abstract: Pipeline infrastructure forms a vital aspect of the United States economy and standard of living. A majority of the current pipeline systems were installed in the early 1900’s and often lack a reliable database reporting the mechanical properties, and information about manufacturing and installation, thereby raising a concern for their safety and integrity. Testing for the aging pipe strength and toughness estimation without interrupting the transmission and operations thus becomes important. The state-of-the-art techniques tend to focus on the single modality deterministic estimation of pipe strength and do not account for inhomogeneity and uncertainties, many others appear to rely on destructive means. These gaps provide an impetus for novel methods to better characterize the pipe material properties. The focus of this study is the design of a Bayesian Network information fusion model for the prediction of accurate probabilistic pipe strength and consequently the maximum allowable operating pressure. A multimodal diagnosis is performed by assessing the mechanical property variation within the pipe in terms of material property measurements, such as microstructure, composition, hardness and other mechanical properties through experimental analysis, which are then integrated with the Bayesian network model that uses a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. Prototype testing is carried out for model verification, validation and demonstration and data training of the model is employed to obtain a more accurate measure of the probabilistic pipe strength. With a view of providing a holistic measure of material performance in service, the fatigue properties of the pipe steel are investigated. The variation in the fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) along the direction of the pipe wall thickness is studied in relation to the microstructure and the material constants for the crack growth have been reported. A combination of imaging and composition analysis is incorporated to study the fracture surface of the fatigue specimen. Finally, some well-known statistical inference models are employed for prediction of manufacturing process parameters for steel pipelines. The adaptability of the small datasets for the accuracy of the prediction outcomes is discussed and the models are compared for their performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Materials Science and Engineering 2018

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<p>Damaged components and a lack of spare components are issues which are currently affecting military aircraft capability. Laser Cladding is an additive manufacturing technique which shows promise in repairing damaged aviation components. However, there are considerable certification requirements for critical components which stand to gain the most benefits from laser clad repair methodologies. These requirements involve establishing crack growth rate data for the laser clad material to gain confidence in the reliability of the repair's performance on in-service aircraft. This research seeks to understand the fatigue behavior of Ti-6Al-4V that has undergone a simulated laser clad repair, with unrepaired specimens also tested to allow for comparison. </p>

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In this work, understanding the microstructural effects of monotonic and cyclic failure of wrought 7075-T651 and cast A356 aluminum alloys were examined. In particular, the structure-property relations were quantified for the plasticity/damage model and two fatigue crack models. Several types of experiments were employed to adapt an internal state variable plasticity and damage model to the wrought alloy. The damage model was originally developed for cast alloys and thus, the model was modified to account for void nucleation, growth, and coalescence for a wrought alloy. In addition, fatigue experiments were employed to determine structure-property relations for the cast alloy. Based on microstructural analysis of the fracture surfaces, modifications to the microstructurally-based MultiStage fatigue model were implemented. Additionally, experimental fatigue crack results were used to calibrate FASTRAN, a fatigue life prediction code, to small fatigue-crack-growth behavior. Lastly, a set of experiments were employed to explore the damage history effect associated with cast and wrought alloys and to provide motivation for monotonic and fatigue modeling efforts.

