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No description available.

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As a consequence of metal fatigue, cracks can develop and grow in operational aircraft. Periodic inspections must be made in order to detect and repair them before they reach a dangerous length. Cracks which grow from holes are a significant problem for aircraft since the wings and fuselage can contain many thousands of fasteners, or rivets. Since it is impractical to remove them all, inspection must be made with them installed. Research into the application of eddy currents to this problem has led to the development of a scanning procedure in which a small coil is moved around the circumference of the fastener while its impedance is repeatedly measured at different positions. This set of data constitutes an image which can be analvsed using pattern recognition techniques to identify the presence of a crack. A self-contained automated instrument has been built on these principles. It incorporates a microprocessor which controls all aspects of the systems operation, including analysis and display of results. Tests show that it can detect the presence of simulated radial cracks as small as 0.2 mm long beneath the heads of fasteners. The natural extension of these ideas leads to the concept of eddy-current imaging in which a 3D picture of a defect is reconstructed from measurements of the surface magnetic field. The feasibility of implementing this, using techniques such as tomography, is discussed.

A collaborative research project was set up to study peripheral diamond wheel machining damage in silicon nitride ceramics. The objective of the work to be carried out at the University of Surrey was to study the nature and depth of machining damage in 3 point flexural rupture test bars made from 5 wt% Y2O3 sintered hot isostatically pressed silicon nitride. The bars were machined to three surface finishes. The work carried out at Rolls-Royce by Mr R Quinn concentrated on the effects the machining damage had on the fracture strengths of the test bars. Work at the University of Surrey has identified in detail the nature and depth of machining damage in "coarse" 0. 4mum centre line average roughness surfaces. Deep grooves up to 2mum depth, 18mum width are found to have been superimposed on the general surface roughness by singularly large diamonds in the 350 grit diamond wheel. Sub-surface median cracks normal to the machining direction were clearly identified in bar cross-sections using oblique, diffuse "penumbra" illumination in an optical microscope, an as yet undocumented technique. Cross-section views of the machined surface and sub-surface were made possible by the very difficult and delicate technique of producing sandwich cross-sections of the machined bars. An analysis of machining-induced median cracks has not been carried out in such detail before. Semi-elliptical in shape the median cracks extend from 6mum - 45mum below the machined surface, and range from 19mum to 101mum in length parallel to the machining direction. They initiate at the focal point of a tributary system of microcracks at an average depth of 4mum - 5mum below the machined surface. It is believed that the median cracks initiate at the plastic/elastic boundary of a plastically deformed surface layer. Therefore a residual compressive layer, formed by the overlap of localised residual stresses from multi-particle contact events. and bound by an underlying tensile field, is thought to have an average depth of 4mum - 5mum. A very innovative technique was used to reveal sub-surface deformation, where TEM X-ray microdiffraction spots were distorted by mechanical damage in the ceramic grain structure. The "arcing" or "streaking" of the diffraction spots tended to disappear at a depth of 4mum - 5mum below the machined surface. This is further evidence of the existence of a thin layer in residual compression, which has an average depth of 4mum - 5mum. This technique is not known to have been used before. Fine diamond machining with a 600 grit wheel produced a centre line average roughness of 0.01/0.02 mum. However, evidence of machining damage is still present in the form of "remnant tracks" which lie parallel to the machining direction and consist of material pull-out. They are remnants of machining damage under grinding grooves introduced in previous machining stages. Single point Vickers pyramid diamond scratches were implemented at different loads on a polished surface. The morphology of the grooves and material fragmentation and the sub-surface median cracks were examined. Many features were found to resemble the deformation/fracture formed under a deep grinding groove in the coarse machined surface. Work carried out at Rolls-Royce by R Quinn showed that an increase in the quality of surface finish is accompanied by an increase in the mean strength and Weibull modulus of the machined bars. Furthermore a distinct anisotropy in the fracture strengths parallel and normal to the "coarse" machining direction is evidence of anisotropy in machining damage formed by a peripheral diamond grinding wheel. X-ray diffraction tests carried out at the CEGB by P E J Flewitt showed that machining damage produces a long range biaxial residual compressive field with the highest component acting normal to the machining direction. These results are consistent with the nature of machining damage identified at the University of Surrey, namely the strength-controlling median cracks which lie parallel to the machining direction and the residual compressive stress which exists as a thin 4mum - 5mum layer below the machined surface. Processing flaws were discovered in the as-hipped billets received for the project. Their elemental composition and likely origin were examined. A three dimensional "cellular network" flaw ranging from 400mum to 2.1mm in size (in different production batches) is believed to have been formed as a result of flocculation clustering during processing. Clusters of 1mum - 3mum metallic particles were also identified. They range from 5mum - 45mum in size. The contaminant particles are steel and were introduced as a result of the original ceramic powder ball milling process which employed a steel ball mill.

