• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.35 no.10
• /
• pp.1299-1306
• /
• 2011

In this study, crack-growth model parameters subjected to variable amplitude loading are estimated in the form of a probability distribution using the method of Bayesian parameter estimation. Huang's model is employed to describe the retardation and acceleration of the crack growth during the loadings. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is used to obtain samples of the parameters following the probability distribution. As the conventional MCMC method often fails to converge to the equilibrium distribution because of the increased complexity of the model under variable amplitude loading, an improved MCMC method is introduced to overcome this shortcoming, in which a marginal (PDF) is employed as a proposal density function. The model parameters are estimated on the basis of the data from several test specimens subjected to constant amplitude loading. The prediction is then made under variable amplitude loading for the same specimen, and validated by the ground-truth data using the estimated parameters.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.267-275
• /
• 2012

In this study, crack growth in a center-cracked plate is predicted under mode I variable amplitude loading, and the result is validated by experiment. Huang's model is employed to describe crack growth with acceleration and retardation due to the variable loading effect. Experiment is conducted with Al6016-T6 plate, in which the load is applied, and crack length is measured periodically. Particle Filter algorithm, which is based on the Bayesian approach, is used to estimate model parameters from the experimental data, and predict the crack growth of the future in the probabilistic way. The prediction is validated by the run-to-failure results, from which it is observed that the method predicts well the unique behavior of crack retardation and the more data are used, the closer prediction we get to the actual run-to-failure data.