Continuum approaches to fracture regard crack initiation and growth as the ultimate consequences of a gradual, local loss of material integrity. The material models which are traditionally used to describe the degradation process, however, may predict premature crack initiation and instantaneous, perfectly brittle crack growth. This nonphysical response is caused by localisation instabilities d...

ÐFatigue crack initiation and multiplication of the unnotched SCS-6 silicon carbide ®ber-reinforced titanium matrix composites with di€erent matrix and interfacial properties have been investigated experimentally and analytically. Ti±15V±3Al, Ti±6Al±4V, and Ti±22Al±23Nb were chosen as matrix materials. The initiation and propagation of each individual matrix crack as a function of fatigue cycle...

The natural initiation and growth of short cracks in Inconel 718 U-notch specimens has been studied at 600C in air. U notches were introduced through broaching, and hardness traces and optical microscopy on cross sections through the U notch broaching showed that the broaching process had introduced a deformed, work hardened layer. Fatigue tests were conducted under load control using a 1-1-1-1...

It is considered that the process of fatigue fracture could be arranged the three classes, i.e., crack initiation, crack propagation and fracture. Of these the second process is important from the following point of view. (1) As has so far been reported in many publications, the importance of crack propagation process in total fatigue life increases in proportion to the increase in the stress c...

The typical experimental procedure for testing stress corrosion cracking initiation involves an interval-censored reliability test. Based on these test results, the parameters of a Weibull distribution, which is a widely accepted crack initiation model, can be estimated using maximum likelihood estimation or median rank regression. However, it is difficult to determine the appropriate number of...

A reliable and cost effective two-phase methodology is proposed to predict crack propagation in generic two-dimensional structural components under complex fatigue loading. First, the fatigue crack path and its stress intensity factors are calculated in a specialized finite element software, using small crack increments. At each crack propagation step, the mesh is automatically redefined based ...

Initial cracks occur in high strength concrete sleepers for various reasons, such as shrinkage and wrong curing and long lifetime of over 50 years of sleepers. These cracks may lead to complete failure of the structure. In order to more accurately design the sleepers, fracture mechanics (not strength of materials) should be incorporated. In order to achieve this purpose, it is important to fore...

Residual compressive stress can improve fretting fatigue strength. In this paper, the effects of residual stress on fretting fatigue of Al 2024-T351 alloy specimens are studied using a numerical approach. The extended finite element method combined with the cyclic cohesive zone model is adopted to model fretting fatigue crack growth behavior. It is shown that residual stress changes the frettin...

Analysis of toughness in 6156 Al-Mg-Si-Cu sheet has been performed using enhanced Kahn tear tests on samples quenched at different rates. Crack initiation energies were hardly affected by changing water quench temperature from 20°C to 60°C; however a significant reduction was evident on air cooling. Crack propagation energy was reduced for both 60°C water quenched and air cooled materials. Obse...

initial cracks occur in high strength concrete sleepers for various reasons, such as shrinkage and wrong curing and long lifetime of over 50 years of sleepers. these cracks may lead to complete failure of the structure. in order to more accurately design the sleepers, fracture mechanics (not strength of materials) should be incorporated. in order to achieve this purpose, it is important to fore...