Statistical formulation and experimental determination of growth rate of micrometre cracks under impact loading

A new statistical formulation and a relevant experimental approach to determine the growth rate of microcracks were proposed. The method consists of experimental measurements and a statistical analysis' on the basis of the conservation law of number density of microcracks in phase space. As a practical example of the method, the growth rate of microcracks appearing in an aluminium alloy subjected to planar impact loading was determined to be ca. 10 mu m/mu s under a tensile stress of 1470 MPa and load duration between 0.26 mu s and 0.80 mu s.

Experimental study of thermocapillary convection on a liquid bridge consisting of fluid with low Prandtl number in a floating half-zone

A device of mercury liquid bridge of floating half-zone is designed to experimentally explore thermocapillary convection and its instability of a low Prandtl number liquid. Noncontacted diagnostic techniques were developed to monitor surface flow and surface deformation. The surface flow and the influence of a growing surface film (or skin) on the flow were observed. It is shown that the film is a key factor in changing the behavior associated with the thermocapillary convection. The experiment indicates that the critical Marangoni number should be much higher than that expected by the numerical simulation. The condition and process of surface film growth are discussed. The surface oscillation of the mercury bridge wrapped with ''dirt-film'' was observed, and the characteristics and the frequency associated with this oscillation are given.

Experimental investigation on low-temperature fatigue crack propagation in offshore structural steel A131 under random sea ice loading

An apparatus of low-temperature controlling for fatigue experiments and its crack measuring system were developed and used for offshore structural steel A131 under conditions of both low temperature and random sea ice. The experimental procedures and data processing were described, and a universal random data processing software for FCP under spectrum loading was written. Many specific features of random ice-induced FCP which differed with constant amplitude FCP behaviours were proposed and temperature effect on ice-induced FCP was pointed out with an easily neglected aspect in designing for platforms in sea ice emphasized. In the end, differences of FCP behaviours between sea ice and ocean wave were presented.

Experimental and theoretical study on numerical density evolution of short fatigue cracks

Fatigue testing was performed using a kind of triangular shaped specimen to obtain the characteristics of numerical density evolution for short cracks at the primary stage of fatigue damage. The material concerned is a structural alloy steel. The experimental results show that the numerical density of short cracks reaches the maximum value when crack length is slightly less than the average grain diameter, indicating grain boundary is the main barrier for short crack extension. Based on the experimental observations and related theory, the expressions for growth velocity and nucleation rate of short cracks have been proposed. With the solution to phase space conservation equation, the theoretical results of numerical density evolution for short cracks were obtained, which were in agreement with our experimental measurements.

An experimental-study of the bending behavior of call hybrid composites

The bending behavior and damage characteristics of CALL (Carbon fiber/epoxy/AL Laminate) hybrid composites have been studied by moire interferometry. The shear strain distribution along the cross-section and the forms of damage of bending beams are obtained. The results show that the magnitude of the shear strain in a carbon/epoxy layer is obviously larger than that in a corresponding aluminum layer and the shear strain distribution of a CFRP layer along the cross-section conforms basically to a parabolic distribution curve, as for the shear strain distribution in aluminum layers along the cross-section. Shear damage, either in the interfaces or in carbon-fiber/epoxy laminae, and tensile failure of CFRP laminae in the tension surface represent, respectively, the damage forms of the longitudinal and transverse bending specimen.

Theoretical and experimental researches of post-micro-buckling for fiber-reinforced composites

Post-microbuckling is a fundamental feature of compressive failure process for the unidirectional-fiber-reinforced composites and laminated composites. The post-microbuckling behavior of composites under compression in the light of the Kevlar49-reinforced 648/BF3.400 (brittle epoxy) and EP (flexible epoxy) is studied, theoretically and experimentally. Analytical results of compressive strength are in good agreement with experimental results, qualitatively and quantitatively. By the experimental research, the post-microbuckling feature of the advancing kink band model is clearly displayed.

Experimental-study of free-surface oscillations of a liquid bridge by optical diagnostics

A non-contact optical method, consisting of a projecting grating technique for the relative measurement of a surface, and a technique of absolute measurement at a fixed point on the surface, are applied to measure the free surface vibration in a liquid bridge of half floating zone with small typical scale of a few of mm for emphasizing the thermocapillary effect in comparison with the effect of buoyancy. The radii variations in both longitudinal and azimuthal directions are obtained, and, then, the feature of surface wave could be analyzed in detail. The results show that there are values of principal oscillatory frequencies at different positions of free surface. The amplitudes of surface waves in longitudinal and azimuthal directions are several mum and several tenths of mum in order of magnitude. The phase of two-dimensional surface waves is different at different height for fixed cross section or at different azimuthal angle for fixed height. The wave features are discussed for the cases of typical parameter ranges.

Experimental laws of cratering for hypervelocity impacts of spherical projectiles into thick target

It is shown in this paper that the laws of cratering in a thick target under hypervelocity impact by a spherical projectile can be approximately expressed by the so-called iso-deviation law and a 2/3 power law. Moreover, hypervelocity impact should be characterized by the isotropic expansion of a crater. In the special case, when the projectile and target are of the same material, the laws mentioned above reduce to the result of a semi-spherical crater and the energy criterion. Generally speaking, a semi-spherical crater and the energy criterion are both approximations, which only take projectile density and target strength into account, and can be used for a rough estimation on the order of magnitude. The inconsistency in various fitted power laws in the literature was also clarified and explained in the paper.

Experimental study on oscillatory thermocapillary convection

The transition processes from steady flow into oscillatory flow in a liquid bridge of the half floating zone are studied experimentally. Two methods of noncontacted diagnoses are developed to measure the distribution of critical Marangoni numbers described by the onset of the oscillation st the free surface of the liquid bridge.The experimental results obtained for both cases of the upper rod heated and the lower rod heated agree with the prediction by Rayleigh's instability theory.The sensitive relations between the relatively fat or slender liquid bridge and the onset of oscillatory convection are also discussed to reveal the insight of the pressure distribution near the free surface. The experiments have been performed in a small liquid bridge, where the Bond number is much smaller than 1, and the results can be used to simulate the experiment in the microgravity environment.

Experimental-study on the criteria and mechanism of spallation in an aluminum-alloy

In this paper, a damage function defined by the residual strength of spalled specimens of an aluminium alloy is given to characterize the spallation of the material. Based on this function a simple method for continuously describing the spallation may be developed. Stress wave profiles showing the signal of spallation were successfully obtained with carbon gauges. Microscopic observations of the spalled aluminium alloy specimens reveal that the nucleation of spallation initiates from cracking of the second phase particles. Spallation is a process of crack nucleation, growth and coalescence to final, complete disintegration.

Experimental relaxation behavior of chopped-strand mat glass-fiber reinforced polyester beams in 3 point bending

A dimensionless relation of the form for collating fatigue crack starting growth data is proposed in which Δkth represents the stress intensity factor range at the threshold. Based on experimental results, this relation attains the value of 0.6 for a fatigue crack to start growth in the Austenitic stainless steel investigated in this work. Metallurgical examinations were also carried out to show a transgranular shear mode of cyclic cleavage and plastic shear.