Friction stir welding (FSW) is a low heat input solid state welding technology. It is often used for fabrication of aluminium alloys in transportation applications including railway, shipbuilding, bridge structures and automotive components. In these applications the material is frequently subject to varying load conditions and fatigue failure is a critical issue. In most cases standard codes and fatigue guidelines for aluminium welded joints address only welded structures with conventional welding methods but not those with FSW procedure. In the scope of this thesis fatigue life assessment of friction stir welded components was performed using theoretical approaches along with finite element method (FEM). The further aim of this study was to generate a basis for standardization of fatigue assessment of friction stir welded joints. Friction stir welded hollow aluminium panels of alloy 6005A are investigated. The panels are used for train wall sides, train floors, deck and bridges. Each panel is made of several profiles that are joined with the friction stir welding method. Fatigue bending tests were performed for profiles in these panels. Fatigue cracks and failure appeared at notches in the profiles. With FEM simulations critical positions for crack initiation and failure were identified. The method of critical distance was used to analyse and estimate the fatigue life. It was shown that the failure location and fatigue limit could be predicted for both base metal and weld location. Choice of welding procedure (clamping condition) can significantly influence the fatigue life. It was shown that for some panels the critical distance method was not able to explain the failure in the weld. In this case fracture mechanics together with residual stress analysis were used successfully to predict the failure. Assuming homogeneous material properties throughout the weld and the base material, FEM analysis for T and overlap joints as well can provide a reasonable fatigue prediction. This suggests that the same assumption can be extended to complex components for failure analysis of the friction stir welded joints when using the critical distance method. Fatigue assessment of friction stir welded joints was also performed using standard codes Eurocode 9 and IIW. Fatigue curves of traditional fusion welded joints were used. The results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data and FEM predictions. / QC 20120330

Within the dominant culture, culture tends to be given more weight to explain the behaviour of members of cultural minorities than members of the dominant culture. Drawing on the work of Sherene Razack, Leti Volpp and Anne Phillips, I examine two possibilities as to why this may occur: racism and multicultural overreach. I then determine that there needs to be an approach which public authorities can employ to unpack the relationship between culture and autonomy in an individual’s decision making process. Drawing on the work of Will Kymlicka, Natalie Stoljar and Susan Meyers, and utilizing resources from liberal multiculturalism and relational autonomy, I develop a method to assess the relationship between culture and autonomy which I term critical distance. I analyze four cases involving the decision making process of culture minorities and use critical distance to assess how culture and autonomy inform an individual’s decision making process.

Within the dominant culture, culture tends to be given more weight to explain the behaviour of members of cultural minorities than members of the dominant culture. Drawing on the work of Sherene Razack, Leti Volpp and Anne Phillips, I examine two possibilities as to why this may occur: racism and multicultural overreach. I then determine that there needs to be an approach which public authorities can employ to unpack the relationship between culture and autonomy in an individual’s decision making process. Drawing on the work of Will Kymlicka, Natalie Stoljar and Susan Meyers, and utilizing resources from liberal multiculturalism and relational autonomy, I develop a method to assess the relationship between culture and autonomy which I term critical distance. I analyze four cases involving the decision making process of culture minorities and use critical distance to assess how culture and autonomy inform an individual’s decision making process.

