• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4481-4490
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• 2022

In this study, a new rupture disk corrosion test (RDCT) method was developed for real-time detection of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) initiation of Alloy 600 in a primary water environment of pressurized water reactors. In the RDCT method, one side of a disk specimen was exposed to a simulated primary water at high temperature and pressure while the other side was maintained at ambient pressure, inducing a dome-shaped deformation and tensile stress on the specimen. When SCC occurs in the primary water environment, it leads to the specimen rupture or water leakage through the specimen, which can be detected in real-time using a pressure gauge. The tensile stress applied to the disk specimen was calculated using a finite element analysis. The tensile stress was calculated to increase as the specimen thickness decreased. The SCC initiation time of the specimen was evaluated by the RDCT method, from which result it was found that the crack initiation time decreased with the decrease of specimen thickness owing to the increase of applied stress. After the SCC initiation test, many cracks were observed on the specimen surface in an intergranular fracture mode, which is a typical characteristic of SCC in the primary water environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.578-584
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• 1995

This investigation evaluates dynamic fracture characteristics of two alloy steels (STD-11 and STS-3 and a gray cast iron (GG-30). The dynamic crack initiation fracture toughness and some of the dynamic fracturing characteristics were evaluated by using the instrumented Charpy impact testing procedures. It was found from experimental results that inertia force strongly depends on impact velocity. The duration of inertia force was constant regardless of impact velocities in steel specimens.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.262-267
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• 2004

The unloading compliance method is the most commonly used method to evaluate the fracture resistance characteristics of a material. In dynamic loading condition, the direct current potential drop(DCPD) method has been used because the unloading compliance method can not be applied due to the discontinuity of loading. However, even in the dynamic test using DCPD method, there is a problem that the voltage drops sharply on the initiation of crack. For the reason metioned above, the normalization method was suggested on ASTM E 1820 which is revised recently, as a new method to evaluate the dynamic fracture resistance characteristic. The nomalization method can be used to obtain a fracture resistance curve directly from a load-load line displacement. In this study, we obtained two fracture resistance curves from static test of welding part of nuclear piping both by unloading compliance and nomalization method. The two curves were almost same each other, so the adaptability of the nomalization method has been proved. We conducted a dynamic fracture resistance test for the same material. The fracture resistance curve from the dynamic test was obtained by normalization method and compared to that of the static test result.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2018

This paper investigates the mechanisms of tunnel spalling and massive tunnel failures using fracture mechanics principles. The study starts with examining the fracture propagation due to tensile and shear failure mechanisms. It was found that, fundamentally, in rock masses with high compressive stresses, tensile fracture propagation is often a stable process which leads to a gradual failure. Shear fracture propagation tends to be an unstable process. Several real case observations of spalling failures and massive shear failures in boreholes, tunnels and underground roadways are shown in the paper. A number of numerical models were used to investigate the fracture mechanisms and extents in the roof/wall of a deep tunnel and in an underground coal mine roadway. The modelling was done using a unique fracture mechanics code FRACOD which simulates explicitly the fracture initiation and propagation process. The study has demonstrated that both tensile and shear fracturing may occur in the vicinity of an underground opening. Shallow spalling in the tunnel wall is believed to be caused by tensile fracturing from extensional strain although no tensile stress exists there. Massive large scale failure however is most likely to be caused by shear fracturing under high compressive stresses. The observation that tunnel spalling often starts when the hoop stress reaches $0.4^*UCS$ has been explained in this paper by using the extension strain criterion. At this uniaxial compressive stress level, the lateral extensional strain is equivalent to the critical strain under uniaxial tension. Scale effect on UCS commonly believed by many is unlikely the dominant factor in this phenomenon.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.527-546
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• 2014

