Effects of the stress state on plastic deformation and ductile failure: Experiment and numerical simulation using a newly designed tension‐shear specimen

The stress state is one of the most notable factors that dominates the initiation of ductile fracture. To examine the effects of the stress state on plasticity and ductile failure, a new tension‐shear specimen that can cover a wide range of stress triaxialities was designed. A fracture locus was constructed in the space of ductility and stress triaxiality for two typical steels based on a series of tests. It is observed that the equivalent plastic strain at failure exhibits a nonmonotonic variation with increasing the value of stress triaxiality. A simple damage model based on the ductility exhaustion concept was used to simulate the failure behaviour, and a good agreement is achieved between simulation results and experimental data. It is further shown that consideration of fracture locus covering a wide range of stress triaxialities is a key to an accurate prediction.     

Experimental investigation on low cycle fatigue and fracture behaviour of a notched Ni‐based superalloy at elevated temperature

In order to investigate the effects of stress concentration on low cycle fatigue properties and fracture behaviour of a nickel‐based powder metallurgy superalloy, FGH97, at elevated temperature, the low cycle fatigue tests have been conducted with semi‐circular and semi‐elliptical single‐edge notched plate specimens at 550 and 700 °C. The results show that the fatigue life of the notched specimen decreases with the increase of stress concentration factor and the fatigue crack initiation life evidently decreases because of the defect located in the stress concentration zone. Moreover, the plastic deformation induced by notch stress concentration affects the initial crack occurrence zone. The angle α of the crack occurrence zone is within ±10° of notch bisector for semi‐circular notched specimens and ±20° for semi‐elliptical notched specimens. The crack propagation rate decreases to a minimum at a certain length, D, and then increases with the growth of the crack. The crack propagation rate of the semi‐elliptical notched specimen decelerates at a faster rate than that of the semi‐circular notched specimen because of the increase of the notch plasticity gradient. The crack length, D, is affected by both the applied load and the notch plasticity gradient. In addition, the fracture mechanism is shown to transition from transgranular to intergranular as temperature increases from 550 to 700 °C, which would accelerate crack propagation and reduce the fatigue life.     

The effect of frequency on the giga‐cycle fatigue properties of a Ti–6Al–4V alloy

The effect of frequency on giga‐cycle fatigue properties was investigated in smooth and 0.3 mm‐hole‐notched specimens at three heats (Heats A, B, and C) for a 900 MPa‐class Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy. Fatigue tests were performed at frequencies of 120 Hz, 600 Hz, and 20 kHz using electromagnetic resonance, high‐speed servohydraulic, and ultrasonic fatigue testing machines, respectively. Heats A and B developed internal fractures, and in these cases, frequency effects were negligible. On the other hand, Heat C developed only surface fractures. In this case, high‐frequency tests showed a higher fatigue strength, indicating frequency effects were not negligible. The tests using the notched specimens showed almost no frequency effects regardless of the heat. The frequency effects observed in the cases of surface fracture were believed to be related to a delay in local plastic deformation in response to high‐frequency loading, since temperature increases in these specimens were successfully suppressed. The delay in the plastic deformation was observed to be reduced in the notched specimens because of stress concentration and limitation in the plastic deformation zone. In turn, the significant conclusion of this research is that high‐frequency tests can be applied not only to internal fractures but also to notch problems, but are not applicable to surface fractures of smooth specimens.     

Computation of the stress intensity factors of sharp notched plates by the fractal‐like finite element method

The fractal‐like finite element method (FFEM) is an accurate and efficient method to compute the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of different crack configurations. In the FFEM, the cracked/notched body is divided into singular and regular regions; both regions are modelled using conventional finite elements. A self‐similar fractal mesh of an ‘infinite’ number of conventional finite elements is used to model the singular region. The corresponding large number of local variables in the singular region around the crack tip is transformed to a small set of global co‐ordinates after performing a global transformation by using global interpolation functions. In this paper, we extend this method to analyse the singularity problems of sharp notched plates. The exact stress and displacement fields of a plate with a notch of general angle are derived for plane‐stress/strain conditions. These exact analytical solutions which are eigenfunction expansion series are used to perform the global transformation and to determine the SIFs. The use of the global interpolation functions reduces the computational cost significantly and neither post‐processing technique to extract SIFs nor special singular elements to model the singular region are needed. The numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the FFEM for sharp notched problems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of high‐temperature annealing on tensile strength and its mechanism of Hi‐Nicalon SiC fibres under inert atmosphere

Hi‐Nicalon SiC (silicon carbide) fibres were annealed in an argon flow for 10 h at 1400 °C, 1600 °C and 1800 °C. The strength of the fibres was determined by a monofilament tensile testing machine, their fracture surfaces were analysed by SEM (scanning electron microscope) and their microstructure was characterized by a TEM (transmission electron microscope) and XRD (X‐ray diffractometer). The results indicated that the strength of the fibres obeyed the Weibull distribution and the tensile strength decreased with the increase of annealing temperatures. The specimens showed brittle/flat fracture; most of the cracks initiated at the inner region of the fibres. After being annealed at 1800 °C for 10 h, the specimens showed cleavage and transcrystalline fracture. Statistical analysis revealed that the defects at the surface of the fibres had a negligible effect on their strength.     

