• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1846-1857
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• 2021

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing is important for monitoring the structural integrity of dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) in pressure vessels and piping in nuclear power plants. However, there is a low probability of crack detection via inspection of DMWs using ultrasonic waves because the grain structures (grain orientations) of the weld area cause distortion and splitting of ultrasonic beams propagating in anisotropic media. To overcome this issue, the grain orientation should be known, and a precise ultrasonic wave simulation technique in anisotropic media is required to model the distortion and splitting of the waves accurately. In this study, a method for nondestructive prediction of the DMW grain orientations is presented for accurate simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in the weld area. The ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in anisotropic media is simulated via finite-element analysis when ultrasonic waves propagate in a transversely isotropic material. In addition, a methodology to predict the DMW grain orientation is proposed that employs a simulation technique for ultrasonic wave propagation behavior calculation and an optimization technique. The simulated ultrasonic wave behaviors with the grain orientations predicted via the proposed method demonstrate its usefulness. Moreover, the method can be used to determine the focal law in DMWs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.353-361
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• 2022

Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) has been developed by applying stress analysis to determine the stress intensity factor (SIF, K). The finite element method (FEM) is widely used as a standard tool for evaluating the SIF for various crack configurations. The prediction accuracy can be achieved by applying an adaptive Delaunay triangulation combined with a FEM. The solution can be solved using either direct or iterative solvers. This work adopts the element-by-element preconditioned conjugate gradient (EBE-PCG) iterative solver into an adaptive FEM to solve the solution to heal problem size constraints that exist when direct solution techniques are applied. It can avoid the formation of a global stiffness matrix of a finite element model. Several numerical experiments reveal that the present method is simple, fast, and efficient compared to conventional sparse direct solvers. The optimum convergence criterion for two-dimensional LEFM analysis is studied. In this paper, four sample problems of a two-edge cracked plate, a center cracked plate, a single-edge cracked plate, and a compact tension specimen is used to evaluate the accuracy of the prediction of the SIF values. Finally, the efficiency of the present iterative solver is summarized by comparing the computational time for all cases.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.2 s.28
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• pp.55-62
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• 2006

Transverse cracks in continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) occur at early ages due to temperature and moisture variations. The width and spacing of transverse cracks have a significant effect on pavement performance such as load transfer efficiency and punchout development. Also, crack widths in CRCP depend on 'zero-stress temperature,' which is defined as a temperature where initial concrete stresses become zero, as well as drying shrinkage of concrete. For good long-term performance of CRCP, transverse cracks need to be kept tight. To keep the crack widths tight throughout the pavement life, zero-stress temperature must be as low as practically possible. Thus, temperature control at early ages is a key component In ensuring good CRCP performance. In this study, concrete temperatures were predicted using PavePro, a concrete temperature prediction program, for a CRCP construction project, and those values were compared with actual measured temperatures obtained from field testing. The cracks were also surveyed for 12 days after concrete placement. Findings from this study can be summarized as follows. First, the actual maximum temperatures are greater than the predicted maximum temperature in the ranges of 0.2 to 4.5$^{\circ}C$. For accurate temperature predictions, hydration properties of cementitious materials such as activation energy and adiabatic constants, should be evaluated and accurate values be obtained for use as input values. Second, within 24 hours of concrete placement, temperatures of concrete placed in the morning are higher than those placed in the afternoon, and the maximum concrete temperature occurred in the concrete placed at noon. Finally, from the 12 days of condition survey, it was noted that the rate of crack occurrence in the morning placed section was 25 percent greater than that in the afternoon placed section. Based on these findings, it is concluded that maximum concrete temperature has a significant effect on crack development, and boner concrete temperature control is needed to ensure adequate CRCP performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.163-166
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• 2005

A hole expansion process is an important process in producing a hub-hole in a wheel disc of a vehicle. In this process, the main parameter is the formability of a material that is expressed as the hole expansion ratio. The hub-hole expansion process is different from conventional forming processes or hole flanging processes from the view-point of its deformation mode and forming of a thick plate. In the process, a crack is occurred in the upper edge of a hole as the hole is expanded. Since prediction of the forming limit by hole expansion experiment needs tremendous time and effort, an appropriate fracture criterion has to be developed fur finite element analysis to define forming limit of the material. In this paper, the hole expansion process of a hub-hole is studied by finite element analysis with ABAQUS/standard considering several ductile fracture criteria. The fracture mode and hole expansion ratio is compared with respect to the various fracture criteria. These criteria do not predict its fracture mode or hole expansion ratio adequately and show deviation from experimental results of hole expansion. A modified ductile fracture criterion is newly proposed to consider the deformation characteristics of a material accurately in a hole expansion process. A fracture propagation analysis at the hub-hole edge is also performed for high accuracy of prediction using the new fracture criterion proposed.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.103-111
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• 2017

