A Study on Effect of Residual Stress on Crack Growth of Aluminum Plate
One technique used to enhance the fatigue strength of a fastener hole is to introduce a compressive residual stress field around the hole. An applied load must overcome this residual stress before the crack can grow, thus leading to a longer fatigue life. The cold expansion of the holes is largely employed to obtain improvement in fatigue performance of structures with initially uncracked holes. In this research, considered is a fatigue crack growth from a hole under the influence of residual stress. The entire cold working processing- including hole expansion, elastic recovery, and finish reaming of two aluminum alloys 2024-T351 and 7075-T6 is simulated. This method of fatigue life prediction is compared with a superposition technique and experimental data. The crack closure level is computed from a finite element simulation and a fatigue life is predicted. The conclusions obtained here are beneficial to the understanding of the phenomenon of fatigue crack initiation and growth at the perimeter of cold worked holes.
Fatigue crack behavior of stainless steel 304 by the addition of carbon nanotubes
Fatigue is the main source of almost half of whole mechanical failures. This research investigated the effect on cyclic fatigue behavior of stainless steel 304 (SS304) when including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at the crack tip. The cyclic fatigue tests were conducted on compact tension (CT) specimens to establish the relationship between crack growth and the number of cycles (a-N). It is found that the incorporation of a small amount of CNTs increased the fatigue life of the SS304/metal. Micrographs showed that the enhancement in fatigue life is caused by CNTs dense arrangement around the crack tip, entangled with each other, and finer grain size. Smooth bonding at the interface of the CNTs and SS304 grains is also observed.
Changes in Quartz During Heating and the Possible Effects on Si Production
In Si and FeSi production, the main Si source is SiO2, in the form of quartz. Reactions with SiO2 generate SiO gas that further reacts with SiC to Si. During heating, quartz will transform to other SiO2 modifications with cristobalite as the stable high-temperature phase. Transformation to cristobalite is a slow process. Its rate has been investigated for several industrial quartz sources and has been shown to vary considerably among the different quartz types. Other differences in behavior during heating between these quartz sources, such as softening temperature and volume expansion, have also been studied. The quartz-cristobalite ratio will affect the rate of reactions involving SiO2. The industrial consequences and other implications of the observed difference between quartz types are discussed. Initial studies of industrial quartz were published by Ringdalen et al. In the current work, a new experimental method has been developed, and an investigation of several new quartz sources has confirmed the earlier observed large variation between different sources. The repeatability of the data has been studied and the effect of gas atmosphere investigated. The results from the earlier work are included as a basis for the discussion.