The fatigue of materials and structures is a subject that has been under investigation for almost 160 years; yet reliable fatigue life predictions are still more of an empirical art than a science. The traditional safe-life approach to fatigue design is based upon the total time to failure of a virtually defect free component. This approach is heavily reliant on the use of safety factors and empirical equations, and therefore much scatter in the fatigue life predictions is normally observed. Furthermore, the safe-life approach is unsuitable for many important applications such as aircraft, pressure vessels, welded structures, and microelectronic devices. In these applications the existence of initial defects is practically unavoidable and the time of propagation from an initial defect to final failure is comparable with the total life of the component. In the early 1970’s, the aircraft industry pioneered a new approach for the analysis of fatigue crack growth, known as damage tolerant design. This approach utilises fracture mechanics principles to consider the propagation of fatigue cracks from an initial crack length until final fracture, or a critical crack length, is reached. Since the first implementation of damage tolerant design, much research and development has been undertaken. In particular, theoretical and experimental fracture mechanics techniques have been utilised for the investigation of a wide variety of fatigue crack growth phenomena. One such example is the retardation and acceleration in crack growth rate caused by spike overloads or underloads. It is generally accepted, however, that the current level of understanding of fatigue crack growth phenomena and the adequacy of fatigue life prediction techniques are still far from satisfactory. This thesis theoretically investigates various non-linear individual and interaction phenomena associated with fatigue crack growth. Specifically, the effect of plate thickness on crack growth under constant amplitude loading, crack growth retardation due to an overload cycle, and small crack growth from sharp notches are considered. A new semianalytical method is developed for the investigations, which utilises the distributed dislocation technique and the well-known concept of plasticity-induced crack closure. The effects of plate thickness are included through the use of first-order plate theory and a fundamental solution for an edge dislocation in plate of arbitrary thickness. Numerical results are obtained via the application of Gauss-Chebyshev quadrature and an iterative procedure. The developed methods are verified against previously published theoretical and experimental data. The elastic out-of-plane stress and displacement fields are first investigated using the developed method and are found to be in very good agreement with past experimental results and finite element simulations. Crack tip plasticity is then introduced by way of a strip-yield model. The effects of thickness on the crack tip plasticity zone and plasticity-induced crack closure are studied for both small and large-scale yielding conditions. It is shown that, in general, an increase in plate thickness will lead to a reduction in the extent of the plasticity and associated crack closure, and therefore an increase in the crack growth rates. This observation is in agreement with many findings of past experimental and theoretical studies. An incremental crack growth scheme is implemented into the developed method to allow for the investigation of variable amplitude loading and small fatigue crack growth. The case of a single tensile overload is first investigated for a range of overload ratios and plate thicknesses. This situation is of practical importance as an overload cycle can significantly increase the service life of a cracked component by temporarily retarding the crack growth. Next to be studied is growth of physically small cracks from sharp notches. Fatigue cracks typically initiate from stress concentrations, such as notches, and can grow at rates higher than as predicted for a long established crack. This can lead to non-conservative estimates for the total fatigue life of a structural component. For both the overload and small crack cases, the present theoretical predictions correlate well with past experimental results for a range of materials. Furthermore, trends observed in the experiments match those of the predictions and can be readily explained through use of crack closure arguments. This thesis is presented in the form of a collection of published or submitted journal articles that are the result of research by the author. These nine articles have been chosen to best demonstrate the development and application of the new theoretical techniques. Additional background information and an introduction into the chosen field of research are provided in order to establish the context and significance of this work. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1349588 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2008

A análise da vida em fadiga em amplitude variável associada à corrosão é bastante complexa, devido a combinações entre as interações eletroquímicas ocorridas, tendo em vista a exposição da frente da trinca à névoa salina somada aos efeitos deletérios do carregamento de amplitude variável. Esta combinação de efeitos ainda não é modelada matematicamente, e os dados experimentais observados em outros trabalhos ainda geram hipóteses inconclusivas. Neste contexto, este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a vida em fadiga da liga 7475 T7351, utilizando carregamento de voos simulados TWIST e FALSTAFF e submetida a névoa salina a 3,5 e 5%. Foram executados ensaios eletroquímicos, para verificar o potencial de corrosão dessa liga e análise microestrutural para verificar a formação de pites. O crescimento de trinca por fadiga com carregamento de voo foi simulado, sem considerar os efeitos do meio, nos programas NASGRO 4.0, AFGROW e CRACK 2000, com parâmetros calibrados no NASGRO 4.0, no intuito de verificar quais modelos matemáticos e programas descrevem a curva experimental em ar com menor erro. Os resultados mostraram que os programas NASGRO 4.0 e AFGROW se aproximaram com menor erro à curva experimental em ar. Os ensaios de crescimento de trinca por fadiga foram executados com carregamento de voos simulados e os parâmetros para o sistema de geração de névoa salina foram determinados experimentalmente. As curvas de crescimento de trinca e taxa de propagação em névoa salina foram comparadas às curvas em ar, as quais também foram obtidas sob as mesmas condições de carregamento. Observou-se que para os ensaios em névoa salina, a trinca rompeu com maior número de voos em relação às curvas em ar. / The corrosion fatigue life analysis under variable amplitude loading is very complex due electrochemistry effects in crack tip exposed to salt spray matched to harmful effects of amplitude variable loading. This effects combination is not modeling mathematically actually, and the experimentally data observed in other research generates inconclusive theories. In this context, the main aim of this research to evaluate the corrosion fatigue life of 7475 T7351 under spectrum loading TWIST and FALSTAFF and exposed to 3.5% and 5% NaCl. Electrochemistry test were performed to verify the corrosion potential followed of microstructural analysis by SEM, to verify the pitting on 7475 T7351 alloy. The fatigue crack growth was simulated, without environmental effects, using the codes NASGRO, AFGROW and CRACK 2000, the simulation parameters was fit on NASGRO 4.0, to analyze whether the crack growth models and codes are able to represent properly the air experimental crack growth data. The results showed that NASGRO 4.0 and AFGROW codes described the fatigue crack growth in air with less error. The fatigue crack growth tests were performed under spectrum loadings and the parameters to obtain salt spray were determined experimentally. The corrosion fatigue crack growth and rate data were compared to air data, under the same loading conditions. The corrosion fatigue tests showed that the specimens cracked under a larger number of flights than specimens in air.