A topological optimization approach for structural design of a high‐speed low‐load mechanism using the equivalent static loads method

In high‐speed low‐load mechanisms, the principal loads are the inertial forces caused by the high accelerations and velocities. Hence, mechanical design should consider lightweight structures to minimize such loads. In this paper, a topological optimization method is presented on the basis of the equivalent static loads method. Finite element (FE) models of the mechanism in different positions are constructed, and the equivalent loads are obtained using flexible multibody dynamics simulation. Kinetic DOFs are used to simulate the motion joints, and a quasi‐static analysis is performed to obtain the structural responses. The element sensitivity is calculated according to the static‐load‐equivalent equilibrium, in such a way that the influence on the inertial force is considered. A dimensionless component sensitivity factor (strain energy caused by unit load divided by kinetic energy from unit velocity) is used, which quantifies the significance of each element. Finally, the topological optimization approach is presented on the basis of the evolutionary structural optimization method, where the objective is to find the maximum ratio of strain energy to kinetic energy. In order to show the efficiency of the presented method, we presented two numerical cases. The results of these analyses show that the presented method is more efficient and can be easily implemented in commercial FE analysis software. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiaxial fatigue of V‐notched steel specimens: a non‐conventional application of the local energy method

The paper deals with the multi‐axial fatigue strength of notched specimens made of 39NiCrMo3 hardened and tempered steel. Circumferentially V‐notched specimens were subjected to combined tension and torsion loading, both in‐phase and out‐of‐phase, under two nominal load ratios, R=?1 and R= 0, also taking into account the influence of the biaxiality ratio, λ=τ_a/σ_a. The notch geometry of all axi‐symmetric specimens was a notch tip radius of 0.1 mm, a notch depth of 4 mm, an included V‐notch angle of 90° and a net section diameter of 12 mm. The results from multi‐axial tests are discussed together with those obtained under pure tension and pure torsion loading on plain and notched specimens. Furthermore the fracture surfaces are examined and the size of non‐propagating cracks measured from some run‐out specimens at 5 million cycles. Finally, all results are presented in terms of the local strain energy density averaged in a given control volume close to the V‐notch tip. The control volume is found to be dependent on the loading mode.     

High‐temperature testing in a Charpy impact pendulum using in‐situ Joule heating of the specimen

In this paper, an innovative approach to high‐temperature testing of subsize Charpy V notched specimens is introduced. The design concept is to heat the specimen on the specimen piece supports up to the moment of impact by flowing AC electric current through it. This approach allows a very accurate centring of the specimen with respect to the anvils and the control of their temperature up to the moment of impact. The temperature profile measured by using the in‐situ heating device on ferritic steel specimen over the notch temperature range of 400°C < T < 750°C is presented. The impact energy was measured at different temperatures going through the eutectoid phase transformation of the ferritic steel specimens, with different carbon composition, to investigate the validity of the instrumented in‐situ heating method. The method is particularly appropriate to estimate the ductile brittle transition that occurs at high temperature in some metallic alloy systems. Also, its wide range of specimen heating rate provides new research tools for studying, for example, the intermediate temperature embrittlement of metals and alloys.     

Residual strength at −40 °C of a precracked cold‐formed rectangular hollow section made of ultra‐high‐strength steel – an engineering approach

This study investigated the residual strength of a precracked cold‐formed rectangular hollow section made of novel ultra‐high‐strength steel. The primary goal was to experimentally discover the residual strength of the structure when used in low temperature service conditions. The secondary goal was to predict the residual strength by using a J‐integral approach with nonlinear finite element calculations and to compare these predictions with measured results. The experimental tests were carried out with a beam in four‐point bending loading. The test specimens were taken from a cold‐formed rectangular hollow section fabricated from direct quenched (untempered) ultra‐high‐strength steel S960 QC omitting the annealing in the fabrication process. The tests for final failure were carried out at ?40 °C, with the exception of the first pilot test. There were two kinds of tests: (1) the beam was cyclically loaded until the final fracture or the fatigue precrack was first introduced and (2) the specimen was then subjected to a quasistatic bending loading condition until it failed. The new experimental results matched well with our predictions, and both confirmed the high toughness of ultra‐high‐strength steel in beam construction studied, even at a low ambient temperature.     