Être surveillant en 2013, à quel savoir-faire cela correspond-il ? Depuis 2003, nous ne parlons plus de surveillant d’externat, mais d’assistant d'éducation. Comment apprennent-ils leur travail ? Le travail de surveillance ne s’impose plus comme un rite de passage pour devenir enseignant. Les enseignants ont une vocation éducative, mais qu’en est-il des surveillants ? Est-ce que ces derniers interprètent leurs fonctions avec une vocation éducative ? L’assistant d’éducation est un agent employé par l’État pour assurer un service de surveillance au sein d’un établissement scolaire, mais comment construit-il ses compétences ? La compétence est une action, mais aussi une capacité personnelle ou une approche liée à un potentiel d’expériences passées qui risque de perturber le travail. Le surveillant doit mesurer sa pratique entre distanciation critique et implication personnelle comme acteur-relais à l’institution. Nous cherchons à comprendre les mécanismes de l’individu sur son interprétation de sa fonction. Pour comprendre ces dispositions, nous interrogeons les CPE par entretiens semi-directifs, les élèves et assistants d'éducation par questionnaires. Quelles sont les causes qui conduisent l’individu prend le risque d’être à l’écart de sa fonction imposée par la loi ? L’enjeu de ce travail est de comprendre et de décrire la cause d’un écart interprétatif présent dans la pratique d’un professionnel de l’Éducation Nationale. Cet écart se construit entre l’idée que l’acteur a de son métier et la compétence exigée de lui. Nous expliquons que le positionnement de l’individu à être à l’écart de son rôle prescrit est préétabli par la CSP des deux parents intériorisée par les sondés. En effet, l’intercompréhension dans une interaction est anticipée par la CSP maternelle a contrario de l’interdépendance qui est prédestinée par la CSP paternelle. L’être social apprend à se construire une compétence de réflexivité sur son implication personnelle et sur [Ça] façon de faire. / Since 2003, the people in charge of supervising pupils in French schools have been renamed « education assistants ». What expertise do these workers have in 2013? How will they learn their job? Working as an education assistant is no longer required to become a teacher. However, do they have an educational mission like teachers? Do they evaluate education as part of their duties? An education assistant is a state employee who is meant to supervise pupils in a school, but how does she/he acquire her/his skills? A skill is an « action », but it is also a personal ability developed through past experiences which can influence the job of an education assistant. He/she must analyze his/her practical experience balancing critical distance and personal involvement and thus, acting as a go-between to the institution. Which reasons can lead an individual to take the risk of keeping away from a law-imposed duty? This work aims at studying the reasons which can lead an education assistant to consider his/her missions and his/her duties differently. We will explain that the positioning of an individual away from his/her assigned role is predetermined by the socio professional group of his/her both parents. Actually, mutual understanding in interactions depends on the mother socio professional category whereas interdependence is predestined by the father's social and professional background. A social being develops his/her own reflexivity through personal involvement and his/her own way of acting.

In this dissertation the work done in the projects KME-410/502 will be presented.The overall objective in these projects is to evaluate and develop tools for designingagainst fatigue in single-crystal nickel-base superalloys in gas turbines. Experimentshave been done on single-crystal nickel-base superalloy specimens in order toinvestigate the mechanical and fatigue behaviour of the material. The constitutivebehaviour has been modelled and veried by FE-simulations of the experiments.Furthermore, the microstructural degradation during long-time ageing has been investigatedwith respect to the material's yield limit. The eect has been includedin the constitutive model by lowering the resulting yield limit. Moreover, the fatiguecrack initiation of a component has been analysed and modelled by using acritical plane approach in combination with a critical distance method. Finally, asan application, the derived single-crystal model was applied to all the individualgrains in a coarse grained specimen to predict the dispersion in fatigue crack initiationlife depending on random grain distributions. This thesis is divided into three parts. In the rst part the theoretical framework,based upon continuum mechanics, crystal plasticity, the critical plane approachand the critical distance method, is derived. This framework is then used in thesecond part, which consists of six included papers. Finally, in the third part, detailsof the used numerical procedures are presented.

