Traditionally, pre-cracking has been performed under tension-tension loading, followed by a load reduction scheme to obtain fatigue crack growth rate data in the near threshold regime. These data have been shown to exhibit load history effects due to remote crack closure. An alternative test method has been developed to minimize these load history effects. This test procedure uses compression pre-cracking to initiate a crack, followed by constant amplitude loading to grow the crack to failure. Compression-compression (C-C) loading as a means of forming a starter crack for fatigue crack growth is a relatively new concept. Cracks grown under C-C loading emanate from the notch tip due to a tensile residual stress field formed during the unloading cycle. The subsequent constant amplitude steady-state crack growth is free of load history effects, after crack growth beyond several compressive plastic zone sizes, and therefore will give a better steady-state representation of the near-threshold regime. A more in-depth examination at this phenomenon is performed herein.

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An investigation into the influence of cracks in bonded specimens is conducted. Photoelastic specimens containing a bondline are subjected to a constant displacement boundary condition created by bonded end grips. Specimens containing various crack orientations are analyzed to determine stress intensity factors at the induced crack tips. Specimens containing interface and sub-interface cracks were investigated. Two global geometries were used in this investigation, square and rectangular. The constant displacement boundary condition was induced on the specimen through dead weights hung from bonded aluminum end grips. Stress intensity factors were determined using photoelastic techniques. The stress intensity factors were examined to determine trends in the results as a function of changes in geometry. The effects of the induced boundary condition, the specimen geometry, and the bondline were investigated. The results from this investigation were compared to known solutions with a similar specimen geometry. These tests exhibited influences from the bondline, the boundary conditions, and the specimen geometry. The bondline tended to decrease the stress intensity factor for specimens with small crack lengths and tended to increase the stress intensity factor for specimens containing long crack lengths. As the crack length increased so too did the stress intensity factor. A reduction in the bondline to crack distance with sub-interface crack specimens caused a reduction in the stress intensity factor. A reduction in the global height of the specimen caused a reduction in the stress intensity factor also. The results from this investigation will aid in the understanding of the influence of interface and sub-interface cracks in bonded specimens. / Master of Science

Reflection cracking is one of the main distresses in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlays. It has been a serious concern since early in the 20th century. Since then, several models have been developed to predict the extent and severity of reflection cracking in HMA overlays. However, only limited research has been performed to evaluate and calibrate these models. In this dissertation, mechanistic-based models are calibrated to field data of over 400 overlay test sections to produce a design process for predicting reflection cracks. Three cracking mechanisms: bending, shearing traffic stresses, and thermal stress are taken into account to evaluate the rate of growth of the three increasing levels of distress severity: low, medium, and high. The cumulative damage done by all three cracking mechanisms is used to predict the number of days for the reflection crack to reach the surface of the overlay. The result of this calculation is calibrated to the observed field data (severity and extent) which has been fitted with an S-shaped curve. In the mechanistic computations, material properties and fracture-related stress intensity factors are generated using efficient Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithms. In the bending and shearing traffic stress models, the traffic was represented by axle load spectra. In the thermal stress model, a recently developed temperature model was used to predict the temperature at the crack tips. This process was developed to analyze various overlay structures. HMA overlays over either asphalt pavement or jointed concrete pavement in all four major climatic zones are discussed in this dissertation. The results of this calculated mechanistic approach showed its ability to efficiently reproduce field observations of the growth, extent, and severity of reflection cracking. The most important contribution to crack growth was found to be thermal stress. The computer running time for a twenty-year prediction of a typical overlay was between one and four minutes.

The efficiency of the fuel cell depends on both the kinetics of the electrochemical process and performance of the components. The main aim of this research is to analysis the reliability of the cracked Ag-SU8 interface on the channel wall in a micro-PEMFC. An existed surface crack on the channel wall subjected to the flow induced compressive stresses and shear stresses will propagate and lead to the spall formation. The results show that as the crack length increases, the value of KI will increase, but the value of KII decreases slightly. The reliability analysis of the interfacial crack between Ag and SU8 on the Micro-channel wall in PEMFC is discussed in this thesis.

The main aim of this study is to develop three dimensional models for micro flow-field plate of PEMFC and use numerical simulations to discuss the reliability of micro flow-field plate which works in real. A crack exists in the plate is loaded by the shear force, which is produced by the fuel H2 enter from inlet, and will propagate. The Ag, which is used to collect the electrons, will peel off and the efficiency of fuel cell will decrease. The commercial package software ANSYS was used to simulate the stress state around crack tip. Three modes of stress intensity factors K£L, K£L£L and K£L£L£L, were calculated in order to describe the stressed behavior of crack. Finally, the inlet pressure, geometry of crack and channel size is changed and Taguchi method with ANOVA is used to find the factors which influence the stressed behavior of crack most. The simulation results show that K£L and K£L£L are influenced most by geometry of crack and K£L£L£L is influenced more by geometry of crack and channel size

A titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V STOA) plate material was provided by the University of Dayton Research Institute from a previous U.S. Air Force high-cycle fatigue study. Fatigue-crack-growth tests on compact, C(T), specimens have been previously performed at Mississippi State University on the same material over a wide range in rates from threshold to near fracture for several load ratios (R = Pmin/Pmax). These tests used the compression pre-cracking method to generate fatigue-crack-growth-rate data in the near-threshold regime. Current load-reduction procedures were found to give elevated thresholds compared to compression pre-cracking methods. A crack-closure model was then used to determine crackront constraint and a plasticity-corrected effective stress-intensityactor-range relation over a wide range in rates and load ratios. Some engineering estimates were made for extremely slow rates (small-crack behavior), below the commonly defined threshold rate. Single-edge-notch-bend, SEN(B), fatigue specimens were machined from titanium alloy plates and were fatigue tested at two constant-amplitude load ratios (R = 0.1 and 0.5) and a modified Cold-Turbistan engine spectrum. Calculated fatigue lives from FASTRAN, a fatigue-life-prediction code, using small-crack theory with an equivalent-initiallaw-size (semi-circular surface flaw) of 9 µm in radius at the center of the semi-circular edge notch fit the constant-amplitude test data fairly well, but underpredicted the spectrum loading results by about a factor of 2 to 3. Life predictions made with linear-cumulative damage (LCD) calculations agreed fairly well with the spectrum tests.

When high strength aluminum alloys are subjected to liquid metals, physical and chemical reactions ensue resulting in what is known as liquid metal embrittlement (LME). A subset of environmentally-assisted cracking, LME is exhibited when a liquid metal, e.g. Hg or Ga, comes into intimate contact with a solid metal having significant susceptibility. As mechanical loads are applied, the interaction between the two metals results in a reduction in the flow properties of the solid metal. Several theories have been proposed to identify the underlying microstructural failure mechanism; however, none have been widely accepted, as failures can typically incorporate features common to several failure theories. In an effort to confirm, extend or replace the physically-based theories, fracture mechanics experiments on Al 7075-T651 in liquid mercury have been conducted. Experiments were conducted in a custom environmental chamber capable of exposing specimens to liquid environments while applying a mechanical load. Through both plane-strain fracture and stress intensity factor-dependent (SIF) tests, fracture toughness values along with incubation periods were analyzed and provided data for a load-based theory of LME. These mechanical test data, along with metallographic analysis, show that the phenomena of LME is both strongly time- and SIF-dependent.

In the present work, the non-linear vibrations and the corresponding dynamic fracture mechanics of cables of cable-stayed bridges are studied. The cables are among the most critical components in cable-stayed bridges and there are different damage sources such as corrosion, vibration, fatigue and fretting fatigue that can significantly affect them, thereby reducing the cable’s service life and even producing their failure. Cable-Parametric Resonance is the specific non-linear vibration studied in this research. This type of vibration occurs due to displacements presented at the cable supports. These displacements are induced by the wind and traffic loads acting on the pylon and deck of the bridge. Under certain conditions, unstable cable-vibration of significant amplitude can be registered. Therefore, numerical and experimental analyses are carried out in order to describe this phenomenon and to determine the corresponding instability conditions. Two non-linear models of cable-parametric resonance are studied to predict the cable response. In the simulation method, the non-linear components are treated as external forces acting on the linear systems, which are represented by Single Degree of Freedom systems and described by digital filters. A clear non-linear relationship between the excitation and the cable response is observed in the simulations and the experiments. The corresponding experimental analysis is based on a scaled model (1:200) of the Öresund bridge and a good agreement between the numerical and experimental results is found. After obtaining the relationship between the cable response and the excitation, the cable instability conditions are determined. This is done by finding the minimum displacement required at the cable supports in order to induce nonlinear cable vibration of considerable amplitude. The instability conditions are determined within a wide range of excitation frequencies and conveniently expressed in a simplified and practical way by a curve. The determination process is rather fast and offers the possibility to evaluate all bridge cable stays in a rather short time. Finally, the dynamic fracture mechanics of the cable is considered by studying the fracture toughness characteristics of the material under dynamic conditions. Finite Element simulations on a pre-cracked three-point bending specimen under impact loading are performed. The observed cable instability is equivalently considered as the associated response to impact load conditions, and a crack as a defect on the wires of a cable stay. The simulations are based on an experimental work by using the Split Hopkinson pressure bar (Jiang et al). The dynamic stress intensity factor KI(t) up to crack initiation is then obtained by different methods. The numerical estimations based on the specimen’s crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) and mid-span displacement were closest to the experimental results. It is observed that a better estimation of the dynamic stress intensity factor relies on a proper formulation of the specimen’s stiffness. / Lic March 2011