No description available.

No description available.

<div>As the use of fiber-reinforced polymer composites grows in aerospace structures, there is an emerging need to implement damage tolerant approaches. The use of <i>in-situ</i> synchrotron X-ray tomography enables direct observations of progressive damage relative to the microstructural features, which is studied in a T650/5320 laminate composite with varying layup orientations (using 45^o and -45^o plies) in a compact tension specimen geometry. Specifically, the interactions of micromechanical damage mechanisms at the notch tip were analyzed through 3D image processing as the crack grew. First, monotonic tests were conducted where X-ray tomography was acquired incrementally between the unloaded state and maximum load. The analysis of the monotonic tension specimens showed intralaminar cracking was dominant during crack initiation, delamination became prevalent during the later stages of crack progression, and fiber breakage was, in general, largely related to intralaminar cracking. After the monotonic tension analysis, modifications were made to the specimen geometry and the loading assembly, and fatigue tests were conducted, also using <i>in-situ</i> synchrotron X-ray tomography. Specifically, tomography images were acquired after select intervals of cyclic loading to examine the crack growth behavior up to 5802 cycles. The analysis of the fatigue tests showed that intralaminar cracking was also dominant, while localized delamination allowed ply cross-over. A finite element analysis was conducted by comparing the crack profile at varying intervals of loading, and the change in stored energy per cycle, dU/dN, was calculated. The combined experimental and simulation analysis showed that when the per ply values of dU/dN were examined, the intralaminar cracking rate collapsed to one curve regardless of the ply orientation, where direct observations of fiber bridging were characterized and associated with a reduction in crack growth rate for the influenced ply. Overall, this work provides a physical understanding of the micromechanics facilitating intralaminar crack growth in composites, providing engineers the necessary assessments for slow crack growth approaches in structural composite materials.<br></div>

In the past, the disagreement of near-threshold fatigue-crack growth (FCG) rate data generated from constant Kmax tests, high load ratio (minimum to maximum load) constant R tests, and ΔKeff based data was a mysterious issue. Because of the disagreement, a variety of test or analysis methods were created to correlate FCG rate data. It was suspected that the ASTM threshold test method using load reduction was inducing remote crack closure due to plastically deformed material, which caused elevated thresholds and slower rates than steady-state behavior. The first goal of this study was the development of a test method to eliminate remote closure during threshold testing. In order to avoid/minimize remote closure effect, compression-precracking methods were used to initiate a crack from a starter notch on compact specimens. Two materials with different fatigue crack surface profiles (flat or very rough) were tested and the results generated from the conventional ASTM precracking method and the compression-precracking test method were compared. In order to understand the disagreement of near-threshold data, crack-opening load measurements were performed from locally (near crack tip) installed strain gages instead of the remote gage (i.e., back face gage). Some careful specimen preparations were performed to avoid out-of-plane bending, to maintain straight crack fronts, and to ensure testing system linearity. It was known that remote gages, such as crack-mouth- opening-displacement-gages were insensitive to measuring load-strain records near threshold. By using local gages, the crack closure effects were clearly observed even in high load ratio (R) tests, like or higher than R = 0.7, and constant Kmax tests, which were believed to be crack closure free. By measuring load-reduced-strain records from local gages, crack-opening loads were able to correlate FCG rate data and showed that ΔKeff-rate data was unique for a wide variety of materials. By comparing (ΔKeff)th values, it may provide reasonable guidance for the material resistance against FCG. Because of “high R crack closure”, some theories considered in the past may need to be reconsidered. First, constant Kmax tests are not entirely crack-closure free. Second, there is no critical load ratio, Rc, to indicate the transition from crack-closure affected to crack-closure free data, and Kmax effects that appear in ΔKth-Kmax relations. Research has shown that the three dominate crack-closure mechanisms (plasticity-, roughness- and debris-induced crack closure) FCG rate behavior in the threshold regime from low to high load ratios.

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No description available.

