The fracture and fatigue properties of cast irons used for trunk mains in the water industry
In order to assess the remaining life of cast iron assets in the water sector, an understanding of their fracture and fatigue characteristics is necessary. The present work is concerned with the toughness and Paris crack growth behaviour of cast iron materials with a range of micro-structures, taken from trunk mains currently in service. When considered with other data from the literature, the results from the present study enable the range of fatigue crack growth behaviour likely to be seen in service to be quantified. The role of microstructure in fracture and fatigue behaviour is discussed. Calculations of fatigue life based on integration of the Paris law are then carried out and compared with previously published data for samples from cast iron distribution mains. The results from these investigations support the development of asset management tools for use in the water industry.
On the residual strength of aging cast iron trunk mains: Physically-based models for asset failure
Worldwide, a significant proportion of the large diameter (trunk) mains within water networks are still made of aging cast iron material. With corrosion seeming to be the most significant cause of deterioration in cast iron trunk mains, the traditional structural view of the residual strength of the pipe has been based on the strength of the remaining wall thickness, i.e. a loss-of-section approach. In some situations this may lead to an over-estimate of the residual strength and better predictions can be made using an approach based on fracture mechanics. The present research has shown how loss-of-section models of residual strength can be used alongside fracture mechanics models in a twin approach to provide boundaries to the failure envelope for a “ring element” subjected to combined bending and direct (tensile or compressive) forces. When the application of such a failure envelope to a ring from a pipe under combined vertical loading and internal pressure is considered, it was found that in addition to its size, the angular position of a corrosion defect can have a significant effect on the residual strength of the pipe.
Integrated two-beam antenna array featuring dual-circular polarization
A concept of an integrated antenna array featuring two independent beams and dual circular polarization has been described. The antenna array consists of two radiating elements which are excited at two orthogonally placed feeding ports with the use of four appropriately connected 3-dB/90° directional couplers. Therefore, such an array generates two symmetrically located beams having right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) and identical two beams having left-handed circular polarization (LHCP). The presented concept has been verified by the design and measurements of an antenna array operating at 2.4 GHz frequency range.