Determination of stress intensity factors of 2D fracture mechanics problems through a new semi‐analytical method

This study presents a novel development of a new semi‐analytical method with diagonal coefficient matrices to model crack issues. Accurate stress intensity factors based on linear elastic fracture mechanics are extracted directly from the semi‐analytical method. In this method, only the boundaries of problems are discretized using specific subparametric elements and higher‐order Chebyshev mapping functions. Implementing the weighted residual method and using Clenshaw–Curtis numerical integration result in diagonal Euler's differential equations. Consequently, when the local coordinates origin is located at the crack tip, the stress intensity factors can be determined directly without further processing. In order to present infinite stress at the crack tip, a new form of nodal force function is proposed. Validity and accuracy of the proposed method is fully demonstrated through four benchmark problems, which are successfully modeled using a few numbers of degrees of freedom. The numerical results agree very well with the analytical solution, experimental outcomes and the results from existing numerical methods available in the literature.     

The effect of temperature and loading rate on the crack initiation and propagation energy in carbon steel charpy specimens

The Charpy impact tests were carried out at different temperatures and loading rates. The temperature dependences of crack initiation and propagation in carbon steels 45 and St. 3 under impact testing were determined from the obtained force variation plots. The effect of the impact velocity in the range from 1 to 4.4 m/s on the fracture toughness temperature dependence is estimated. __________ Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 5, pp. 120–127, September–October, 2006.     

Analyse the role of the non‐singular stress in brittle fracture by BEM coupled with eigen‐analysis

A coupled model resulting from the boundary element method and eigen‐analysis is proposed in this paper to analyse the stress field at crack tip. This new combine method can yield several terms of the non‐singular stress in the Williams asymptotic expansion. Then the maximum circumferential stress (MCS) criterion taken the non‐singular stress into account is introduced to predict the brittle fracture of cracked structures. Two earlier experiments are re‐examined by the present numerical method and the role of the non‐singular stress in the brittle fracture is investigated. Results show that if more terms of non‐singular stress are taken into account, the predicted crack propagation direction and the critical loading by MCS criterion are much closer to the existing experimental results, especially for dominating mode II loading conditions. Moreover, numerical results manifest that Williams series expansion can describe the stress field further from the crack tip if more non‐singular stress terms are adopted.     

Effect of temperature on the fracture behaviour of heat‐treated Al–Cu–Li alloy laser welds under low‐cycle fatigue loading

The paper presents the results of the studies of the effect of temperature on the fracture behaviour of Al–Cu–Li alloy laser welds under low‐cycle fatigue loading. The mechanical properties and the microstructure of the welded joints without and after postweld heat treatment (PWHT) were investigated. The tensile strength and the low‐cycle fatigue resistance of the welded joints were studied at various test temperatures (20°C, 85°C and ? 60°C). It was been found that heating up to 85°C and cooling down to ?60°C reduced the maximum number of loading cycles of the welded joints after PWHT by 1.5–2.0 times compared with that at a test temperature of 20°C.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of temperature on mixed‐mode fracture behaviour of AM60 Mg alloy

The aim of present paper is to experimentally investigate mixed‐mode fracture behaviour of AM60 Mg alloy at low and elevated temperatures. For this purpose, mode I, 45° mixed‐mode, and mode II tests were conducted using a modified version of Arcan device at three different temperatures. An elastic‐plastic finite element model was used to extract necessary geometric parameters. Crack resistance curves (J‐R) and critical J‐integral of the material were extracted. The results indicated that, for all loading modes, maximum critical J‐integral value was observed at ambient temperature and decreased by either increasing or decreasing the temperature. It was observed that effect of temperature on fracture behaviour is much larger at temperatures above 0°C rather than sub‐zero temperatures. By changing the loading angle to go from mode I to mode II, a decreasing trend was observed in the values of critical fracture parameters at all temperatures. Finally, the surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).     

The effect of PVD coatings on the tensile strength and low‐cycle fatigue resistance of stainless steel and titanium alloys

PVD coatings applied to components form hard, stronger layers and generate high residual compressive stresses that limit the plastic deformation in surface layers of the base metal thus increasing its tensile strength and resistance to fatigue loading. The purpose of this paper is to experimentally determine the influence of the deposition of 2 to 16.5‐μm‐thick PVD coatings of TiN, Cr, (Cr+TiN), (TiC)N, (TiAl)N onto specimens of stainless steel 321 and titanium alloys of types MILT‐81556A and (10‐2‐3; 4966) on their tensile strength and low‐cycle fatigue resistance when the development of large elastic–plastic strains takes place. The tensile and low‐cycle fatigue tests were conducted under conditions of axial zero‐to‐tension cycle of the stress‐controlled loading on flat 1‐ to 1.5‐mm‐thick specimens in the initial state (uncoated specimens) and after application of a PVD coating, including those after pretensioning or after cyclic prestraining in the low‐cycle fatigue range. The deposition of PVD coatings is found to enhance the characteristics of tensile strength and low‐cycle fatigue resistance in the quasi‐static fracture range. The deposition of PVD coatings on specimens cyclically prestrained to the values of 53–86% of the number of cycles to fracture, changes the cyclic properties of the material and predetermines the fatigue fracture mode only.     

