• International Journal of Railway
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2012

Recently, axle load, operating speed and traffic density on railroads have had a tendency to increase and thereby cause additional pressure applied on used track. These operating conditions frequently result in service failure due to wear caused by wheel-rail contact and fatigue damage under cyclic loading. Among rail defects, the transverse crack, which has been the most dangerous type of fatigue damages, is developed from the subsurface crack near the rail running face and grows perpendicular to the rail surface. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate systematically the growth behavior of transverse crack for rail steel under mixed mode. In this study, the fatigue crack growth behavior of the transverse crack in rail steel was experimentally investigated under mixed-mode variable amplitude loadings.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.43 no.4 s.148
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• pp.494-503
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• 2006

Inherent damage zone model is presented to explain the fatigue properties near the fatigue limit and the crack growth threshold consistently Inherent damage zone model assumes that the stress at a point which is located at a small distance, $r_0$, an inherent length of the material that represents the size of effective damage zone, from the crack initiation position governs the fatigue characteristics regardless of the geometric configuration of the specimen; smooth specimen, notched specimen or cracked specimens with short and long crack length. A special feature of the paper is using the exact stress distributions of notched and cracked specimens at the strength evaluations. Analytical elastic solutions by Neuber and Westergaard are employed for this purpose Relationship between fatigue limit of smooth specimen and threshold stress of cracked specimen, occurrence condition of non-propagating crack at the root of elliptic notch and circular hole and relationship between stress concentration factor and fatigue notch factor are discussed quantitatively based on the proposed model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.15-22
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• 2003

The fatigue crack growth model is derived and the retardation model is proposed. The fatigue crack growth model considers the residual plastic stretch on the crack surface which results from the plastic deformation at the tip of fatigue crack. The fatigue crack growth rate is calculated by using the cumulative fatigue damage and plastic strain energy in the material elements at the crack tip. This model gives the crack growth rate in reasonable agreement with test data for aluminum alloy AL6061-T651 and 17-4PH casting steel. The fatigue crack growth retardation model is based on the residual plastic stretch produced from a tensile overload which reduced the plastic strain range of the following load cycles. A strip-yield model of a crack tip plasticity is used for the calculation of a plastic zone size. The proposed retardation model characterized the observed features and delayed retardation of the fatigue crack growth under tensile overload.

• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2023

Fatigue crack is a fatal problem for steel structures. Early detection and maintenance can help extend the service life and prevent hazards. This paper presents the ultrasonic guided waves-based (UGWs-based) fatigue crack detection of a steel I-beam. The semi-analytical finite element model has been built to obtain the wave propagation characteristics. Damage indices in both time and frequency domains were analyzed by considering the characteristic variations of UGWs including the amplitude, phase angle, and wave packet energy. The pulse-echo and pitch-catch methods were combined in the detection scheme. Lab-scale experiments were conducted on welded steel I-beams to verify the proposed method. Results show that the damage indices based on the characteristic variations in the time domain can identify and localize the fatigue crack before it enters the rapid growth stage. The damage severity can be reasonably evaluated by analyzing the time-domain damage indices. Two nonlinear damage indices in the frequency domain give earlier warnings of the fatigue crack than the time-domain damage indices do. The identification results based on the above two nonlinear indices are found to be less consistent under various excitation frequencies. More robust nonlinear techniques needed to be searched and tested for early crack detection in steel I-beams in further study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2017

This study aims to assess the damage tolerance of the wing structure of aged aircraft with long-term service through the fatigue crack growth analysis and tests. For the fatigue-critical locations (FCL) W2 and W4 in the wing structure, the fatigue stress spectrum was derived based on a previous study. Thereafter, a crack propagation analysis for the FCLs was conducted using the commercial software $NASGRO^{TM}$. The algorithm for the fatigue stress spectrum was verified. Fatigue crack growth tests were then performed for two types of specimens: Type #1 was extracted from the wing structure of aged aircraft, and Type #2 was made of the same material as the wing structure. By comparing the experimental results of these specimens, we assessed the damage tolerance of the wing structure of aged aircraft with service time.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2002

The propagation rate(da/dt) prediction parameter and the microstructure properties of creep crack in domestic 3.3NiCrMov steel were investigated at 550$\^{C}$ by using 0.5" CT specimen under constant load(4090N) and constant Ct(300∼4000N/mhr) condition that was maintained during crack growth of 1mm distance. C＊ usually increased with crack length though load was reduced in order to maintain constant Ct value as crack growth and considerably showed the scatter band, but Ct depended on load line displacement rate and represented a good relation with da/dt. At constant toad and Ct region, crack growth slope was 0.900 and 0.844 each, in the other hand C＊ slope was 0.480. Fully coalesced area(FCA) ahead of crack tip was increased as Ct value increase to the critical value, and after that value FCA decreased. The average diameter ditribution of cavity in FCA showed the greatest value about 1.5 ㎛ when Ct=2000N/mhr. The increasing of Ct in FCA view point enlarged the size of damage area and the size reached to maximum 800 ㎛ when Ct=2000N/mhr.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.589-597
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• 2010

Steel structures have a higher probability of being damaged by fatigue than by other causes of deterioration. As such, their maintenance to prevent fatigue damage is essential to sustain their safety and performance during their service period. In their maintenance, the current state of their fatigue cracks must be assessed to determine appropriate reinforcement methods and the suitable time intervals of periodic inspections when fatigue cracks are detected. Determining the crack growth rate is a successful method of predicting fractures, but it requires technical knowledge on fracture mechanics and experience in numerical methods and software for finite element analysis. In this study, a fatigue crack growth test on through-thickness cracked steel plates was conducted to assess the crack growth rate without superior technical knowledge and experience. The relationship between the Crack Opening Displacement (COD) and the crack growth rate was found in relatively long fatigue cracks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.204-212
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• 1990

The SMC composite, now being considered in certain structural applications, is anticipated to experience repeated loading during service. Thus, understanding of the fatigue behavior is essential in proper use of the composite material. In this paper, using the SMC composite composed of E-glass chopped strand and unsaturated polyester resin three point bending fatigue tests are carried out to investigate the fatigue crack propagating behavior under various cyclic stresses and fatigue damage of various microcrack forms. The following results are obtained from this study; 1) Most of the total fatigue life of the SMC composite is consumed at the initial extension or the growth of the macroscopic crack. 2) A Paris' type power-law relationship between the crack propagation rate and stress intensity factor range is obtained, and the value of material constant m is much higher (m=9~11)than that of other metals. 3) In case of high cyclic stress the fatigue damage show high microcrack density and short crack length, but in case of low cyclic stress does it vice versa. 4) Fatigue damage is characterized by microcrack density, crack length and distribution of crack orientation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.179-188
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• 2011

Steel structures have been allowed to have fatigue damage tolerance in fact. If it would be assessed whether fatigue crack is growing or not and How fast fatigue crack is propagating, we should make a rational decision on methods and a period of reinforcement in the maintenance. In this study, fatigue crack growth tests on two kinds of through-thickness cracked steel plates and a out-of-plane gusset welded joint were conducted to evaluate fatigue crack growth rate using the COD(Crack Opening Displacement), and COD measurement using strain gauges was examined to offer a practical method. As a result, we proposed a reasonable assessing method for fatigue crack growth rate using the COD and it was experimentally proved practical to estimate the COD through measuring strains.