• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.2 s.67
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• pp.128-138
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• 2007

At low in-situ stress, the continuity and distribution of natural fractures in rock mass predominantly control the failure processes. However at high in-situ stress, the failure process are affected and eventually dominated by stress-induced fractures preferentially growing parallel to the excavation boundary. This fracturing is often observed in brittle type of failure such as slabbing or spatting. Recent studies on the stress- or excavation-induced damage of rock revealed its importance especially in a highly stressed regime. In order to evaluate the brittle failure around a deep underground opening, physical model experiments were carried out. For the experiments a new tue triaxial testing system was made. According to visual observation and acoustic emission detection, brittle failure grades were classified under three categories. The test results indicate that where higher horizontal stress, acting perpendicular $(S_{H2})$ and parallel $(S_{H1})$ to the axis of the tunnel respectively, were applied, the failure grade at a constant vertical stress level (Sy) was lowered. The failure initiation stress was also increased with the increasing $S_{H1}\;and\;S_{H2}$. From the multi-variable regression on failure initiation stress and true triaxial stress conditions, $f(S_v,\;S_{H1},\;S_{H2})$ was proposed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2013

Stress triaxiality is recognized as one of the most important factors for predicting the failure strain of ductile metals. This study dealt with the effect of the average stress triaxiality on the failure strain of a typical low-temperature high-strength marine structural steel, EH36. Tensile tests were carried out on flat specimens with different notches, from relatively smooth to very sharp levels. Numerical simulations of each specimen were performed by using ABAQUS. The failure initiation points in numerical simulations were identified from a comparison of the engineering stress vs. strain curves obtained from experiments with simulated ones. The failure strain curves for various dimensionless critical energy levels were established in the average stress triaxiality domain and compared with the identified failure strain points. It was observed that most of the failure initiation points were approximated with a 100% dimensionless critical energy curve. It was concluded that the failure strains were well expressed as a function of the average stress triaxiality.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.935-946
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• 2000

Elastic-plastic stress analysis has been performed to evaluate the fatigue life of an autofrettaged pressure vessel containing cross-bores subjected to pulsating internal pressure of 200 MPa. Finite element analyses were used to calculate the residual and operating stress distributions of the pressure vessel due to the autofrettage process and pulsating internal pressure, respectively. Theoretical stress concentration factors of 3.06, 2.58, and 2.64 were obtained at the cross-bore of the pressure vessel due to internal pressure, 50%, and 100% autofrettage loadings, respectively. Local stresses and local strains determined from the elastic-plastic finite element analysis were employed to calculate the failure location and fatigue life of the pressure vessel with radial cross-bores, incorporating the low-cycle fatigue properties of the pressure vessel steel and fatigue damage parameters. Increase in the amount of overstrain by autofrettage process moved the crack initiation location from the inner radius toward a mid-wall, and extended the crack initiation life. Predicted fatigue life of the fully autofrettaged pressure vessel with cross-bores increased about 50%, compared to the unautofrettaged pressure vessel. At the autofrettage level higher than 50%, the failure location and fatigue life of the pressure vessel were not significantly influenced by the autofrettage level.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.68-75
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• 2005

The fatigue life of welded joints is associated with crack initiation and propagation life. Theses cannot be easily separated, since the definition of crack initiation is vague due to the initiation of multiple cracks that are distributed randomly along the weld toes. In this paper a method involving a notch strain and fracture mechanical approach, which considers the characteristics of welded joints, e.g. welding residual stress and statistical characteristics of multiple cracks, is proposed, in an attempt to reasonably estimate these fatigue lives. The fatigue crack initiation life was evaluated statistically, e.g. the probability of failure occurrence in 2.3, 50 and $97.7\%$, in which the cyclic response of the local stress/strain hi the vicinity of the weld toes and notch factors derived by the irregular shape of the weld bead are taken into account. The fatigue crack propagation life was simulated by using Monte-Carlo method in consideration of the Ad-factor and the mechanical behavior of mutual interaction/coalescence between two adjacent cracks. The estimated total fatigue life, $(N_T)_{P50\%}$, as a sum of crack initiation and propagation life under the probability of failure occurrence in $50\%$ showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The developed technique for fatigue lift estimation enables to provide a quantitative proportion of crack initiation and propagation life in the total fatigue life due to the nominal stress range, ${\Delta}S$.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.203-208
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• 2016

DC potential drop technique was employed during the slow strain rate tests to study the hot salt stress corrosion crack (HSSCC) initiation at 300 and $400^{\circ}C$. Threshold stresses for HSSCC initiation were found to about 88 % of the yield strength at both temperatures, but the time from crack initiation to final failure (${\Delta}t_{scc}$) decreased significantly with temperature, which reflects larger tendency for brittle fracture and secondary cracking. The brittle fracture features consisted of transgranular cracking through the primary ${\alpha}$ grain and discontinuous faceted cracking through the transformed ${\beta}$ grains.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.403-430
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• 2014

