The present paper is concerned with the application of a “plasticity-induced” crack closure model to study fatigue crack growth under various load histories. The model was based on the Dugdale model but modified to leave plastically deformed material in the wake of the advancing crack. The model was used to correlate crack growth rates under constant-amplitude loading and then used to predict c...

Reinforced concrete is a composite material consisting in a rebar embedded in a concrete matrix. The structural equilibrium depends of the quality of bond between the two materials as well as the intrinsic quality of each of the components. When the structure is submitted to heating, cracking can occur due to the difference in thermal expansion properties between the two materials. In the prese...

in this paper, in order to analyze the transverse vibration of a uniform bernoulli-euler beam containing one single edge crack, a new continuous model is proposed for the cracked section. to this end, by using the fracture mechanics, the crack is modeled as a continuous disturbance in the stress and strain fields. by applying the hamilton’s principle, the equation of motion and the correspondin...

The evaluation of energy release rate and centre Crack Opening Displacement (COD) for circumferential Through-Wall Cracked (TWC) pipes is an important issue in the assessment of critical crack length for unstable fracture. The ability to predict crack growth continues to be an important component of research for several structural materials. Crack growth predictions can aid the understanding of...

This effort explores the evolution and characterization of structural cracks in aircraft fuselage structures in which the loads are varying. During flight, an aircraft fuselage skin and structure are subjected to varied cyclic loads, which can cause embedded cracks and other damage features to change their characteristics due to loading effects. The current research uses finite element modeling...

A solution is given for the thermoelastic stress field due to the obstruction of a uniform heat flux by a plane crack in a generally anisotropic body. A Green's function formulation is used to reduce the problem to a set of singular integral equations which are solved in closed form. When the crack is assumed to be traction free, the crack opening displacement is found to be negative over one h...

Crack propagation modeling in quasi-brittle materials such as concrete is essential for improving the reliability and load-bearing capacity assessment. Crack propagation explains many failure characteristics of concrete structures using the fracture mechanics approach. This approach could better explain the softening behavior of concrete structures. A great effort has been made in developing nu...

When cracks form in a thin contracting layer, they sequentially break the layer into smaller and smaller pieces. A rectilinear crack pattern encodes information about the order of crack formation, as later cracks tend to intersect with earlier cracks at right angles. In a hexagonal pattern, in contrast, the angles between all cracks at a vertex are near 120 degrees. Hexagonal crack patterns are...

This paper explores the usage of microfocus X-ray computed tomography (CT) for visualization and quantification of diffusion phenomena in cracked concrete. Mortar specimens of varying shapes (prismatic and cylindrical), crack types (artificial and splitting tensile), and binder compositions (OPC and fly ash) were prepared. Cesium carbonate (Cs2CO3) was used as a tracer in the diffusion test bec...

The degradation of onshore, reinforced-concrete wind turbine foundations is usually assessed via above-ground inspections, or through lengthy excavation campaigns that suspend wind power generation. Foundation cracks can and do occur below ground level, and while sustained measurements of crack behaviour could be used to quantify the risk of water ingress and reinforcement corrosion, these crac...