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This thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation of electromagnetic methods for the detection and measurement of metal fatigue cracks. The available methods are reviewed, with particular attention being paid to mathematical models, and a new model of the electromagnetic field near a metal fatigue crack for small skin-depths is presented which uses a surface impedance boundary condition with the addition of a line source to represent the crack. This leads to a coupled system of two magnetic scalar potentials, one on the crack face which obeys the two-dimensional Laplace equation and one outside the test-piece which obeys the three-dimensional Laplace equation. The behaviour of the field is governed by a parameter m =l/(μ, δ), where l is the size of the field perturbation, μ, is the relative permeability and δ is the skin-depth. When m is small, almost all the flux is concentrated inside the metal and the exterior potential also obeys the two-dimensional Laplace equation, on the test-piece surface. When m is large, the perturbation part of the exterior field has a negligible effect on the field inside the crack so that the crack-face potential may be found by the Born approximation. The general m problem is solved for rectangular and semi-elliptical cracks in flat plates, interrogated by uniform fields, and the solution is verified experimentally. A method for calculating the crack depth from the magnetic field is given, with descriptions of industrial applications. The theory is further developed to find the impedance change in an air-cored circular coil caused by a crack, to find the field near overlapping cracks and to find the field near a crack in an interior corner. Finally, a semi-empirical analysis is presented for a ferrite-cored measuring coil.

Today's competitive market requires engineers to produce reliable light weight products at low cost. This can be achieved by more effective use of computer aided engineering tools during early stages of the design process. A research programme has been undertaken to investigate the data requirements of integrating commercially available software packages (finite element analysis and fatigue life evaluation) to evaluate the integrity and durability of engineering components at the conceptual design stage. A real engineering component, in the form of a steering arm, supplied by a European truck manufacturer was used as a basis for the investigation. This is a typical vehicle component, in which, under service loading conditions, a multiaxial state of stress occurs. A geometric model of the component was created using the Prime "MEDUSA" software suite. The model was used to locate the boundary co-ordinates necessary for the development of a PAFEC Finite Element model. By imposing the conditions experienced during the service, the critical areas of the component were identified by analysing the F.E. model and a detailed description of the elastic stress/strain fields were also established. These were incorporated in an energy density approach and Neuber's uniaxial analysis to predict total local elastic/plastic strains at these critical- locations. These were compared with strain gauge measurements. The calculated results were used to plot a number of load/local strain calibration curves for the development of a load history, suitable for experimental fatigue life assessment. Fatigue crack initiation tests were performed on the steering arm using a computer controlled DARTEC multiaxial fatigue testing machine. Fatigue life assessment based on full service loading was carried out using a software package based on the critical location approach. A comparison of computerised, experimental and actual test circuit fatigue lives has been made. The work enabled a specification to be produced for the integration of the two items of software. This integrated software was developed by third parties and used to produce a computerised life map of the steering arm.

In the current study, we have investigated the cyclic loading behavior of conventional as well as novel alloy system exhibiting fine and ultrafine-grained structure. While in case of conventional alloy systems (here aluminum alloy AA5024), the effect of three different grain sizes was investigated. Improvement in fatigue properties was observed with decreasing grain size. The unique microstructure produced via Friction stir processing was responsible for the improved fatigue response. Additionally, microstructures consisting of a high fraction of special boundaries within the fine and ultrafine-grained regime were also subjected to cyclic loading. The hierarchical features introduced in the eutectic high entropy alloy deflected the persistent slip bands, responsible for fatigue cracking, thus resulted in delayed crack initiation and improved fatigue life. The selective nature of fatigue was learnt in the fine grain Al0.5CoCrFeNi, where the introduction of hierarchical features did not result in improved fatigue properties. The weak links in the microstructure, while not affecting the tensile properties, got exposed during cyclic loading. Further study on the medium entropy alloy revealed the inherent reason for the improved fatigue properties. The medium entropy alloys utilized the benefit of UFG single-phase FCC matrix. The UFG matrix showed signs of transformation of FCC phase into the HCP phase during fatigue deformation and hence exhibited improved work-hardening. Alongside atomic scale transformation, stacking faults and nano-twins can also be attributed for obtained cyclic properties.