Cette thèse fait partie d’un programme de recherche international (IRG Cognac). Lancé par le motoriste SNECMA (groupe SAFRAN), ce projet regroupe l’ENS Cachan, UnB, ENSMA, CNRS, Snecma, Turbomeca et Messier Bugatti Dowti, et se concentre sur l’effet du gradient des contraintes sur endommagement par fretting fatigue. Le fretting-fatigue se réfère au processus d’endommagement localisés en bord de fuite entre deux corps en contact soumis à un chargement de fatigue. La maitrise de ce phénomène est d’une importance cruciale dans la détermination des durées de vie des disques de turbine. En bord de contact, le champ de contrainte hérité des forces de contact est maximal à la surface mais présente un fort gradient en s’éloignant du contact.Il a été montré dans cette thèse que pour l’alliage Ti-6AL-4V, les approches locales, basés sur le niveau de contrainte au points critiques ne sont pas applicable dans ces conditions. Une approche non locale, s’appuyant sur la théorie de la distance critique a donc été utilisée. En effet, des fissures courtes initiées au point critique peuvent propager jusqu’à rupture ou peuvent s’arrêter si la diminution des contraintes est suffisamment sévère. Une seconde difficulté réside dans la nature multiaxial et localement non proportionnel du chargement. Le fretting fatigue est généralement créé par la superposition d’un chargement de fatigue cyclique, d’une force normale à la surface souvent considérée constante, et d’une force cyclique tangentiel à la surface mais dont la fréquence peut être différente de celle de la fatigue.Les résultats des essais réalisés ont mis en évidence l’effet du gradient des contraintes sur la fissuration et ont étaient utilisés pour évaluer le potentiel de diffèrent critères pour le dimensionnement en fatigue des structures. La simulation du phénomène a en effet été réalisé en utilisant différente approches. La première s’appuie sur la Théorie de la distance critique et utilise un critère multiaxial. La seconde utilise l’amplitude du facteur d’intensité des contraintes, ΔK, pour prédire l’arrêt des fissures courtes. Finalement un récent modèle construit comme un critère de plasticité en pointe de fissure a été appliqué au problème de fretting fatigue. Ce critère a pour particularité de prendre en compte la contrainte T dans le développement asymptotique en pointe de fissure. / This thesis is part of an international research program (IRG Cognac) initiated by the engine manufacturer SNECMA (SAFRAN group) involving ENS Cachan, UnB, ENSMA, CNRS, Snecma, Turbomeca et Messier Bugatti Dowty. The thesis focuses on the effect of a stress gradient in fretting fatigue. Fretting-fatigue refers to the damage process localized at the frontier of the contact between two contacting bodies subjected to fatigue loadings. The prediction of this phenomenon is of major importance in determining, for instance, the lifetime of fan's disc. In the vicinity of the contact front, the stress field inherited from the contact loads is maximal at the surface and displays a strong gradient from the surface. It was shown in this thesis, for a Ti-6AL-4V alloy, that local approaches, based on local stresses at the most critical point, are not appropriate to predict fretting fatigue lives. As a matter of fact, short cracks initiated at the most critical point may stop if the stress decay from the surface is strong enough or may continue their growth, up to the failure of the component, if the stress gradient from the surface is not string enough. A second difficulty is the multiaxial and non-proportional nature of the loading conditions. Fatigue-fretting stems from the combination of loads that have neither the same spatial distribution nor the same time-dependency. In fretting-fatigue tests, three loading components are considered, the fatigue loading of the component (cyclic), the normal part (assumed to be constant) and the in-plane part (cyclic) of the loads between the two contacting components. To quantify the effect of the stress gradient, tests were carried out on a fatigue testing contact bench developed at the University of Brasilia, with experimental conditions ensuring different stress gradient while keeping the maximal stress the same. Damage mechanisms were studied using post-mortem analysis and optical microscopy on the contact elements tested. The prediction of the fretting fatigue life was done using different approaches. The first one is based on the Critical Distance Method and a fatigue criterion. The second is based on a K-based short crack arrest method. Finally, a new criterion was proposed. This method considers a generalized von Mises yield criterion for the crack tip region and accounts for the T-stresses in the asymptotic LEFM development.

No description available.

As a form of expert labour and organizational resource, knowledge workers are important in organizational life as producers and consumers of knowledge. The role of knowledge workers and the ways in which they transfer their knowledge become important as they possess the symbolic and analytic skills to undertake work which is contingent upon the application of ambiguous knowledge in uncertain, networked business environments. Yet, in much of the existing literature knowledge workers and knowledge transfer seem to have been partially interpreted and through a perspective maintaining an emphasis on organizational performance. Current understanding of the role of knowledge workers sees knowledge workers as either willing or reluctant to share knowledge, i.e. as either contributing to organizational efficiency or its opposite, while knowledge sharing is unequivocally understood as beneficial for organizational performance. The aim of the study is to produce an interpretation of knowledge transfer and the role of knowledge workers that extends beyond simplified and limited categories. The perspective of the knowledge worker is centrally adopted and, using this approach, the identity of knowledge workers and their interpretation of knowledge sharing are explored. The study focuses on 58 knowledge workers in the subsidiaries of five high-tech multinational companies in Athens, Greece, where complex, ambiguous knowledge work and operational interdependencies are supported by elaborate architectures of Knowledge Management initiatives. The method of data collection is interviews and data have been analysed by using QSR N-VIVO and developing thematic conceptual matrices. The findings suggest that, across organizational contexts, knowledge workers construct and maintain identities of competence and upward mobility and exhibit a combination of behaviour. Here, knowledge is better seen as being traded, rather than shared. Knowledge exchanges are subject to a set of knowledge trading principles which reflect self-interested and instrumental conceptualizations of competence and lead to the discrimination and selection of knowledge categories, uses and groups of colleagues. It is indicated that different conceptualizations of the self and various behaviours co-exist and manifest interchangeably thus both supporting and undermining corporate priorities throughout the course of practice. Knowledge worker self and behaviour play an ambivalent role in relation to corporate priorities disturbing but also harmonizing the organizational context. Monochrome notions of ‘sharing’, or interpretations assuming either the willingness to share knowledge or not reflect only part of who the knowledge worker is and why he/she transfers knowledge.

