Rectangular Strain-Rosette Method for Measuring the Mode I Stress-Intensity Factor KI and T-stress

In this paper, a new experimental technique for measuring Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) and T-stress under mode I loading is developed. The expressions of the normal and tangential strains close to the crack tip are given using the first five terms of the generalized Westergaard formulation. In order to accurately determine the SIF and T-stress, the method exploits the optimal positioning of a rectangular strain gage rosette near a crack tip in mode I. Thus, errors due to the higher order terms of the asymptotic expansion are eliminated. Finally, a comparison of the analytical results with a finite element calculations, for different specimen dimensions, is carried out

Prediction of the critical stress to crack initiation associated to the investigation of fatigue small crack

Fatigue design is of vital importance to avoid fatigue small crack growth in engineering structures. This study shows that the critical fatigue design stress can be defined below the usual endurance limit, considered inrules and codes. The material constitutive behaviour is using linear isotropic elasticity.Lassere and Pallin-Luc [1-2] use the elastic energy and over-energy under uniaxial load (tension and rotating bending). The authors deduce the influencing critical stress value corresponding to sigma star. It’s a linear approach.We propose an over-energy under dissymmetrical rotating bending and expressed in the ellipse axes. An asymptotic approach is transformed the over-energy in polynomial function of critical stress. Unknown depend on experimental service conditions, endurance limit of tension and rotating bending of specimen. The fatigue database of 30NCD16 steel studied by Froustey and Dubar [3-13] is used. Critical stresses are evaluated (Fig. 2).The research done by Manning and all [4] has shown the small crack effect to be as large as 0.3 mm. Small crack and critical stress are illustrated here in as resulting from pure bending approach expressed by Bazant law [7]. It’s reproduces well the Kitagawa diagram [6] (Fig. 3). When the short cracks are hidden in the material, we shows that the number  cycles during small crack growth be significantly higher (Fig. 4) than the corresponding cycles of large cracks growth (ONI’s fatigue test) for the same physically crack size. Indeed its evolution can be blocked by a microstructural barrier (grain boundary, for example). Hence, the considerations of small crack growth are strongly influencing the fatigue life of a component or structure

FE model for linear-elastic mixed mode loading: estimation of SIFs and crack propagation

Finite element analysis combined with the concepts of linear elastic fracture mechanics provides a practical and convenient means to study the fracture and crack growth of materials. The onset criterion of crack propagation is based on the stress intensity factor, which is the most important parameter that must be accurately estimated and facilitated by the singular element. The displacement extrapolation technique is employed to obtain the SIFs at crack tip. In this paper, two different crack growth criteria and the respective crack paths prediction for several test cases are compared between the circumferential stress criterion and the strain energy density criterion. Several examples are presented to compare each criterion and to show the robustness of the numerical schemes

X-ray diffraction study of microstructural changes during fatigue damage initiation in steel pipes

Steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry undergo the action of cyclic loads that can cause their failure by fatigue. A consistent evaluation of the fatigue damage during the initiation phase should fundamentally be based on a nanoscale approach, i.e., at the scale of the dislocation network, in order to take into account the micromechanisms of fatigue damage that precede macrocrack initiation and propagation until the final fracture. In this work, microstructural changes related to fatigue damage initiation are investigated in the API 5L X60 grade steel, used in pipe manufacturing. Microdeformations and macro residual stress are evaluated using X-ray diffraction in real time during alternating bending fatigue tests performed on samples cut off from an X60 steel pipe. The aim of this ongoing work is to provide ground for further development of an indicator of fatigue damage initiation in X60 steel. This damage indicator could allow a good residual life prediction of steel pipes previously submitted to fatigue loading, before macroscopic cracking, and help to increase the reliability of these structures. (C) 2011 Elsevier By. All rights reserved