In this study, the thermomechanical stress and fatigue analysis of a high voltage and high current (3,300 V/1200 A) insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module used for electric locomotive applications were performed under thermal cycling condition. Especially, the reliability of the copper wire and the ribbon wire were compared with that of the conventional aluminum wire. The copper wire showed three times higher stress than the aluminum wire. The ribbon type wire showed a higher stress than the circular type wire, and the copper ribbon wire showed the highest stress. The fatigue analysis results of the chip solder connecting the chip and the direct bond copper (DBC) indicated that the crack of the solder mainly occurred at the outer edge of the solder. In case of the circular wire, cracking of the solder occurred at 35,000 thermal cycles, and the crack area in the copper wire was larger than that of the aluminum wire. On the other hand, when the ribbon wire was used, the crack area was smaller than that of the circular wire. In case of the solder existing between DBC and base plate, the crack growth rate was similar regardless of the material and shape of the wire. However, cracking occurred earlier than chip solder, and more than half of the solder was failed at 40,000 cycles. Therefore, it is expected that the reliability of the solder between DBC and base plate would be worse than the chip solder.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.169-172
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• 2009

Multiple scale modeling has been applied to predict defect shape change during the wire rod rolling process. The size difference between bloom and defect prevent using usual FEM approaches due to the enormous number of elements required to depict the defect. The newly developed multiple scale model can visualize defect shape changes during the multi stands rolling process. The defect positioned at the top and side of bloom are smoothed out but the one at the middle evolved as folding or remained as crack. This approach can be used for defect control with roll shape design and initial bloom shape.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.99-104
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• 2002

This paper presents an analytical prediction of the fatigue damage of reinforced concrete bridge columns subjected to cyclic load. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. In boundary plane at which each member with different thickness is connected, local discontinuity in deformation due to the abrupt change in their stiffness can be taken into account by introducing interface element. The effect of number of load reversals with the same displacement amplitude has been also taken into account to model the reinforcing steel and concrete. The proposed numerical method for fatigue damage of reinforced concrete bridge columns subjected to cyclic load is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.267-272
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• 2017

In this study, SiC powder was added to twill woven carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites to improve its mechanical properties. An acoustic emission (AE) frequency analysis method was suggested for the prediction of failure behaviors. Tensile tests were conducted and the fracture characteristics of each component of the SiC reinforced composite were evaluated using AE. The results showed that SiC powder improved the strength of twill woven CFRP composites and the fracture behavior of the SiC reinforced CFRP composite and its crack extension could be effectively evaluated on the basis of the specific AE frequency bands which are 100 to 228 kHz and 428 to 536 kHz upon the resin failure and 232 to 424 kHz due to addition of SiC powder and 576 to 864 kHz at the fiber breakage.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.29-32
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• 1991

It is well known that the fatigue damage process in composite materials is very complicated due to complex failure mechanisms that comprise debounding, matrix cracking, delamination and fiber splitting of laminates. Therefore, the residual strength, instead of a single dominant crack length, is chosen to describe the criticality of the damage accumulated in the sublaminate. In this study, two models for residual strength degradation established by Yang-Liu and Tanimoto-Ishikawa that are capable of predicting the statistical distribution of both fatigue life and residual strength have been investigated and compared. Statistical methodologies for fatigue life prediction of composite materials have frequently been adopted. However, these are usually based on a simplified probabilistic approach considering only the variation of fatigue test data. The main object of this work is to propose a fatigue reliability analysis model which accounts for the effect of all sources of variation such as fabrication and workmanship, error in the fatigue model, load itself, etc. The proposed model is examined using the previous experimental data of GFRP and it is shown that it can be practically applied for fatigue problems in composite materials.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.189-194
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• 2001

In this study, ultimate strength of concrete deep beams with an opening is predicted by using Strut-and-Tie Model with a new effective compressive strength. First crack occurs around an opening by stress concentration due to geometric discontinuity. This results in decreasing ultimate strength of deep beams with an opening compared with general deep beams. With fundamental notion that ultimate strength of deep beam with an opening decreases as a result of reduction in effective compressive strength of a concrete strut, an equivalent effective compressive strength formula is proposed in order to reflect ultimate strength reduction due to an opening located in a concrete strut. An equivalent effective compressive strength formula which can reflect opening size and position is added to a testified algorithm of predicting ultimate strength of concrete deep beams. Therefore, ultimate strength of concrete deep beam with an opening is predicted by using a simple and rational STM algorithm including an equivalent effective compressive strength formula, not by finite element analysis or a former complex Strut-and-Tie Model