[pt] Na análise da predição de vida de estruturas a presença de defeitos por trincas é de fundamental importância. Estudos iniciais utilizando a Mecânica da Fratura Linear Elástica mostram que o Fator de Intensidade de Tensão controla o crescimento de trinca por fadiga. Contudo, sobrecargas podem induzir efeitos de memória no material ao reduzir, parar ou acelerar taxas de propagação, comportamento não previsto considerando-se um único parâmetro elástico. Devido às hipóteses consideradas, as soluções fornecidas pelos métodos analíticos não verificam condições importantes de equilíbrio e compatibilidade, especialmente quando são usados campos singulares idealizados de tensão e de deformação na região da ponta da trinca. Neste trabalho uma extensa revisão dos resultados analíticos recentemente publicados para materiais nos regimes elástico e elastoplástico são apresentadas: Williams e HRR com campo de distribuição singular das tensões e Creager-Paris com campo não-singular das tensões com o material elástico. Neste estudo, estas soluções são comparadas com resultados da análise numérica utilizando a discretização por elementos finitos tridimensionais elastoplásticos com o critério de escoamento do material de von Mises na representação do cegamento da ponta da trinca e importantes conclusões são apresentadas com referência aos limites de aplicação dos modelos teóricos bem como a extensão dos requerimentos para o modelo numérico. Além de carregamentos monotonicamente crescentes, o descarregamento foi também considerado na análise numérica, apesar desta condição não estar presente nas referências consideradas para as soluções analíticas. Para as simulações numéricas consideradas algoritmos de elastoplasticidade foram implementados em um framework com arquitetura baseada em plugins. / [en] In structure life prediction analysis the occurrence of crack defects are of paramount importance to be considered. Basic studies using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics approach shows that the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) parameter controls Fatigue crack growth (FCG). However, overloads may induce material memory effects that delay, arrest or accelerate the FCG rate, a behavior that is not described by considering a single elastic parameter. To account for service variable amplitude loadings, the use of a prescribed stress-strain distribution has been proposed in recent research studies, as the driving force of FCG, using the critical damage approach. Due to the assumptions considered in the analytical derivations, important equilibrium and compatibility conditions are violated in the obtained solutions, since an idealized singular stress-strain field at the crack front region is used. In this work a comprehensive review of the recently published analytical results for solutions under the elastic and elastoplastic material behavior regimens are presented: Williams and HRR with singular stress distribution field and Creager-Paris with a non singular stress field, but with the material elastic approach. These solutions are compared, throughout the study, to results obtained from the numerical analysis using a 3D finite element discretization with elastoplastic von Mises yielding criteria employed for the modeling of the crack tip blunt and some comprehensive conclusions are derived regarding application limits of the theoretical models as well as the required extent of the numerical model representation. In addition to monotonic increasing applied loads, unloading conditions were also considered in the numerical analysis, although no reference to this condition is available in the literature, considering the analytical approach. For the numerical simulations presented elastoplastic algorithms were implemented in a plugin based framework.

Zyklische Kohäsivzonenmodelle beschreiben irreversibles Separationsverhalten und Schädigungsakkumulation unter zyklischer Belastung. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Formulierung zyklischer Kohäsivzonenmodelle systematisiert und ihr Potenzial zur Simulation von Ermüdungsvorgängen analysiert. Die Kohäsivspannungs-Separations-Beziehungen werden auf Basis etablierter thermodynamischer Konzepte der Schädigungsmechanik aufgestellt. Zyklische Schädigungsakkumulation wird über die Entwicklungsgleichung der Schädigungsvariablen unter Berücksichtigung einer zustandsabhängigen Dauerfestigkeit beschrieben. Das Kohäsivzonenmodell wird erfolgreich für die Simulation von Werkstoffermüdung angewandt. Numerisch mithilfe der Methode der finiten Elemente erzeugte Rissfortschrittskurven bilden das experimentell beobachtete Ermüdungsrisswachstumsverhalten in allen Bereichen ab. Über Parameterstudien wird der Einfluss der einzelnen Modellparameter ermittelt. Darüber hinaus wird die Anwendung des zyklischen Kohäsivzonenmodells auf die Simulation von Wöhler-Versuchen vorgestellt und der Probengrößeneffekt auf das Ermüdungsverhalten untersucht. Der Zusammenhang zwischen den lokalen Beanspruchungszuständen in der Kohäsivzone und dem vorhergesagten globalen Versagensverhalten wird aufgeklärt. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse bilden die Grundlage für ein Konzept zur Identifikation der Kohäsivparameter, das auf der Auswertung von Wöhler- und Rissfortschrittskurven beruht. / Cyclic cohesive zone models describe irreversible separation behaviour and damage accumulation under cyclic loading. In the present thesis, the formulation of cyclic cohesive zone models is systemised and their potential to simulate fatigue processes is analysed. The relation between traction and separation is described based on established thermodynamical concepts of damage mechanics. Cyclic damage accumulation is controlled by a damage evolution equation taking into account a state-dependent endurance limit. The cohesive zone model is applied successfully to the simulation of material fatigue. Fatigue crack growth rate curves, which were obtained numerically by means of the finite element method, reproduce the experimentally observed behaviour in all stages. The influences of the particular parameters of the model are determined by parametric studies. In addition, simulations of uniaxial fatigue tests using the cyclic cohesive zone model are presented. Furthermore, the size effect on the fatigue behaviour is investigated. The relation between the local states within the cohesive zone and the predicted global failure modes is explained. These findings form the foundation for a concept of parameter identification which bases on the evaluation of Wöhler-curves and fatigue crack growth rate curves.

