A review of the existing performance verification infrastructure for micro-CMMs

The performance verification of micro-CMMs is now of intense interest because of their capability to perform length measurements in three dimensions to high accuracy with low uncertainties. Currently, verification of micro-CMMs is completed in the spirit of existing specification standards, because strict adherence to these standards is often difficult. This review aims to present and discuss verification techniques available for micro-CMMs: specification standards, existing calibrated test lengths and traceability routes that can be associated with micro-CMMs. Three specification standards used in the testing of CMMs will be considered. In addition, a wide range of calibrated test lengths are reported, and any advantages and disadvantages associated with their use are discussed. It is concluded that micro-CMMs cannot yet be verified in accordance with existing specification standards. Suggestions are made for future standardisation work required to rectify these issues.     

Fatigue limit evaluation of various martensitic stainless steels with new robust thermographic data analysis

Thermography represents an important tool to study fatigue behaviour of materials.In this work, the fatigue limit of martensitic and precipitation hardening stainless steels has been determined with thermographic methods. Despite their use in corrosive and cryogenic environments, there is a data lack in literature concerning the study of fatigue behaviour.The peculiarity of these materials is the brittle behaviour: therefore, during fatigue tests the characteristic small deformations determine small changes of temperature. Thus, to properly determine the fatigue limit of aforementioned stainless steels, a more accurate setup is necessary in order to correctly detect surface temperature of specimens due to dissipation heat sources.In literature, different procedures have already been proposed to evaluate the fatigue limit from thermal data but very few works lead to an early detection of dissipation process which can obtain a further reduction of overall testing time. The aim of the paper is to propose a new robust thermal data analysis procedure for estimating fatigue limit of stainless steels in automatable way.     

嵌入式实时操作系统内核混合代码的自动化验证框架

"如何构造高可信的软件系统"已成为学术界和工业界的研究热点.操作系统内核作为软件系统的基础组件，它的安全可靠是构造高可信软件系统的重要环节.为了确保操作系统内核的安全可靠，将形式化方法引入到操作系统内核验证中，提出了一个自动化验证操作系统内核的框架.该验证框架包括：（1）分别对C语言程序和混合语言程序（C语言和汇编语言）进行验证；（2）在混合语言程序验证中，为汇编程序建立抽象模型，并将C语言程序和抽象模型粘合形成基于C语言验证工具可接收的验证模型；（3）从规范中提取性质，基于该自动验证工具，对性质完成自动验证；（4）该框架不限于特定的硬件架构.成功地运用该验证框架对两种不同硬件平台的嵌入式实时操作系统内核μC/OS-II进行了验证.结果显示：利用该框架在对两个不同的硬件平台上内核验证时，框架的可重复利用率很高，高达到88%，虽然其抽象模型需要根据不同的硬件平台进行重构.在对基于这两种平台的操作系统内核验证中，分别发现了10~12处缺陷.其中，在ARM平台上两处与硬件相关的问题被发现.实验表明，该方法对不同硬件平台的同一个操作系统分析验证具有一定的通用性.     

Design criterion for fatigue strengthening of riveted beams in a 120-year-old railway metallic bridge using pre-stressed CFRP plates

This study presents a design criterion developed for fatigue strengthening of a 120-year-old metallic railway bridge in Switzerland and presents a pre-stressed un-bonded reinforcement (PUR) system developed to apply the strengthening. The PUR system uses carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates; however, unlike conventional pre-stressed CFRP reinforcement methods, preparation of the existing metallic bridge surface is not required. This decreases the time required for on-site strengthening procedures. The principle of the constant life diagram (CLD) and two fatigue failure criteria (Johnson and Goodman) are described. Analytical formulations are developed based on the CLD method to determine the minimum CFRP pre-stress level required to prevent fatigue crack initiation. The PUR system uses an applied pre-stress force to reduce the mean stress level (and stress ratio) to shift an existing fatigue-susceptible metallic detail from the ‘at risk’ finite life regime to the ‘safe’ infinite life regime. The applied CLD method is particularly valuable when the stress history of the detail is not known and it is difficult to assess the remaining fatigue life. Moreover, it is shown that the currently adopted approach in many structural codes which emphasizes stress range as the dominant parameter influencing fatigue life are non-conservative for tension–tension stress patterns (i.e., stress ratios of 0 < R < 1). Analyses show that the modified Johnson formula accurately reflects the combined effect of stress range, mean stress level, and material properties, and offers a relatively easy design procedure. Details of a retrofit field application on members of a riveted wrought iron railway bridge are given. A wireless sensor network (WSN) system is used for long-term monitoring of the on-site CFRP stress levels and temperature of the retrofitted details. WSN measurements indicate that increases in ambient temperature result in increased CFRP pre-stress levels.     

