FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF WELDED JOINTS OF AN ALUMINIUM ALLOY UNDER SUPERIMPOSED RANDOM LOAD WAVES: APPLICATION OF A 2-DIMENSIONAL RAINFLOW METHOD

Abstract— Fatigue tests were carried out on welded T-joints of JIS A5083P-O Al-Mg alloy under constant amplitude and superimposed random load waves. Each random wave was generated by superimposing a secondary zero-mean random process on a constant amplitude pulsating trapezoidal wave, which simply simulated the GAG (ground-air-ground) stress cycles, or on a constant d.c. (direct current) component. It is proved that the 1-dimensional rainflow method is insufficient as the mean stress effects are not considered. From a procedure using a 2-dimensional rainflow method and the original and a modified Goodman diagram, it was concluded that the mean stress effects on secondary waves are larger in the case of GAG than d.c. Considering this, a life estimation procedure is proposed that gives consistent and acceptable estimation results.     

Vertical Si nanowire with ultra-high-aspect-ratio by combined top-down processing technique

Vertical Si nanowires with ultra-high-aspect-ratio were fabricated using a combined process of deep reactive ion etching and sacrificial oxidation. The combined process starts with etching the Si substrates by the Bosch process to form micrometer-scale structures. The etched micrometer-scale structures are shrunk to nanometer-scale by sacrificial oxidation. The fabricated Si nanowires that were aligned vertically to the substrate had a diameter of less than 200 nm and a length greater than 10 μm. One of the fabricated Si nanowires had a diameter of 110 nm and a length of 11 μm. The resulting aspect-ratio reached 100, which is a value that is significantly high for vertical Si nanowires fabricated by using a top-down approach.     

Effects of subsite alterations on substrate-binding mode in the active site of hen egg-white lysozyme

The primary sequence of the low-molecular-mass cadmium-binding protein metalloprotein II of Nereis diversicolor (Hediste diversicolor, recent denomination) has been determined. This protein is composed of 119 amino acids and has 80.8% identity with the N. diversicolor myohemerythrin [Takagi, T. & Cox, J. A. (1991) FEBS Lett. 285, 25-27]. The fact that iron, which normally binds to myohemerythrin, is not found to be associated with the cadmium-binding protein metalloprotein II in cadmium-exposed animals could be the result of the complete abolition of the iron-binding capacity of the protein due to the binding of cadmium.     

Summation calculations of fission-product decay heat, their uncertainties and their applications to a fast breeder reactor

Prediction of unmeasured fission parameters is described concerning mass yields of fission products, average total kinetic energies of fission fragments and average numbers of prompt neutrons in neutron-induced fission of several nuclides related to nuclear reactors. Reliability of predicting unmeasured mass yields of the products from measured mass yields of the primary fragments is discussed. The predicted values of the mass yields of the products are presented for the fissions of ^233,235U, ^239,241Pu by thermal neutrons, of ²³²Th by 1.38-MeV neutrons and of ²³¹Pa, ²³⁸U and ²³⁷Np by fission-spectrum neutrons.A semi-empirical method based on the statistical theory of nuclear fission is extended to unmeasured distributions of the fragments. The mass yields of the products, the average total kinetic energies of the fragments and the average numbers of prompt neutrons are predicted for the fissions of ²³²U and ²³⁸Pu by thermal neutrons, and of ^234,236U, ²⁴⁰Pu and ²⁴²Pu by 2-MeV neutrons. Errors in the predicted values are also discussed.     

Fatigue behaviour of a box-welded joint under biaxial cyclic loads

Multiaxial fatigue behaviour of box-welded (wrap-around) joints in a JIS SM400B steel (12-mm-thick plate) was examined using a biaxial fatigue test facility. For the specimen, two stiffeners were attached to a main plate by a CO₂ semi-automatic welding procedure. Residual stress measurements and finite element (FE) analyses were also performed. Fatigue tests were performed under both uniaxial and biaxial (mainly out-of-phase) cyclic loads, and both results were compared and examined. It was found that fatigue cracks in the biaxial fatigue test specimens were initiated at the boxing-weld toes and propagated almost in the direction of the lateral loads. This is considered to be due to the dominant direction of tensile residual stresses from welding and the stress concentration in the vicinity of the boxing-weld toe. From the relation between the strain range near a weld toe, Δε₅ , and the fatigue lives, it was found that crack initiation life, N_c , was almost equivalent in the biaxial and uniaxial fatigue tests, while the failure life, N_f , was slightly longer in the biaxial tests. However, when the fatigue lives are put in order using the stress range near a weld toe, Δσ₅ , the crack initiation life, N_c , in the out-of-phase biaxial tests (phase difference of π) is ~30% lower than in the in-phase biaxial and uniaxial tests, while the failure life, N_f , was almost equivalent in the biaxial and uniaxial tests. From these results, it is concluded that an increase in Δσ₅ (lowering of the minimum value of σ₅ ), induced by the out-of-phase lateral loads, leads to an increase in fatigue damage where the high tensile welding residual stresses exist in the vicinity of the boxing-weld toe. Finally, a simple life estimation for the biaxial fatigue tests was made using FE analyses and the results of the uniaxial fatigue tests, proving that the effects of the lateral loads should be taken into consideration.     

Novel vertical Hall cells in standard bipolar technology

Novel vertical Hall cells which detect the magnetic field parallel to the chip surface were developed using the standard bipolar technology. In the devices, an n+ buried layer makes a vertical current flow and introduces the sensitivity parallel to the chip surface. A sensitivity of 75 V/AT was measured.     

Monolithic integration of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin film based resonators using a complete dry microfabrication process

Monolithic fabrication of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ or PZT] based thin film resonant devices such as microcantilevers, Lamb wave and bulk acoustic wave resonators are demonstrated. High-performance PZT thin films with a thickness of 2.6 μm are prepared on a silicon on insulator wafer by a sputtering deposition process. A highly selective reactive ion etching process is employed for micro-patterning of PZT, platinum electrodes, and SiO₂ insulation layer. Self-actuation of the PZT microcantilevers is demonstrated and the frequency response is characterized using a laser Doppler vibrometer. The frequency response of the Lamb wave resonator is evaluated by measuring its transmission characteristic using a network analyzer. For a Lamb wave resonator with a length of 240 μm and an interdigital period of 80 μm, the 1st order and 2nd resonance frequencies are 15.3 and 41.8 MHz, respectively.