[pt] O projeto mecânico de componentes estruturais para vidas longas à fadiga requer limites de fadiga confiáveis. Porém, a previsão do limite de fadiga ainda apresenta alguns desafios, especialmente por causa dos inevitáveis entalhes e pela presença de pequenos defeitos intrínsecos do material que podem ser considerados como microtrincas. Os entalhes atuam como concentradores de tensão e microtrincas podem ser geradas na ponta destes. Tais microtrincas (geradas ou intrínsecas) podem propagar até provocar a falha do componente ou parar de propagar depois de crescer uma pequena distância e se tornarem não-propagantes, dependendo do nível de carga e do gradiente de tensão à frente do entalhe. Modelos empíricos e teóricos têm sido propostos para fazer previsão do limite de fadiga de componentes entalhados. Entre os teóricos, o chamado modelo do Gradiente de Tensão (GT), que utiliza conceitos da mecânica da fratura linear elástica, apresenta-se como um modelo promissor. No entanto, a validação experimental das previsões deste modelo ainda não tem sido completamente realizada. Neste contexto, corpos de prova tipo C(T) do aço 1020 e com vários valores do raio da ponta do entalhe foram testados sob controle de amplitude de carga constante, frequência de 40 Hz e razão de tensão R igual a 0.1 para avaliar o limite de fadiga através de testes acelerados com cargas tipo step up durante blocos de 3.10 elevado a sexta potência ciclos. O limite de fadiga determinado experimentalmente foi comparado com as previsões do modelo GT e do Método do Ponto, um dos métodos da chamada Teoria da Distância Crítica (TDC). No modelo GT foram considerados três métodos: GTc-p, GTs-e e GTquebra, segundo o método usado para achar o fator geométrico para determinar o fator de intensidade de tensão. As previsões dos modelos GTc-p, GTquebra e TDC são similares no caso de entalhes com raios de ponta grandes, e bem próximas do limite de fadiga medido experimentalmente, enquanto que eles são não-conservativos no caso de entalhes afiados (raios de ponta pequenos). As previsões do modelo GTs-e foram conservativas para entalhes afiados e não afiados. Devido a que os dois modelos são baseados em conceitos lineares elásticos, foi demonstrado que uma análise elástica apresenta limitações para modelar o comportamento à fadiga em entalhes afiados, pois nesses casos a tensão local no ponto crítico pode exceder o limite de escoamento do material. Alem disso, o modelo GT também permite estimar o tamanho da maior trinca curta não-propagante (TCNP) associada ao limite de fadiga. Tais TCNP foram monitoradas nas faces do C(T) através de técnicas não-destrutivas tais como microscopia óptica, correlação digital de imagens e tomografia; enquanto que as TCNP internas foram detectadas usando a técnica destrutiva da metalografia. Os tamanhos das TCNP detectadas foram muito menores do que as estimadas pelo modelo GT, dificultando ainda mais o problema de detecção daquelas trincas. / [en] The mechanical design of structural components for high cycle fatigue applications needs reliable fatigue limits. However, mainly because of notches and the unavoidable presence of small defects, such a task still presents some challenges. Notches cause a stress concentration effect that can initiate short cracks at their tips, but such short cracks may propagate or become non-propagating, depending not only on the load level, but on the stress gradient ahead of the notch tip as well. Notch-like defects, such as scratches, pores, and inclusions, behave in the same way. There are empirical and theoretical models to predict the fatigue limit of notched components. The latter includes the so-called Stress Gradient (SG) model, based on linear elastic fracture mechanics concepts and using the El Haddad-Topper-Smith (ETS) characteristic size aR, as a promissory approach. However, there is a lack of experimental data verifying their fatigue limit predictions. In this context, C(T)-like notched specimens of SAE 1020 steel with several notch root radii were tested under constant load amplitude control at 40 Hz and a stress ratio R equal 0.1, to evaluate their fatigue limit through accelerated tests involving step loading procedures with blocks of 3.10 to sixth power cycles. The experimental fatigue limit was compared with values predicted by SG model, following three approaches: SGc-p, SGs-e, and SGquebra, according to the determination of the geometric factor of the stress concentration factor; and with an alternative prediction by the Point Method based on the theory of critical-distance (TCD). SGc-p, SGquebra and TCD model predictions are almost coincident for blunt notches and they present a good agreement with experimental results, but they are non-conservatives in the case of sharp notches; while SGc-p predictions are conservative for both blunt and sharp notches. Since both models are based on linear elastic concepts, it was demonstrated that an elastic analysis presents limitations to model the behavior of short cracks emanating from sharp notches, due to the local stress at the critical point can exceed the yield strength of the material. Furthermore, according to SG model, the fatigue limit is related to the presence of non-propagating short cracks (NPSC). Such surface NPSCs on the face of the specimens were monitored by non-destructive techniques including optical microscopy, digital image correlation (DIC) and micro-computed tomography; whereas subsurface NPSCs were detected through destructive metallographic technique. The sizes of the detected NPSCs were much smaller than those values predicted by SG model, which in turn makes the detection of these cracks a more complex problem.