Fatigue damage of aluminium alloys is one of the key concerns in transport industries, particularly in the aerospace industry. The purpose of the project is to develop new knowledge and techniques against fatigue failure for these industries through a systematic investigation of fatigue resistance and crack growth behaviours of aluminium alloys. Fatigue and fracture mechanics have been investigated analytically, numerically and experimentally in this project. Overload transient effect on fatigue crack growth has been examined by considering various parameters including crack closure, overload ratio (OLR), load ratio (R ratio), baseline stress intensity factor range, (∆K)_BL and geometry. It was found that crack closure can be correlated qualitatively and quantitatively to all other parameters associated with overload transient behaviour. It is proposed that the effect of crack tip plasticity on the non-linearity of the compliance curve can be separated to obtain reliable crack closure measurement. In this project, different methods are used to better understand the transient retardation process so that the damage tolerance design (DTD) of the components made of aluminium alloys can be enhanced. Another important parameter for fatigue and damage tolerance design (DTD) of engineering components is the threshold stress intensity factor range for fatigue crack growth, ∆K_th. A small variation in identification of ∆K_th can lead to a big change in overall estimation of fatigue life. In this project, an analytical model has been developed for aluminium alloys by fitting an analytical curve with raw crack growth data in order to identify the ∆K_th. This model has the capacity to identify ∆K_th for different aluminium alloys at various R ratios. There is a great demand for enhanced fatigue life of aluminium alloys in the transport industry. This project has carried out a detailed investigation of electromagnetic treatment (ET) in the form of electropulsing treatment to develop an efficient technique for fatigue resistance enhancement. ET parameters including the treatment intensity, treatment time and the number of applications have been optimised. It is suggested that the duration of ET treatment can be used as the main parameter among all these to control the fatigue resistance of the aluminium alloy. The improvement in fatigue resistance has been explained by the change in microhardness and conductivity of aluminium alloy due to ET. Additionally, the fracture morphology was analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The precipitates and dislocation characteristics were also studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The outcomes of this investigation will help improve structural integrity by enhancing fatigue resistance of aluminium alloys.

A análise da vida em fadiga em amplitude variável associada à corrosão é bastante complexa, devido a combinações entre as interações eletroquímicas ocorridas, tendo em vista a exposição da frente da trinca à névoa salina somada aos efeitos deletérios do carregamento de amplitude variável. Esta combinação de efeitos ainda não é modelada matematicamente, e os dados experimentais observados em outros trabalhos ainda geram hipóteses inconclusivas. Neste contexto, este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a vida em fadiga da liga 7475 T7351, utilizando carregamento de voos simulados TWIST e FALSTAFF e submetida a névoa salina a 3,5 e 5%. Foram executados ensaios eletroquímicos, para verificar o potencial de corrosão dessa liga e análise microestrutural para verificar a formação de pites. O crescimento de trinca por fadiga com carregamento de voo foi simulado, sem considerar os efeitos do meio, nos programas NASGRO 4.0, AFGROW e CRACK 2000, com parâmetros calibrados no NASGRO 4.0, no intuito de verificar quais modelos matemáticos e programas descrevem a curva experimental em ar com menor erro. Os resultados mostraram que os programas NASGRO 4.0 e AFGROW se aproximaram com menor erro à curva experimental em ar. Os ensaios de crescimento de trinca por fadiga foram executados com carregamento de voos simulados e os parâmetros para o sistema de geração de névoa salina foram determinados experimentalmente. As curvas de crescimento de trinca e taxa de propagação em névoa salina foram comparadas às curvas em ar, as quais também foram obtidas sob as mesmas condições de carregamento. Observou-se que para os ensaios em névoa salina, a trinca rompeu com maior número de voos em relação às curvas em ar. / The corrosion fatigue life analysis under variable amplitude loading is very complex due electrochemistry effects in crack tip exposed to salt spray matched to harmful effects of amplitude variable loading. This effects combination is not modeling mathematically actually, and the experimentally data observed in other research generates inconclusive theories. In this context, the main aim of this research to evaluate the corrosion fatigue life of 7475 T7351 under spectrum loading TWIST and FALSTAFF and exposed to 3.5% and 5% NaCl. Electrochemistry test were performed to verify the corrosion potential followed of microstructural analysis by SEM, to verify the pitting on 7475 T7351 alloy. The fatigue crack growth was simulated, without environmental effects, using the codes NASGRO, AFGROW and CRACK 2000, the simulation parameters was fit on NASGRO 4.0, to analyze whether the crack growth models and codes are able to represent properly the air experimental crack growth data. The results showed that NASGRO 4.0 and AFGROW codes described the fatigue crack growth in air with less error. The fatigue crack growth tests were performed under spectrum loadings and the parameters to obtain salt spray were determined experimentally. The corrosion fatigue crack growth and rate data were compared to air data, under the same loading conditions. The corrosion fatigue tests showed that the specimens cracked under a larger number of flights than specimens in air.

