Application of ultrasound for fatigue testing of lightweight alloys

The use of aluminium and magnesium alloys offers a great potential for weight reduction in automotive applications. Load-bearing car components are subjected to 10⁸ cycles and more during service, and the high-cycle fatigue properties of construction materials are therefore of great interest.
The time-saving ultrasound fatigue testing method has been used to study the fatigue properties of a high-pressure, die-cast magnesium alloy AZ91  hp and a post-forged, cast-aluminium alloy AlSi7Mg0.3 in ambient air and saltwater (5wt% sodium chloride) spray. In ambient air, fatigue cracks in AZ91  hp emanate from voids, and it is possible to correlate void areas with the numbers of cycles-to-failure. Post-forging of AlSi7Mg0.3 reduces the numbers and size of voids. The remaining small voids (void areas smaller than 9000  μm² ) do not significantly reduce lifetimes. Saltwater deteriorates the fatigue properties of both the lightweight alloys. With increasing numbers of cycles, the influence of the corrosive liquid on fatigue strength becomes more pronounced.     

Al-7Si-0.3Mg铸造合金的旋转弯曲疲劳性能研究

研究了M-7Si-0.3Mg铸造铝合金的室温旋转弯曲疲劳性能。结果表明,A1-7Si-0.3Mg铸造铝合金在10~7次疲劳寿命下的极限应力为88 MPa;结合对疲劳试样断口的分析发现,在高应力低寿命区,A1-7Si-0.3Mg合金试样的表面划痕和缺陷造成了材料的表面破坏模式;而在低应力高寿命区,试样内部近表面区的铸造孔洞则是引起材料疲劳破坏的主要原因。使用Paris公式推导出孔洞尺寸和疲劳寿命之间的关系,并计算出不同应力水平条件下的临界孔洞尺寸。     

高强度钢超高周疲劳试样设计

超声谐振技术是研究高强钢材料超高周疲劳性能最有效的手段。概述了等截面圆柱状、变截面圆柱状、薄板状3种超声疲劳试样的设计计算方法,并给出了不同试样沿谐振长度方向的位移、应力幅分布。以动车转向架用SMA490BW钢为例,进行超声疲劳试样设计。对不同形状的试样进行对比与分析,结果表明中间无等截面的狗骨形试样具有最大应力放大系数,中间等截面的加长会降低应力放大系数,最后分析了影响试样振动特性的因素。     

Quenching Distortion of Aluminium Castings – Improvement by Gas Cooling

For quenching of age hardenable aluminium alloys today predominantly aqueous quenching media are used, which can lead due to the Leidenfrost phenomenon to a non‐uniform cooling of the parts and thus to distortion. Particularly at thin‐walled or complex shaped parts local plastic deformations can occur by the uneven thermal stresses. In relation to the conventional quenching procedures in aqueous media, gas quenching exhibits a number of technological, ecological, and economical advantages. The quenching intensity can be adjusted by the variable parameters gas pressure and gas velocity as well as the kind of gas and thus can be adapted to the requirements of the part. The distortion behaviour of serial production aluminium parts was researched after high‐pressure gas quenching with nitrogen 10 bar and after water quenching. Aluminium castings and forgings are considered as interesting applications of gas quenching, because of their near‐net shape before age hardening. Cost savings would be possible, because of reduced distortion and therefore less reworking.     

A novel accumulative fatigue damage model for multiaxial step spectrum considering the variations of loading amplitude and loading path

In this paper, based on the process of the fatigue crack initiation and the critical plane theory, a continuous stress parameter was proposed to quantify the driving force of the fatigue crack initiation for the fully reversed multiaxial fatigue loading. In this stress parameter, the shear stress amplitude and normal stress amplitude on the critical plane were combined with the variable coefficients which were affected by the normalized fatigue life and the loading non‐proportionality. Owing to these coefficients, for the multiaxial loadings with different non‐proportionalities, the driving force of the fatigue crack initiation during the whole life could be described. After that, a novel accumulative fatigue damage model was established for the multiaxial two‐stage step spectrum. In this model, the accumulative damage was calculated according to the variation of the proposed stress parameter on the critical plane. Considering the directionality of the multiaxial fatigue damage, for the spectrum in which the loading path was variable, the damage accumulation was carried out on the critical planes of the both loadings, and the larger one was chosen as the final accumulative fatigue damage. In order to verify the new model, up to 41 different multiaxial two‐stage step spectrum loading tests on 2024‐T4 aluminium alloy were collected. The new model, as well as other five commonly used models, was applied to calculate the accumulative fatigue damage. The final results showed that, compared with other commonly used models, the new model had the most accurate results with the smallest scatters.     

