Identification of local cyclic stress‐strain curves at material inhomogeneities on the basis of digital image correlation

Low‐cycle fatigue (LCF) tests on butt‐welded joints revealed that material inhomogeneities become decisive for the fatigue behavior at elastic‐plastic strain amplitudes and the geometrical notch is no longer the failure location – as observed in high‐cycle fatigue (HCF) regime. Digital image correlation techniques enable the measurement of local strains at the surface of the welded region. A new method is proposed that is able to calculate related local stresses and identifies local cyclic material properties in structures of inhomogeneous material and geometry. This method combines strain measurements and Finite Element simulations. It is a fast iteration procedure that is able to perform the identification within less than ten iterative steps at several hundred local points. Transient material behavior is easy to capture and an application at high temperatures is anticipated due to the method is based on materials mechanics.     

Photoelectric properties of the photoconducting film composites based on ferrocenyl‐ and carbazolyl‐containing oligomer doped with polymethine dye

New photosensitive polymeric film composites based on oligomer containing ferrocenyl and carbazolyl fragments doped with symmetric polymethine dye are synthesized. Their photoelectric properties are investigated. Photovoltaic properties of these composites are detected. The mechanisms and peculiarities of the photovoltaic and photodielectric effects are discussed.     

Enhanced assessment of ageing phenomena in steel structures based on materials data and non‐destructive testing

The increasing amount of ageing civil steel infrastructure requests an enhanced assessment of this infrastructure in terms of determining its residual fatigue life in a more realistic way than this has been done in the past. Often the relevant materials data for cyclic loading of such an ageing infrastructure is not available and its retrieval turns out to be relatively cumbersome bearing the urgency in data availability and continuous cost pressure in mind. This article addresses different approaches and techniques on how materials data for cyclic loading can be obtained at a fraction of the effort compared to state‐of‐the‐art techniques, considering load increase tests, non‐destructive testing techniques and finally even a stepped bar specimen allowing a complete set of materials data (stress‐strain behaviour and stress‐ and strain‐life curve) to be obtained with a single specimen in the end only. Options for ’digitizing’ materials data evaluation are discussed and some prospect on application of those novel approaches and techniques in damage accumulation assessments on real steel infrastructure is provided.