J.C. Matos

Analysis of Fatigue Crack Paths in Cold Drawn Pearlitic Steel

In this paper, a fracto-metallographic analysis was performed on the cracked specimens of cold drawn pearlitic steel subjected to fatigue tests. Fatigue cracks are transcollonial and exhibit a preference for fracturing pearlitic lamellae, with non-uniform crack opening displacement values, micro-discontinuities, branchings, bifurcations and frequent local deflections that create microstructural roughness. At the micro-level, the cold drawn pearlitic steel exhibits higher micro-roughness than the hot rolled bar (this is a consequence of the manufacturing process by cold drawing), so that the actual fractured surface in the cold drawn wire is greater than that in the hot rolled bar, due to the fact that the crack deflection events are more frequent and with higher angle in the former (the heavily drawn prestressing steel wire). These findings show the relevant role on the manufacturing process by cold drawing in the fatigue crack propagation in pearlitic steel.

Fatigue behaviour of bolted joints

This paper analyzes the tensile fatigue behaviour of bolted joints constituted by commercial steel bolts. They were tested under both monotonic and fatigue tensile loading, with different R-ratio. Results show that under increasing monotonic tensile loading the bolted joint is not the failure zone of the bolt, whereas such a bolted joint is the failure region under cyclic loading. The fatigue life decreases with the increase of the stress range and with the maximum stress, and pre-loading enlarges the fatigue life. Fatigue fracture surface shows a geometry of crescent moon in the case of short cracks and such a shape evolves towards a quasi-straight crack front in the case of long cracks. Fatigue fracture usually happens at the root of the first notch inside the bolted joint, although fracture initiation may happen in several consecutive notch roots, increasing the initiation angle of the fatigue crack as the applied stress diminishes.

Multi-Scale Approach to the Fatigue Crack Propagation in High-Strength Pearlitic Steel Wires

This paper deals with the influence of the manufacturing process on the fatigue behavior of pearlitic steels with different degrees of cold drawing. The fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) is related to the stress intensity range (ΔK) by means a compliance method to evaluate the crack depth a in the samples at any instant during the tests. The analysis is focused on the Region II (Paris) of the fatigue behavior in which da/dN=C(ΔK)m, measuring the constants (C and m) for the different degrees of drawing. From the engineering point of view, the manufacturing process by cold drawing improves the fatigue behavior of the steels, since the fatigue crack growth rate decreases as the strain hardening level in the material increases. In particular, the coefficient m (slope of the Paris Law) remains almost constant and independent of the drawing degree, whereas the constant C decreases as the drawing degree rises. The paper focuses on the relationship between the pearlitic microstructure of the steels (progressively oriented as a consequence of the manufacturing process by cold drawing) and the macroscopic fatigue behavior. To this end, a detailed metallographic analysis was performed on the fatigue crack propagation path after cutting and polishing on a plane perpendicular to the crack front. It is seen that the fatigue crack growth path presents certain roughness at the microscopic level, such a roughness being related to the pearlitic colony boundaries more than to the ferrite/cementite lamellae interfaces.

Influence of Residual Stress Field on the Fatigue Crack Propagation in Prestressing Steel Wires

This paper deals with the effect of several residual stress profiles on the fatigue crack propagation in prestressing steel wires subjected to tension loading or bending moment. To this end, a computer program was developed to evaluate the crack front evolution on the basis of the Walker law. Results demonstrate that the absence of residual stresses makes the crack propagate towards a preferential crack path. When surface residual stresses are tensile and, correspondingly, core residual stresses are compressive, the fatigue crack fronts rapidly converge towards a quasi-straight shape. When surface residual stresses are compressive, with their corresponding tensile stresses in the core area, a preferential crack path also appears.

Evolution of crack paths and compliance in round bars under cyclic tension and bending

The aim of this paper is to calculate how the surface crack front and the dimensionless compliance evolve in cracked cylindrical bars subjected to cyclic tension or bending with different initial crack geometries (crack depths and aspect ratios). To this end, a computer application (in the Java programming language) that calculates the crack front’s geometric evolution and the dimensionless compliance was made by discretizing the crack front (characterized with elliptical shape) and assuming that every point advances perpendicularly to the crack front according to the Paris law, and using a three-parameter stress intensity factor (SIF). The results show that in fatigue crack propagation, relative crack depth influences more on dimensionless compliance than the aspect ratio, because the crack front tends to converge when the crack propagates from different initial geometries, showing greater values for tension than for bending. Furthermore, during fatigue crack growth, materials with higher values of the exponent of the Paris law produce slightly greater dimensionless compliance and a better convergence between the results for straight-fronted and circular initial cracks.