相位角加载条件下2A12铝合金多轴疲劳失效行为

采用SDN100/1000电液伺服拉扭复合疲劳试验机对2A12铝合金进行不同相位角加载条件下多轴疲劳试验研究,通过加载循环曲线和微观断口形貌分析失效机理,对不同损伤累积模型的预测效果进行评价,修正Manson损伤曲线模型以期达到更好的预测效果。结果表明:单级加载条件下,随相位角正弦值的增加疲劳寿命线性递减,当相位角为0°时,轴向硬化、软化交替出现,切向出现循环硬化,90°加载下轴向和切向单独作用效果明显;两级累积路径下,随一级加载周次的增加多轴疲劳寿命延长,0°加载阶段轴向和切向都出现循环硬化现象,两种路径下断口都呈现出多裂纹源特征,在裂纹源区附近观察到台阶状形貌,扩展区存在大量划痕和鳞片状花样;修正后的Manson损伤曲线模型预测误差均在15%以内。     

Fatigue strength degradation of corroded structural details: A formula for S‐N curve

A formula is proposed to predict fatigue strength of corroded members and joints of steel structures. The concept of the formula is first studied from recently identified mechanism of corrosion fatigue. Hence, the corresponding fatigue strength curve (i.e. S‐N curve) of corroded steel is presented. It is further improved to derive linear, bilinear or trilinear S‐N curve for corroded constructional details of steel structures. The parameters of the corroded steel S‐N curve are determined based on the corrosion fatigue testing results of different types of steel specimens in air, fresh water and seawater. Hence, the parameters for the derived S‐N curve of corroded constructional details are predicted based on the above parameters and tabulated for the detail categories given in the Eurocode and DNVGL code. The proposed S‐N curve formula is compared with full‐scale fatigue test results of several constructional details, and the validity of the formula is confirmed.     

Layered Ca0.28MnO2·0.5H2O as a High Performance Cathode for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Battery

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries are promising candidates for grid‐scale energy storage because of their intrinsic safety, low cost, and high energy intensity. However, lack of suitable cathode materials with both excellent rate performance and cycling stability hinders further practical application of aqueous zinc‐ion batteries. Here, a nanoflake‐self‐assembled nanorod structure of Ca_0.28MnO₂·0.5H₂O as Zn‐insertion cathode material is designed. The Ca_0.28MnO₂·0.5H₂O exhibits a reversible capacity of 298 mAh g^?1 at 175 mA g^?1 and long‐term cycling stability over 5000 cycles with no obvious capacity fading, which indicates that the per‐insertion of Ca ions and water can significantly improve reversible insertion/extraction stability of Zn²⁺ in Mn‐based layered type material. Further, its charge storage mechanism, especially hydrogen ions, is elucidated. A comprehensive study suggests that the intercalation of hydrogen ions in the first discharge plat is controled by both pH value and type of anion of electrolyte. Further, it can stabilize the Ca_0.28MnO₂·0.5H₂O cathode and facilitate the following insertion of Zn²⁺ in 1 m ZnSO₄/0.1 m MnSO₄ electrolyte. This work can enlighten and promote the development of high‐performance rechargeable aqueous zinc‐ion batteries.     

A Genetic‐Based Iterative Quantile Regression Algorithm for Analyzing Fatigue Curves

Accurate prediction of fatigue failure times of materials such as fracture and plastic deformation at various stress ranges has a strong bearing on practical fatigue design of materials. In this study, we propose a novel genetic‐based iterative quantile regression (GA‐IQR) algorithm for analyzing fatigue curves that represent a nonlinear relationship between a given stress amplitude and fatigue life. We reduce the problem to a linear framework and develop the iterative algorithm for determining the model coefficients including unknown fatigue limits. The procedure keeps updating the estimates in a direction to reduce its resulting error. Also, our approach benefits from the population‐based stochastic search of the genetic algorithms so that the algorithm becomes less sensitive to its initialization. Compared with conventional approaches, the proposed GA‐IQR requires fewer assumptions to develop fatigue model, capable of exploring the data structure in a relatively flexible manner. All procedures and calculations are quite straightforward, such that the proposed quantile regression model has a high potential value in a wide range of applications for exploring nonlinear relationships with lifetime data. Computational results for real data sets found in the literature present good evidences to support the argument. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.