Analysis of the small amplitude sloshing of a liquid in a rigid container of arbitrary shape using a low‐order boundary element method

A boundary element method for estimating the natural sloshing frequencies and forces developed due to an inviscid, incompressible liquid oscillating in a rigid‐walled tank is presented here. The amplitude of oscillation is assumed to be small enough to allow linearization of the boundary condition at the free surface. Both free and forced oscillation cases are studied. Comparison with results available in the literature shows good agreement. The present method offers significant economy of computing resources compared to the finite element method. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of the temperature on the stress‐strain curves of a bearing steel and a case hardening steel

In the present paper the influence of the temperature and strain rate on the stress strain behaviour of two different steels were investigated. Two microstructures were considered: pearlitic and austenitic. Tensile tests with the bearing steel 100Cr6 and the case hardening steel 20MnCr5 were accomplished at various temperatures. For this purpose the Ludwik equation was used to describe the stress‐strain curve. The parameter of the constitutive equation was determined for each steel and microstructure. Especially for the austenitic state the parameters of the used material law were described as a function of the temperature.     

A micromechanical fracture analysis to investigate the effect of healing particles on the overall mechanical response of a self‐healing particulate composite

A computational fracture analysis is conducted on a self‐healing particulate composite employing a finite element model of an actual microstructure. The key objective is to quantify the effects of the actual morphology and the fracture properties of the healing particles on the overall mechanical behaviour of the (MoSi₂) particle‐dispersed Yttria Stabilised Zirconia (YSZ) composite. To simulate fracture, a cohesive zone approach is utilised whereby cohesive elements are embedded throughout the finite element mesh allowing for arbitrary crack initiation and propagation in the microstructure. The fracture behaviour in terms of the composite strength and the percentage of fractured particles is reported as a function of the mismatch in fracture properties between the healing particles and the matrix as well as a function of particle/matrix interface strength and fracture energy. The study can be used as a guiding tool for designing an extrinsic self‐healing material and understanding the effect of the healing particles on the overall mechanical properties of the material.     

Parametric Study of Hydroforming of Paper Materials Using the Explicit Finite Element Method with a Moisture‐dependent and Temperature‐dependent Constitutive Model

A moisture‐dependent and temperature‐dependent constitutive model for paper materials was proposed and implemented into a finite element model of the paper hydroforming process. Experimental hydroforming was conducted at temperatures of 23°C and 110 °C and moisture contents of 6.9 and 10.6 (respectively corresponding to 50 and 80% relative humidity). The proposed model, which also included the effects of drying, captured the extent of forming of all experimental results within reasonable accuracy. For the moisture content and temperature conditions in this study, the phenomenon of drying was found to be the reason why the application of temperature had a much greater effect on the degree of forming than hydroforming at various moisture contents. A simulation‐based parametric study was conducted in order to identify the importance of various process and material parameters. This parametric study confirmed many previous empirical findings and was capable of quantifying the extent to which these process and material parameters affect the three‐dimensional formability of paper. The coefficient of friction was identified as one of the most important factors when determining the extent of forming. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of annealing on the fracture behavior of La0.58Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3‐δ, a potential energy material for oxygen separation

The perovskite material La_0.58Sr_0.4Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3‐δ, offers high oxygen permeability at elevated temperature and is considered as a potential material for oxygen separation membranes. It can enhance the efficiency of oxy‐fuel combustion at high temperatures (> 800 °C) and hence due to the high reliability demands, required by the long term operation at elevated temperatures, it requires a thorough investigation from the view point of structural stability. Aiming towards long term stability, the present work is a detailed and systematic study on the effect of annealing on the mechanical behavior of dense La_0.58Sr_0.4Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3‐δ. The study reveals that the indentation fracture toughness of the material increases with increase in annealing temperature. In most of the indentation loads, the subsurface crack profile was Palmqvist in nature with low value of the ratio of crack length versus indentation size (c/a). A consistent pattern of variation of c/a and indentation fracture toughness (K_IC) at all indentation loads was observed. Systematic drop in c/a and subsequent increase in fracture toughness in the as prepared test pieces has been attributed to residual stress accumulation during preparation.