Initiation and propagation of short fatigue cracks in a weld metal

Fatigue tests were performed using a purpose designed triangular shaped specimen to investigate the initiation and propagation of short fatigue cracks in a weld metal. It was observed that short fatigue cracks evolved from slip bands and were predominantly within ferrite grains. As the test progressed, the short crack density increased with minor changes in crack length. The growth of short cracks, in the early stage resulted mainly from coalescence with other existing cracks. The mechanism of short crack behaviour is discussed.

Prediction of mixed-mode cracking direction in random, short-fibre composite-materials

The prediction of cracking direction in composite materials is of significance to the design of composite structures. This paper presents several methods for predicting the cracking direction in the double grooved tension-shear specimen which gives mixed-mode cracking. Five different criteria are used in this analysis: two of them have been used by other investigators and the others are proposed by the present authors. The strain energy density criterion proposed by G.C. Sih is modified to take account of the influence of the anisotropy of the strength on the direction of crack. The two failure criteria of Tsai-Hill and Norris are extended to predict the crack orientation. The stress distributions in the near-notch zone are calculated by using the 8-node quadrilateral isoparametric finite element method. The predictions of all the criteria except one are in good agreement with the experimental measurement. In addition, on the basis of the FEM results, the size of the zone in which the singular term is dominant is estimated.

Short-surface waves radiated by a partially-immersed 3-dimensional oscillating body

The short-surface waves generated by a 3-D arbitrarily oscillating body floating onwater are discussed. In the far-field off the body, the phase and the amplitude functions ofthe radiated waves are determined by the ray method. An undetermined constant is includ-ed in the amplitude function. From the result of Ref. [1], the near-field boundary layersolution near the body waterline is obtained. The amplitude of this solution depends on thewhole wall shape of the body and the slope at the body waterline on the cross-sections per-pendicular to the waterline. By matching the far-field solution with the near-field bound-ary layer solution, the undetermined constant in the amplitude function of the far-fieldradiated waves is determined. For the special case of a half-submerged sphere which per-forms vertical oscillating motion, the result obtained in this paper is in agreement withthat of Ref. [ 2 ].