Theoretical part of this master thesis is focused on the theory of fatigue life. The second part deals with the assesment of static strength the closing flap in front of water turbine. Futher fatigue analysis of the closing flap is performed considering corrosive environment. The aim is to verify the required service lifetime of 50 years.

abstract: Fatigue is a degradation process of materials that would lead to failure when materials are subjected to cyclic loadings. During past centuries, various of approaches have been proposed and utilized to help researchers understand the underlying theories of fatigue behavior of materials, as well as design engineering structures so that catastrophic disasters that arise from fatigue failure could be avoided. The stress-life approach is the most classical way that academia applies to analyze fatigue data, which correlates the fatigue lifetime with stress amplitudes during cyclic loadings. Fracture mechanics approach is another well-established way, by which people regard the cyclic stress intensity factor as the driving force during fatigue crack nucleation and propagation, and numerous models (such as the well-known Paris’ law) are developed by researchers. The significant drawback of currently widely-used fatigue analysis approaches, nevertheless, is that they are all cycle-based, limiting researchers from digging into sub-cycle regime and acquiring real-time fatigue behavior data. The missing of such data further impedes academia from validating hypotheses that are related to real-time observations of fatigue crack nucleation and growth, thus the existence of various phenomena, such as crack closure, remains controversial. In this thesis, both classical stress-life approach and fracture-mechanics-based approach are utilized to study the fatigue behavior of alloys. Distinctive material characterization instruments are harnessed to help collect and interpret key data during fatigue crack growth. Specifically, an investigation on the sub-cycle fatigue crack growth behavior is enabled by in-situ SEM mechanical testing, and a non-uniform growth mechanism within one loading cycle is confirmed by direct observation as well as image interpretation. Predictions based on proposed experimental procedure and observations show good match with cycle-based data from references, which indicates the credibility of proposed methodology and model, as well as their capability of being applied to a wide range of materials. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Materials Science and Engineering 2018

Dissertation thesis is focused on evaluation of influence of exposure in 5% salt fog on fatigue behavior of AZ31 and AZ61 magnesium alloy fabricated by squeeze casting method. Microstructure and mechanical properties of experimental materials have been evaluated. The AZ61 alloy was solution heat treated after prior optimization of the heat treatment process based on microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties. Depths of corrosion damage, corrosion rate and mechanism of corrosion of all three experimental alloys have been evaluated. Influence of prior corrosion exposure for 480 and 1000 hours on fatigue behavior of experimental materials was evaluated. Obtained data were compared with data obtained using smooth test specimens. Fractographic analysis was carried out on both smooth and precorroded specimens. Furthermore, influence of aluminium on corrosion and fatigue behavior of tested alloys was defined.

More and more pressure is exerted on railway infrastructure due to an increasing transportation demand and population density. Instead of expanding the net, a possible solution could lie in the enlargement of the capacity by operating longer trains rather than more short ones. However, close attention has to be paid to the behaviour and the lifetime of the infrastructure under these changed loads. In special bridges are delicate aspects in this matter. In the current thesis the simply supported Banafjäl bridge located on the Bothnia Line in the North of Sweden is studied more in detail with regards to this aspect. It is a high-speed composite railway bridge with a span of 42 m. A detailed 3D finite element (FE) model is made available. However in order to make reliable predictions about the behaviour under increasing train length loads, it had to be further improved. Different methods of calibrating measured response data to an existing FE model, finite element model updating (FEMU), are available and a detailed overview is given at the beginning of this thesis. Next a sensitivity analysis was performed to select the material parameters which are most influential for the result and will be updated. In the following, FEMU is carried out by means of two iterative updating methods, genetic and gradient-based optimization, after which also a combination of these two is implemented. Two objective functions are chosen and it is shown that all methods converge to a global optimal solution. After adjusting the initial model with the updated parameter values, a fatigue analysis on this updated model is carried out for high-speed trains of multiple lengthsby means of the Palmgren-Miner rule. The fatigue is found to increase with increasing train length and in particular when the speed approaches resonance speed. By extension an operating chart is created to indicate the maximum amount of train passages per day in function of speed and train length for a type 4 fatigue train. Furthermore, damping has been shown to have a positive effect on the fatigue, the larger this effect for shorter trains. The static behaviour has been proven not to be a problem and so will solely the weight of trains induce little to no fatigue problems in this particular bridge.

