life was evaluated by a life prediction software, FALIPS, based on the local strain approach. The fatigue life was significantly influenced by the mean stress, and SWT parameter represented the fatigue life effectively. The predicted fatigue crack initiation life was then compared to the experimental fatigue life evaluated from the C-shaped fatigue test specimens. A good correlation was found between the experimental and predicted fatigue lives within factors of 2 and 4 for the single and double grooved C-shaped specimens respectively. Also, experimental fatigue life of the double grooved specimen was 10-12 times longer than that of the single grooved specimen.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2006

In this paper, the scattering of harmonic elastic anti-plane shear waves by two collinear cracks in functionally graded materials is investigated by means of nonlocal theory. The traditional concepts of the non-local theory are extended to solve the fracture problem of functionally graded materials. To overcome the mathematical difficulties, a one-dimensional non-local kernel is used instead of a two-dimensional one for the anti-plane dynamic problem to obtain the stress field near the crack tips. To make the analysis tractable, it is assumed that the shear modulus and the material density vary exponentially with coordinate vertical to the crack. By use of the Fourier transform, the problem can be solved with the help of a pair of triple integral equations, in which the unknown variable is the displacement on the crack surfaces. To solve the triple integral equations, the displacement on the crack surfaces is expanded in a series of Jacobi polynomials. Unlike the classical elasticity solutions, it is found that no stress singularities are present at crack tips.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2003.10c
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• pp.73-78
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• 2003

The residual stresses and. distortions of structures by welding exert negative effect on the safety of railroad structures. This investigation performs a thermal elasto-plastic analysis using finite element techniques to evaluate residual stresses in butted-welded joint. Considering this initial residual stresses, local stress and strain at the critical location (weld toe) during the loading were analyzed by elastic plastic finite element analysis. Fatigue crack initiation life and fatigue crack propagation life of butt-welded specimen were predicted by local strain approach and Neuber's role and Paris law. It is demonstrated that fatigue life estimates by local strain approach closely approximate the experimental results.