Degradation failure features of chromium-plated gun barrels with a laser-discrete-quenched substrate

The effect of substrate laser-discrete quenching on the degradation failure of chromium-plated gun barrels was metallurgically investigated. The results show that substrate laser-discrete quenching changes the failure patterns of chromium coatings during firing, and some periodic through-thickness cracks in the fired chromium coatings are justly located at original substrate zones between two adjacent laser-quenched tracks. Moreover, chromium coatings and the laser-quenched zones on the substrate are simultaneously degraded in microstructure and property during firing. Furthermore, the periodic structure of the laser-discrete-quenched steel (LDQS) substrate near the breech remains after firing, and the hardness of the fired laser-quenched zones is still higher than that of original substrates. The specific failure features were utilized to illustrate the mechanism of the extended service life of chromium-plated gun barrels with the LDQS substrate. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Analysis of critical excavation depth for a jointed rock slope using a face-to-face discrete element method

The critical excavation depth of a jointed rock slope is an important problem in rock engineering. This paper studies the critical excavation depth for two idealized jointed rock slopes by employing a face-to-face discrete element method (DEM). The DEM is based on the discontinuity analysis which can consider anisotropic and discontinuous deformations due to joints and their orientations. It uses four lump-points at each surface of rock blocks to describe their interactions. The relationship between the critical excavation depth D-s and the natural slope angle alpha, the joint inclination angle theta as well as the strength parameters of the joints c(r) ,phi(r) is analyzed, and the critical excavation depth obtained with this DEM and the limit equilibrium method (LEM) is compared. Furthermore, effects of joints on the failure modes are compared between DEM simulations and experimental observations. It is found that the DEM predicts a lower critical excavation depth than the LEM if the joint structures in the rock mass are not ignored.

Computation of stress intensity factors by the sub-region mixed finite element method of lines

Based on the sub-region generalized variational principle, a sub-region mixed version of the newly-developed semi-analytical 'finite element method of lines' (FEMOL) is proposed in this paper for accurate and efficient computation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) of two-dimensional notches/cracks. The circular regions surrounding notch/crack tips are taken as the complementary energy region in which a number of leading terms of singular solutions for stresses are used, with the sought SIFs being among the unknown coefficients. The rest of the arbitrary domain is taken as the potential energy region in which FEMOL is applied to obtain approximate displacements. A mixed system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and algebraic equations is derived via the sub-region generalized variational principle. A singularity removal technique that eliminates the stress parameters from the mixed equation system eventually yields a standard FEMOL ODE system, the solution of which is no longer singular and is simply and efficiently obtained using a standard general-purpose ODE solver. A number of numerical examples, including bi-material notches/cracks in anti-plane and plane elasticity, are given to show the generally excellent performance of the proposed method.

The mixed-type integral equations for transient elastodynamic plane crack problems

In the present paper, by use of the boundary integral equation method and the techniques of Green fundamental solution and singularity analysis, the dynamic infinite plane crack problem is investigated. For the first time, the problem is reduced to solving a system of mixed-typed integral equations in Laplace transform domain. The equations consist of ordinary boundary integral equations along the outer boundary and Cauchy singular integral equations along the crack line. The equations obtained are strictly proved to be equivalent with the dual integral equations obtained by Sih in the special case of dynamic Griffith crack problem. The mixed-type integral equations can be solved by combining the numerical method of singular integral equation with the ordinary boundary element method. Further use the numerical method for Laplace transform, several typical examples are calculated and their dynamic stress intensity factors are obtained. The results show that the method proposed is successful and can be used to solve more complicated problems.