[pt] Esta dissertação revisita quatro modelos multiaxiais de dano por fadiga (SWTD, SWT, Findley e Crossland) e discute a sua aplicação na previsão do risco de nucleação de trinca sob solicitações de fadiga por fretting segundo as abordagens local e não-local. As previsões do risco de nucleação de trinca obtidas através dos modelos estudados foram confrontadas com dados experimentais disponíveis na literatura para o contato cilindro/plano em aços AISI 52100 e AISI 1034 respectivamente. As melhores previsões foram obtidas através da versão desviadora SWTD. Segundo a abordagem local, o modelo SWTD fez previsões menos conservativas que os demais, sendo estas com erros conservativos inferiores a 15 porcento. Segundo a abordagem não-local, os quatro modelos geram previsões com erros inferiores a 15 porcento se os mesmos forem calibrados de forma independente. É importante mencionar que as melhores previsões obtidas através da abordagem não-local (que requer a calibração de um parâmetro adicional) são similares àquelas obtidas por SWTD local. Especificamente para os testes de fadiga por fretting com carga remota, o modelo SWTD não-local gerou previsões com 100 porcento de acertos (13 testes). Segundo a abordagem não-local, foi verificado que, para o conjunto de testes estudado, a precisão nas previsões é mais influenciada pela dimensão característica (que deve ser calibrada) que pelo modelo de fadiga multiaxial ou método de integração considerado. Por fim, verificou-se que previsões não conservativas podem ser obtidas ao se considerar uma dimensão característica assumida como parâmetro material (sem calibração) tal qual a distância crítica proposta por Taylor, definida em termos do método do ponto. / [en] This work presents and discusses four multiaxial fatigue damage models (SWTD, SWT, Findley and Crossland) applied to crack nucleation prediction under fretting fatigue loadings according to the local and the non-local approaches. The predictions have been compared with experimental data available in the literature for the cylinder on flat configuration made of 52100 and 1034 AISI steel s respectively. In particular, for the data set analyzed, SWTD parameter (deviatoric version of SWT model) predictions were less conservative than the ones made by the other three models and have better correlated the experimental results. Considering the local approach, the error observed on the SWTD predictions was lower than 15 percent. On the other hand, for the non-local approach, it has been demonstrated that the four multiaxial fatigue models can provide crack nucleation predictions with similar level of accuracy (error lower than 15 percent) if the characteristic dimension is calibrated model-by-model. Note that this same level of accuracy was obtained with SWTD parameter defined in terms of the local approach, which requires one less parameter to be calibrated (characteristic dimension). In particular, considering only the fretting fatigue tests with bulk stresses, SWTD non-local (area method) prediction accuracy was 100 percent (13 tests). For the material studied, it has also been concluded that the non-local predictions accuracy depends more on the calibrated characteristic dimension than on the multiaxial model or integration method considered. Moreover, it has been verified that non-conservative predictions can be made if the characteristic dimension is assumed as a material property as proposed by Taylor on the critical distances theory (point method).