Petr Čermák: Service time assessment of the welded frame for the hydraulics of RONDOPRESS press machine The goal of this thesis is to assess durability of the welded frame for the hydraulics of RONDOPRESS press machine, which is used at the bakery sector in the food industry. The press machine chamber is made of stainless steel, because of food (dough) processing. But the strengthened part of the press machine consists of a carbon steel frame with a hydraulic cylinder. For the life of the RONDOPRESS machine is determining the rigidity and durability of the frame. Therefore it is necessary to carry out a study of carbon steel weldability, choose a suitable welding method and then make an evaluation of welded frame construction used in terms of weld joints in analyzed areas. Practical part consists of the frame computer model design, stress calculations and the service time calculation for required 1,825,000 cycles, choosing the appropriate welding method and avoiding undesired deformations. The final output is an operational frame of the RONDOPRESS press machine that meets the required service time specified by the number of production process cycles.

This Ph.D. thesis deals with methodology for determination of residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles based on damage tolerance approach. This approach accepts an existence of potential defect, which could lead to fatigue failure of whole axle. The behavior of crack in railway axle is described by approaches of linear elastic fracture mechanics. There are plenty of factors, which more or less influence determined residual fatigue lifetime. The aim of this thesis is to quantify effects of these factors. The first part of Ph.D. thesis represents overview of studied problems relating to fatigue damage of railway axles. This part is focused on parameters, which influence fatigue crack growth in railway axle materials. The second part of thesis shows procedure for determination of residual fatigue lifetime, which was developed at the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The main aim of this thesis was to improve current procedure for more precise estimation of residual fatigue lifetime. Significant part of this work is determination of significance of studied factors, which influencing calculated residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles (e.g. effect of threshold value, load spectrum, retardation effects, residual stress, axle geometry, material of axle etc.). The procedures described and results obtained can be also used for determination of residual fatigue lifetime of general mechanical component (not only railway axles). Therefore, results obtained in this Ph.D. thesis can be used e.g. for assessment of regular inspection intervals of cyclically loaded general mechanical parts.

This Ph.D. thesis deals with methodology for determination of residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles based on damage tolerance approach. This approach accepts an existence of potential defect, which could lead to fatigue failure of whole axle. The behavior of crack in railway axle is described by approaches of linear elastic fracture mechanics. There are plenty of factors, which more or less influence determined residual fatigue lifetime. The aim of this thesis is to quantify effects of these factors. The first part of Ph.D. thesis represents overview of studied problems relating to fatigue damage of railway axles. This part is focused on parameters, which influence fatigue crack growth in railway axle materials. The second part of thesis shows procedure for determination of residual fatigue lifetime, which was developed at the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The main aim of this thesis was to improve current procedure for more precise estimation of residual fatigue lifetime. Significant part of this work is determination of significance of studied factors, which influencing calculated residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles (e.g. effect of threshold value, load spectrum, retardation effects, residual stress, axle geometry, material of axle etc.). The procedures described and results obtained can be also used for determination of residual fatigue lifetime of general mechanical component (not only railway axles). Therefore, results obtained in this Ph.D. thesis can be used e.g. for assessment of regular inspection intervals of cyclically loaded general mechanical parts.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to estimate the residual fatigue lifetime of the model train axle. Primarily, the thesis is focused on determination of the stress intesity factor, the main variable for estimation of the residual fatigue lifetime. At first, the theoretical approaches of estimation of the residual fatigue lifetime are listed and then the residual fatigue lifetime of the model train axle is estimated.