This thesis presents a novel hybrid prognostic methodology, integrating physics-based and data-driven prognostic models, to enhance the prognostic accuracy, robustness, and applicability. The presented prognostic methodology integrates the short-term predictions of a physics-based model with the longer term projection of a similarity-based data-driven model, to obtain remaining useful life estimations. The hybrid prognostic methodology has been applied on specific components of two different engineering systems, one which represents accelerated, and the other a nominal degradation process. Clogged filter and fatigue crack propagation failure cases are selected as case studies. An experimental rig has been developed to investigate the accelerated clogging phenomena whereas the publicly available Virkler fatigue crack propagation dataset is chosen after an extensive literature search and dataset analysis. The filter clogging experimental rig is designed to obtain reproducible filter clogging data under different operational profiles. This data is thought to be a good benchmark dataset for prognostic models. The performance of the presented methodology has been evaluated by comparing remaining useful life estimations obtained from both hybrid and individual prognostic models. This comparison has been based on the most recent prognostic evaluation metrics. The results show that the presented methodology improves accuracy, robustness and applicability. The work contained herein is therefore expected to contribute to scientific knowledge as well as industrial technology development.

The design of complex structures demands the prediction of possible fracture-dominant failure processes, due to the existence of unavoidable preexistent flaws and other defects, as well as sharps and cracks. On one hand, the complexity of the structure and the presence of many defects to be accounted for in the modeling can become the computational effort impracticable. On the other hand, it is important to seek the development of a computational framework based on some numerical method to study these problems. A way to overcome the difficulties mentioned, therefore making feasible the analysis of complex structures with many cracks, flaws and other defects, consists of combining a representative mechanical modeling with an efficient numerical method. This is precisely the fundamental aim of this work. Firstly, the Splitting Method is used aiming to build a representative modeling. Secondly, the Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) is chosen as an efficient numerical method, in which enrichment strategies of the approximated solution using stress functions in particular can be explored. The GFEM framework also allows avoiding the excessive refinement of the mesh, which increases the computational effort in conventional finite element analysis. In the Splitting Method, a kind of decomposition method, the original problem is subdivided in local and global problems which are then combined by imposing null traction at the crack surfaces. In this work, the Splitting Method was completely programmed in Python language and its use extended to analyze crack propagation including fatigue crack growth. The generated code presents in addition to several features related to Fracture Mechanics concepts, as the computation of the stress intensity factor (mode I and II) trough J Integral. Some examples are presented to depict the propagation of the cracks in multisite damage structures. It is shown that for this kind of problems the enrichment strategy provided by GFEM is essential. Moreover, the final example demonstrates that the computational tool allows for investigation of different possible crack scenarios with a low cost analysis. One concludes about the representativeness and efficiency of the methodology hereby proposed. / O projeto de estruturas complexas demanda a previsão de possíveis processos de ruptura governados por fraturamento, devido à existência de inevitáveis defeitos pré-existentes, como entalhes e fissuras. Por um lado, a complexidade da estrutura e a presença de muitos defeitos a serem considerados no modelo podem tornar a análise inviável devido ao esforço computacional necessário. Por outro lado, é importante procurar desenvolver uma estrutura computacional baseada em métodos numéricos para estudar estes problemas. Um modo de superar as dificuldades mencionadas, portanto tornando possível a análise de estruturas complexas com muitas fissuras e outros defeitos, consiste em combinar um modelo mecânico que seja representativo com um método numérico eficiente. Este é precisamente o objetivo fundamental deste trabalho. Primeiramente, o Método da Partição é utilizado para a construção de um modelo representativo. Em segundo lugar, o Método dos Elementos Finitos Generalizados (GFEM) é empregado por ser um método numérico eficiente, no qual as estratégias de enriquecimento da solução aproximada usando funções de tensão, em particular, podem ser exploradas. A estrutura do GFEM também permite evitar o excessivo refinamento da malha, que aumenta o esforço computacional em análises convencionais nas quais se utiliza o método dos elementos finitos. No Método da Partição, um tipo de método de decomposição, o problema original é subdividido em problemas locais e globais que são então combinados impondo-se a nulidade do vetor de tensões na superfície da fissura. Neste trabalho, o Método da Partição foi completamente programado em linguagem Python® e sua utilização estendida para analisar a propagação de fissuras, incluindo-se a associação do crescimento com a resposta em fadiga. Além disso, o código gerado apresenta diversas características relacionadas aos conceitos da Mecânica da Fratura, como o cálculo do fator de intensidade de tensão (modos I e II) mediante a Integral J. Alguns exemplos são apresentados para ilustrar a propagação de fissuras em estruturas multi-fraturadas. Mostra-se que para este tipo de problemas a estratégia de enriquecimento fornecida pelo GFEM é essencial. Além disso, o exemplo final comprova que a ferramenta computacional permite a investigação de diferentes possíveis cenários de fissuras com uma análise de baixo custo. Conclui-se sobre a representatividade e eficiência da metodologia proposta.