Portland cement concrete, which has higher strength and stiffness than asphalt concrete, has been widely applied on pavements. However, the brittle fracture characteristic of cement concrete restricts its application in highway pavement construction. Since the polypropylene fiber can improve the fracture toughness of cement concrete, Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (PFRC) is attracting more and more attention in civil engineering. In order to study the effect of polypropylene fiber on the generation and evolution process of the local deformation band in concrete, a series of three-point bending tests were performed using the new technology of the digital speckle correlation method for FRC notched beams with different volumetric contents of polypropylene fiber. The modified Double-K model was utilized for the first time to calculate the stress intensity factors of instability and crack initiation of fiber-reinforced concrete beams. The results indicate that the polypropylene fiber can enhance the fracture toughness. Based on the modified Double-K fracture theory, the maximum fracture energy of concrete with 3.2% fiber (in volume) is 47 times higher than the plain concrete. No effort of fiber content on the strength of the concrete was found. Meanwhile to balance the strength and resistant fracture toughness, concrete with 1.6% fiber is recommended to be applied in pavement construction.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1784-1800
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• 2018

Tension-shear loading is a common loading condition in steel structures during the earthquake shaking. To study ductile fracture in structural steel under multiple stress states, experimental investigations on the different fracture mechanisms in Chinese Q235 steel were conducted. Different tension-shear loading conditions achieved by using six groups of inclined notch butterfly configurations covering pure shear, tension-shear and pure tension cases. Numerical simulations were carried out for all the specimens to determine the stress and strain fields within the critical sections. Two tension-shear fracture models were calibrated based on the hybrid experimental-numerical procedure. The equivalent fracture strain obtained from the round bar under tensile loading was used for evaluating these two models. The results indicated that the tension-shear criterion as a function of the shear fracture parameter had better performance in predicting the fracture initiation of structural steel under different loading conditions.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2024

Hydrogen embrittlement fracture poses a challenge in ensuring the structural integrity of materials exposed to hydrogen-rich environments. This study advances our comprehension of hydrogen-induced fracture through an integrated numerical modeling approach. In addition, it employs a ductile fracture model named the Gurson-cohesive model (GCM) and hydrogen diffusion analysis. GCM is employed as a fracture model that combines the Gurson model to illustrate the continuum damage evolution and the cohesive zone model to describe crack surface discontinuity and softening behavior. Moreover, porosity and stress triaxiality are considered as crack initiation criteria . A hydrogen diffusion analysis is also integrated with the GCM to account for hydrogen enhanced decohesion (HEDE) mechanisms and their subsequent impacts on crack initiation and propagation. This framework considers the influence of hydrogen on the softening behavior of the traction-separation relationship on the discontinuous crack surface. Parametric studies explore the sensitivity to diffusion properties and hydrogen-induced fracture properties. By combining numerical models of hydrogen diffusion and the ductile fracture model, this study provides an understanding of hydrogen-induced fracture and thereby contributes significantly to the ongoing efforts to design materials that are resilient to hydrogen embrittlement in practical engineering applications.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.02a
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• pp.11-28
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• 1998

Crack initiation and propagation of blades is a serious matter in turbomachinery. Outages are common due to these problems that occur during the service of the machine resulting in a huge loss of revenue. Once in a while, the problems become serious and cause major shutdowns which can in some cases result in the loss of the whole machine in a catastrophic manner. In this presentation, we will discuss the crack initiation studies of a hydraulic machine runner blade by local stress strain approach and crack propagation at the root of a low pressure stage steam turbine blade by means of stress intensity factor approach. In both the cases, we will show how the present day technologies can predict actual field observations.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.66-70
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• 2008

The propagation of a mixed-mode crack in soda-lime silica glass is modeled by movable cellular automata (MCA). In this model, a special fracture criterion is used to describe the process of crack initiation and propagation. The results obtained using the MCA criterion are compared to those obtained from other crack initiation criteria, The crack resistance curves and bifurcation angles are determined for various loading angles. The MCA results are in close agreement with results obtained using the maximum circumferential tensile stress criterion.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.253-255
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• 2005

It has been well known that ductile fracture of steels are accelerated by triaxial stresses. The characteristics of ductile crack initiation in steels are evaluated quantitatively using two-parameters criterion based on equivalent plastic strain and stress triaxiality. The present study focuses on the effects of strength mismatching, which can elevate plastic constraint due to heterogeneous plastic straining, on critical condition to initiate ductile crack from notch root using equivalent plastic strain and stress triaxiality. In this study evaluate the criterion for ductile crack initiation in strength mismatch specimen effect of location of notch root.