ENVIRONMENTALLY-ASSISTED FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH IN PRESTRESSING STEEL WIRES

We present the evolution of the surface crack front in prestressing reinforced-concrete steel wires subjected to fatigue in air and to corrosion fatigue in Ca(OH)2 + NaCl. To this end, a numerical modeling was performed on the basis of discretization of the crack front (with elliptic shape) by considering that the crack advance at each point is perpendicular to the analyzed front according to the Paris–Erdogan law and using a three-parameter solution for the stress intensity factor (SIF). Each analyzed case (a particular geometry of the initial crack) was characterized by the evolution of the aspect ratio of the semielliptic crack (ratio of the semiaxes of the ellipse) with the relative crack depth and by the variations of the maximum dimensionless SIF at the crack front.

Corrosion-Fatigue Crack Growth in Plates: A Model Based on the Paris Law

In this paper, a Paris law-based model is presented whereby crack propagation occurs under cyclic loading in air (fatigue) and in an aggressive environment (corrosion-fatigue) for the case of corner cracks (with a wide range of aspect ratios in the matter of the initial cracks) in finite-thickness plates of 316L austenitic stainless steel subjected to tension, bending, or combined (tension + bending) loading. Results show that the cracks tend during their growth towards a preferential propagation path, exhibiting aspect ratios slightly lower than unity only for the case of very shallow cracks, and diminishing as the crack grows (increasing the relative crack depth)—more intensely in the case of bending than in the case of tension (the mixed loading tension/bending representing an intermediate case). In addition, the crack aspect ratios during fatigue propagation evolution are lower in fatigue (in air) than in corrosion-fatigue (in aggressive environment).

Influence of crack micro-roughness on the plasticity-induced fatigue propagation in high strength steel

This article deals with the locally multiaxial fatigue behaviour of high strength steel. To this end, the influence of the cracking path deflections (at the micro level) on the plasticity-induced fatigue crack growth is analyzed. With regard to this, a modelling by means of the finite element method was performed for a given stress intensity factor in the Paris regime, considering the existence of micro-roughness in the crack path (local micro-deflections with distinct micro-angles as a function of the microstructure of the material). The numerical results allow one to obtain the fatigue crack propagation rate and compare it with that for the same material in the absence of micro-roughness (with no micro-crack deflections, i.e., uniaxial fatigue behaviour).

Crack tip field in circumferentially-cracked round bar (CCRB) in tension affected by loss of axial symmetry

In this paper, the stress intensity factor (SIF) is computed in a circumferentially-cracked round bar (CCRB) subjected to tensile loading, considering that the resistant ligament is circular and exhibits certain eccentricity in relation to the cylinder axis. The computation was performed by means of the finite element method (FEM) using a three dimensional (3D) model and the J-integral, the analyzed variable being the eccentricity of the circular ligament. Results show that the SIF is higher at the deepest point of the crack and that an increase of eccentricity (in relation to the bar axis) raises the difference between the SIF values along the crack front. From a certain value of the misalignment a bending effect appears, so that the crack remains closed in the area near the point of lower depth.

Crack tip fields and mixed mode fracture behaviour of progressively drawn pearlitic steel

This paper deals with the influence of the cold drawing process on the fracture behaviour of pearlitic steels. To this end, fracture tests under axial loading were performed on steel wires with different drawing degree (from a hot rolled bar to a commercial prestressing steel wire), transversely pre-cracked by fatigue, analyzing in detail the changes in fracture micromechanisms. The deflection angles of the fracture path were measured by longitudinal metallographic sections and the characteristic parameters of the loaddisplacement plot were related to different fracture events. Results allowed a calculation of critical stress intensity factors for different fracture angles and drawing degrees, thus evaluating the strength anisotropy and obtaining a sort of directional toughness.