Modelling dislocation assisted tempering during rolling contact fatigue in bearing steels

Rolling contact fatigue in bearing steels is manifested by dark-etching regions, which are attributed to deformation induced tempering. In order to quantitatively explain this phenomenon, a model is suggested for martensite tempering assisted by dislocation glide during rolling contact fatigue. In the model, dislocations transport carbon from the matrix to carbide particles, provided that the carbon is located at a certain distance range from the dislocation contributing to the tempering process. By calculating the amount of carbon in the matrix, the kinetics of carbide thickening and hardness reduction are computed. It is found that the dark-etching region kinetics can be controlled by both bearing operation conditions (temperature and deformation rate) and microstructure (type, size, and volume fraction of carbides). The model is validated against tested bearings, and its limitations are discussed.     

Fatigue life improvement of 12Cr1МoV steel by irradiation with Zr+ ion beam

Cyclic tension and bend tests were performed on heat-resistant 12Cr1MoV steel specimens in as-supplied condition as well as after Zr⁺ ion beam surface irradiation. Distinct differences in strain induced relief, as well in cracking pattern of modified surface layer were observed by optical microscopy and interference profilometry. Changes in subsurface layer are characterized by means of nano- and microindentation and fractography of fracture surfaces (with the help of scanning electron microscopy). It is shown that the main influence on mechanical properties is mostly induced by thermal treatment during irradiation rather than formation of a 2 μm thick layer doped with Zr. The differences in deformation behavior may be explained by physical mesomechanics concepts.     

Fatigue in bamboo

This paper describes the results of an experimental programme to determine the fatigue behaviour of bamboo. Bamboo is subjected to cyclic loading, both in the plant itself and subsequently when the material is used in load-bearing applications in the construction industry. However, there is currently no data in the literature describing fatigue in this material. We found that sections of bamboo culm loaded parallel to the culm axis did not undergo fatigue failure: samples either failed on the first loading cycle, or not at all. By contrast, fatigue was readily apparent in samples loaded in compression across the diameter of the culm. The number of cycles to failure increased as the cyclic load range decreased in a manner similar to that found in many engineering materials: fatigue occurred at applied loads as small as 40% of the ultimate strength. Two different species of bamboo were tested and found to have different ultimate strengths but similar high-cycle fatigue strengths. Finite element analysis was used to help understand the progression of fatigue damage and the effect of stress concentration features. Some tentative design rules are proposed to define stress levels for the safe use of bamboo, taking fatigue into account.     

The effect of baking time,fillet radius,and hardness on the lifecycles of pole fastening screws in an electric motor with hydrogen embrittlement

In order to protect bolts from corrosion, electroplating such as zinc plating is widely used. However, hydrogen can easily penetrate or diffuse into the vacancies and dislocations between the lattices of bolt steel during electroplating. As the diffused hydrogen defects inside the lattice are in gaseous form, small cracks can easily be produced due to high pressure from the hydrogen gas. In this research, in order to determine the root cause of the fracture in pole fastening screws resulting from hydrogen embrittlement in typical electric motors, additional factors that accelerate hydrogen embrittlement fracture were selectively applied, including a small fillet in the head–shank transition and excessive hardness, and parametric study was performed experimentally.     

Effect of microstructure on the fatigue crack growth behaviour of a near-α Ti alloy

Fatigue crack growth behaviour of Ti–6Al–2Zr–1.5Mo–1.5V (VT-20 a near-α Ti alloy) was studied in lamellar, bimodal and acicular microstructural conditions. Fatigue crack growth tests at both increasing and decreasing stress intensity factor range values were performed at ambient temperature and a loading ratio of 0.3 using compact tension samples. Lamellar and acicular microstructures showed lower fatigue crack growth rates as compared to the bimodal microstructure due to the tortuous nature of cracks in the former and the cleavage of primary α in the latter. The threshold stress intensity factor range was highest for acicular microstructure.     

“Size effect” in the fatigue behavior of Friction Stir Welded plates

Comparative fatigue tests were carried out on Friction Stir Welded specimens of a 2195-T8 aluminum–lithium alloy that differed significantly in width. The width of the larger specimens was over thirteen times greater than that of the small specimens. Fatigue results showed a clear “size effect”, i.e. fatigue life of large specimens was about 40% of the corresponding value of small specimens. The Equivalent Initial Flaw Size methodology was adopted to correlate the two sets of results. Fatigue crack initiation life was disregarded with respect to crack propagation life, and fatigue life was evaluated only as propagation of a small pre-existing defect. Following this methodology, test results of small specimens were used to evaluate the initial equivalent flaw contained in each specimen. It was assumed that this data followed a normal distribution. The equivalent initial flaw in larger specimens was evaluated by simple geometrical considerations. A very good assessment of mean fatigue life and scatter in the fatigue results of large specimens was obtained by simulating the propagation of these defects. Calculations were carried out by taking also welding residual stresses into account, but the results demonstrated that this effect was not significant.