Shale gas formations exhibit strong mechanical and strength anisotropies. Thus, it is necessary to study the effect of anisotropy on the hydraulic fracture initiation pressure. The calculation model for the in-situ stress of the bedding formation is improved according to the effective stress theory. An analytical model of the stresses around wellbore in shale gas reservoirs, in consideration of stratum dip direction, dip angle, and in-situ stress azimuth, has been built. Besides, this work established a calculation model for the stress around the perforation holes. In combination with the tensile failure criterion, a prediction model for the hydraulic fracture initiation pressure in the shale gas reservoirs is put forward. The error between the prediction result and the measured value for the shale gas reservoir in the southern Sichuan Province is only 3.5%. Specifically, effects of factors including elasticity modulus, Poisson's ratio, in-situ stress ratio, tensile strength, perforation angle (the angle between perforation direction and the maximum principal stress) of anisotropic formations on hydraulic fracture initiation pressure have been investigated. The perforation angle has the largest effect on the fracture initiation pressure, followed by the in-situ stress ratio, ratio of tensile strength to pore pressure, and the anisotropy ratio of elasticity moduli as the last. The effect of the anisotropy ratio of the Poisson's ratio on the fracture initiation pressure can be ignored. This study provides a reference for the hydraulic fracturing design in shale gas wells.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2011

The main goal of this paper is to provide the theoretical background for the fracture phenomena in marine structural steels. In this paper, various fracture criteria are theoretically investigated: shear failure criteria with constant failure strain and stress triaxiality-dependent failure strain (piecewise failure and Johnson-Cook criteria), forming limit curve failure criterion, micromechanical porosity failure criterion, and continuum damage mechanics failure criterion. It is obvious that stress triaxiality is a very important index to determine the failure phenomenon for ductile materials. Assuming a piecewise failure strain curve as a function of stress triaxiality, the numerical results coincide well with the test results for smooth and notched specimens, where low and high stress triaxialities are observed. Therefore, it is proved that a failure criterion with reliable material constants presents a plastic deformation process, as well as fracture initiation and evolution.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.271-280
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• 2021

In this study, the fatigue property of U rib-to-crossbeam connections in orthotropic steel bridge (OSB) crossbeams under heavy traffic vehicle load was investigated considering the effects of in-plane shear stress. The applicability of an improved structural stress (ISS) method was validated for the fatigue behavior analysis of nonwelded arc-shaped cutout regions in multiaxial stress states. Various types of fatigue testing specimens were compared for investigating the equivalent structural stress, fatigue crack initiation positions, and failure modes with the unified standards. Furthermore, the implications of OSB crossbeams and specified loading cases are discussed with respect to the improved method. The ISS method is proven to be applicable for analyzing the fatigue property of nonwelded arc-shaped cutout regions in OSB crossbeams. The used method is essential for gaining a reliable prediction of the most likely failure modes under a specific heavy traffic vehicle load. The evaluated results using the used method are proven to be accurate with a slighter standard deviation. We obtained the trend of equivalent structural stress in arc-shaped cutout regions and validated the crack initiation positions and propagation directions by comparing them with the fatigue testing results. The implications of crossbeam spans on fatigue property are less significant than the effects of crossbeams.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.436-449
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• 2017

In this paper, the damage and failure behavior of triaxially braided textile composites was studied using progressive failure analysis. The analysis was performed at both micro and meso-scales through iterative cycles. Stress based failure criteria were used to define the failure states at both micro- and meso-scale models. The stress-strain curve under uniaxial tensile loading was drawn based on the load-displacement curve from the progressive failure analysis and compared to those by test and computational results from reference for verification. Then, the detailed failure initiation and propagation was studied using the verified model for both tensile and compression loading cases. The failure modes of each part of the model were assessed at different stages of failure. Effect of ply stacking and number of unit cells considered were then investigated using the resulting stress-strain curves and damage patterns. Finally, the effect of matrix plasticity was examined for the compressive failure behavior of the same model using elastic, elastic - perfectly plastic and multi-linear elastic-plastic matrix properties.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2007

Failure of underground structures in hard rocks is a function of the in-situ stress, the intact rock strength and the distribution of fractures in the rock mass. At highly stressed regime, brittle failure is often observed due to excavation-induced stress. The characteristics of brittle failure are classified as failure grade, failure initiation stress, extent of failure and depth of failure. For safety construction of underground structures, these characteristics of brittle failure with stress conditions should be understood. In this study we evaluated the relationship between the extent and depth of failure with stress conditions for failure happened model specimens through true triaxial model experiments. The extent and depth of failure were determined using visual observation and computed tomography (CT). The results indicate that the depth of failure was affected by differential stress perpendicular to the axis of tunnel. However the extent of failure was irrelevant to the stress conditions.