Structural concrete is the most widely used material in the construction of bridges, pave-ments, runways, dams and other infrastructures which are subjected to uctuating loads during its service period. Concrete contains internal aws in the form of micro-cracks as an inherent property. When subjected to fatigue loading, distributed micro-cracks are formed at the sites of pre-existing aws, which subsequently, localize to form a major crack and propagates. The crack growth curve of a structural component when subjected to fatigue loading depicts a sigmoidal pattern. This curve is divided into three distinct regions namely sub-threshold crack propagation (short crack), stable crack propagation (long crack) and unstable crack propagation depending on the crack propagation rate. Most of the fatigue life is spent in the sub-critical stage (small crack) before the for-mation of long cracks. Hence, from the view of estimating the fatigue life, the crack initiation and early crack propagation (short crack stage) phase are the most important and correct concepts need to be developed. Hence, in this work, the behavior of propa-gation and non-propagationof short cracks in concrete when subjected to fatigue loading is addressed. Small non-propagating cracks are usually found at notch roots when the nominal stress range is below certain limits that depend on the notch sensitivity. Analysis is performed on geometrically similar three-point bend beams of three di erent sizes and subjected to fatigue loading in order to determine the important factors that a ect the notch sensitivity and to determine the minimum stress range required for the initiation and propagation of short cracks. A criterion for crack initiation and propagation is proposed based on linear elastic fracture mechanics. Using this criterion, the maximum length of non-propagating crack that can be formed from fatigue loading alone and the minimum stress range required to propagate a crack without arrest are computed. It is observed that the notch sensitivity increases with increase in beam size, decrease in notch-tip aspect ratio and increase in the fatigue limit of the material. Since the probability of formation of a non-propagating crack at a notch tip decreases with increase in notch sensitivity, and since it is desirable not to have a non-propagating crack in experimental investigations, it is essential to design a specimen with higher notch sensitivity. A crack spends a considerable amount of time in the short crack regime. The short cracks are found to propagate at higher rates than the long cracks at the same nominal stress intensity factor which is known as the short crack anomaly. It is important to consider this anomaly in the prediction of the residual life of damaged concrete structures. Hence, in the present work, an analytical model is developed using the principles of dimensional analysis and self-similarity in order to estimate the rate of short crack growth in concrete. The important parameters such as load range, threshold value of stress intensity factor range, modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, fracture energy, stress ratio, crack size and the maximum aggregate size are considered in the development of the short crack growth model. The model is calibrated and validated using the experimental results that are available in the literature. A probabilistic analysis is carried out to determine the sensitivity of each of the di erent parameters that has been considered on the crack growth rate using the coe cient of variation method. It is found that the crack length is the most sensitive parameter to short crack growth rate followed by the load range. A term called `characteristic fatigue life of short crack' is de ned as the number of fatigue cycles that can be applied such that not more than ve percent of the short cracks is expected to proceed to the long crack regime. Furthermore, the fatigue life of a crack spent in the short crack regime is determined through a reliability based study using the Monte Carlo technique. It is found that the smaller sized specimens have larger fatigue life in the short crack regime than the larger specimens.